Scott Lyall
Scott Lyall

Dr Scott Lyall

Associate Professor

 0131 455 6126

  S.Lyall@napier.ac.uk

   

Biography

Scott Lyall is Associate Professor of Modern and Scottish Literature. He completed his PhD at the University of St Andrews before becoming a postdoctoral researcher in English, in the Centre for Irish-Scottish Studies, at Trinity College Dublin. After working at the University of Exeter, he joined Edinburgh Napier University in 2009.

Formerly programme leader for BA (Hons) English (2013–17) and Research Degrees Leader for the School of Arts and Creative Industries (2016–23), he is currently the university’s representative on the Scottish Graduate School for Arts & Humanities executive committee and vice-convenor of the University Research Degrees Committee.

Dr Lyall is a literary and cultural historian whose main research areas are modernism and literary revivals, especially in Scotland and Ireland. Much of his work concerns the interwar renaissance in Scottish literature, on which he has published extensively and been interviewed on TV and radio, and he was project leader of the RSE-funded (2021–23) The Scottish Revival Network. He is the author of Hugh MacDiarmid's Poetry and Politics of Place (published by Edinburgh University Press), and editor of The Edinburgh Companion to Hugh MacDiarmid, The International Companion to Lewis Grassic Gibbon, and Community in Modern Scottish Literature. He is co-editor of Scottish Literary Review.

School

Research Groups

Themes

Research Areas

News

Events

Esteem

Advisory panels and expert committees or witness

  • Academic Pathway Adviser (Research Pathway), Edinburgh Napier University.
  • Funding panel: Invited member of the Publishing Scotland Translation Fund panel.
  • Graduate knowledge exchange hub member: Nominated for Scottish Graduate School of Arts and Humanities Discipline+ Catalyst Membership.
  • Council member: Association for Scottish Literature, 2014−present.
  • Board member: Publication Board, Association for Scottish Literature, 2013−present.
  • Review panel: Nominated Chair of the Ross Roy Medal panel, Universities Committee for Scottish Literature, to decide the best PhD in Scottish Literature.
  • Committee member: Nominated Secretary, Universities Committee for Scottish Literature.

 

Conference Organising Activity

  • Chair and Organiser: 'The Revival and the National Movement', Seminar 5 of The Scottish Revival Network, Online Event, 19 January 2023.
  • Chair: Panel 2, ‘Concepts and Peripheries’. 'MacDiarmid at 100': A special event of The Scottish Revival Network, 31 August 2022.
  • Chair and Organiser: SGSAH Literature Catalyst Workshop: 'Beyond the Academy: Creating Impact in Literary Studies', Online Event, 25 April 2022.
  • Organiser: 'Global Scottish Revival', Seminar 4 of The Scottish Revival Network, Online Event, 28 November 2022.
  • Organiser: 'The Scottish Revival and the Canon', Seminar 3 of The Scottish Revival Network, Online Event, 31 March 2022.
  • Chief Organiser: 'MacDiarmid at 100': A special event of The Scottish Revival Network, 31 August 2022.
  • Organiser: 'From Revival to Renaissance', Seminar 2 of The Scottish Revival Network, Online Event, 5 November 2021.
  • Chair and Organiser: 'What is Revival?', Seminar 1 of The Scottish Revival Network, Online Event, 10 August 2021.
  • Conference Panel Chair: ‘Anti-moderns and Marginal Moderns’. Troublesome Modernisms, British Association for Modernist Studies International Conference, King’s College London, 20−22 June 2019.
  • Conference Co-Organiser: 'We Moderns': Current Work in Modernist Studies, The Scottish Network of Modernist Studies Symposium, Edinburgh Napier University, 10 March 2018.
  • Conference Panel Chair: Edwin and Willa Muir: Revaluations, ‘We Moderns’: Current Work in Modernist Studies, The Scottish Network of Modernist Studies Symposium, Edinburgh Napier University, 10 March 2018.
  • Conference Panel Chair: The Poets’ Panel: Poets, Nation and Narration, Edinburgh International Centre for Spirituality and Peace, Augustine United Church, Edinburgh, 26 November 2016.
  • Conference Chair: Chair for the Day Conference and Evening Cultural Events: Neil M. Gunn: Spirituality and Community in his Life and Work, Edinburgh International Centre for Spirituality and Peace, Augustine United Church, Edinburgh, 15 October 2016.
  • Conference Panel Convenor and Chair: Hugh MacDiarmid Panel, World Congress of Scottish Literatures, University of Glasgow, 2−5 July 2014.
  • Conference co-organiser: The International Tagore Conference, Edinburgh Napier University, 4−6 May 2012.
  • Seminar-series Organiser: Edinburgh Napier University Centre for Literature and Writing Research seminars: 'Community in Scottish Literature'. A year-long exploration of the theme of community in Scottish literature with talks by several invited prestigious external speakers.

 

Editorial Activity

  • Journal Editor (Special Issue): Studies in Scottish Literature, 49.1: Hugh MacDiarmid at 100: Essays on the anniversary of his first publication
  • Journal Co-Editor: Scottish Literary Review.
  • Book Editor: Community in Modern Scottish Literature (Leiden | Boston: Brill, 2016), 304pp.
  • Book Editor: The International Companion to Lewis Grassic Gibbon (Glasgow: ASLS, Scottish Literature International, 2015), 176pp.
  • Journal Reviews Editor: Scottish Literary Review.
  • Book Co-Editor: The Edinburgh Companion to Hugh MacDiarmid (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2011), 196pp.

 

External Examining/Validations

  • External Examiner: Undergraduate MA (Hons) Scottish Literature Programme, University of Glasgow, 2022−.
  • External Examiner: Undergraduate BA (Hons) English Programme, University of Strathclyde, 2017−2021.

 

Fellowships and Awards

  • Fellow: of the Higher Education Academy (date awarded: 23 November 2010).
  • Honorary Research Fellow: Department of Scottish Literature, University of Glasgow.

 

Invited Speaker

  • Invited seminar speaker: 'Sacred Violence: W. B. Yeats, Patrick Pearse, and the Revival of Ireland', School of Humanities seminar series, University of Strathclyde, 28 September 2022.
  • Invited Extension Lecture: 'Scottish Modernism as Renaissance'. Department of English, Sukanta Mahavidyalaya, Dhupguri, Jalpaiguri University of North Bengal, Online Event, 27 January 2022.
  • Seminar speaker: 'Critical Revival: How Critics have read Revival and Renaissance'. 'The Scottish Revival and the Canon', Seminar 3 of The Scottish Revival Network, Online Event, 31 March 2022.
  • Conference talk: 'Nan Shepherd, Scotland and the Nature of Rural Modernism'. The 3rd World Congress of Scottish Literatures, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, 23 June 2022.
  • Seminar speaker: Invited to speak on the RSE-funded project, The Scottish Revival Network. University of Glasgow, Online Event, 27 October 2021.
  • Conference talk: '"And so with the moderns": Radical Futures, Classical Pasts in the work of J. Leslie Mitchell/Lewis Grassic Gibbon'. A Proletarian Classics?, University of St Andrews, Online Event, 23−24 October 2021.
  • Seminar speaker: Unforgettable, Unforgotten? Continuing the Recovery of Scottish Women Writers, c. 1880−1940, University of Edinburgh, Online Event, 29 June 2021.
  • Seminar speaker: Invited to speak on the RSE-funded project, The Scottish Revival Network. The Future of Scottish Cosmopolitanism at the Fin de Siècle, University of Glasgow, Online Event, 29 March 2021.
  • Conference talk: 'Nan Shepherd, Scotland and the Nature of Rural Modernism'. Modernist Legacies and Futures, Modernist Studies Ireland, NUI Galway, 17−18 May.
  • Conference talk: 'Nan Shepherd, or the Troublesome Nature of Scottish Modernism’. Troublesome Modernisms, British Association for Modernist Studies International Conference, King’s College London, 20−22 June 2019.
  • Plenary speaker: ‘Edwin Muir and the Question of Modernism'. ‘We Moderns’: Current Work in Modernist Studies, The Scottish Network of Modernist Studies Symposium, Edinburgh Napier University, Merchiston, 10 March 2018.
  • Seminar speaker: ‘“It’s a far cry to the golden age”: Spiritual Revival in Sunset Song and Highland River’. Scottish Literature and World War I Symposium, University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen, 16 March 2018.
  • Conference talk: ‘“Seeking God by strange ways”: Symbolism and the Irish Revival’. European Revivals, Conference V – Cultural Mythologies Around 1900, Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, 1−2 December 2017.
  • Invited presenter: of the Ross Roy Medal for the best PhD in Scottish Literature for 2016 at the Saltire Literary Awards, Edinburgh, 24 November 2016.
  • Inaugural address: Day Conference: Poets, Nation and Narration, Edinburgh International Centre for Spirituality and Peace, Augustine United Church, Edinburgh, 26 November 2016.
  • Conference talk: ‘“Fiery Speech”: Vision and Violence in the Poetry of W. B. Yeats and Patrick Pearse’. 13th ESSE Conference, NUI Galway, Ireland, 22−26 August 2016.
  • Keynote speaker: ‘Hugh MacDiarmid and Prejudice: Scotland, Creativity, and the Independence Debate’. Disrespected Neigho(u)rs: Cultural Stereotypes in Literature and Film, University of Jena, Germany, 21−23 April 2016.
  • Seminar speaker: on W. B. Yeats, Fernando Pessoa and Hugh MacDiarmid. University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, 4 March 2016.
  • Invited speaker: 'The Catfish in the Aquarium: Hugh MacDiarmid's Poetry and Politics'. Open History Society, Edinburgh, 27 November 2015.
  • Conference talk: on Lewis Grassic Gibbon's Sunset Song. Association for Scottish Literature Schools’ Conference, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, 30 October 2015.
  • Invited lecturer: on James Kelman and Liz Lochhead. University of Edinburgh International Summer School, Edinburgh, 30 July 2014.
  • Conference talk: 'Scottish Literature and New Cosmopolitanism'. Scottish Literature as World Literature, World Congress of Scottish Literatures, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, 2−5 July 2014.
  • Conference talk: 'Translating Modernism: The Scottish Renaissance Movement and German-language Modernism'. World-literatures, Discrepant Transnationalisms, University of Stuttgart, Germany, December 2013.
  • Conference talk: ‘Hugh MacDiarmid and the Limits of Community’. Community and its Limits, University of Greenwich, London, 15 July 2013.
  • Conference talk: 'Scottish Studies, Democracy and the New Cosmopolitans'. 11th ESSE Conference, Istanbul, Turkey, 4−8 September 2012.
  • Invited speaker: on Hugh MacDiarmid. The 2012 Andrew Tannahill Debate, Aye Write! Festival, Mitchell Library, Glasgow, 9 March 2012.
  • Conference talk: ‘Representations of Community in Twentieth Century Scottish Literature'. Association for Scottish Literary Studies Conference: The roots and the fruits of contemporary Scotland: literature and society, Universite Jean Monnet Saint-Etienne, France, 13−15 October 2011.
  • Seminar speaker: ‘Modernist Cosmopolitanation: Lewis Grassic Gibbon and James Joyce’. Scottish Network of Modernist Studies, Scottish Modernisms: Relationships and Reconfigurations Symposium, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, 8 October 2011.
  • Conference talk: ‘Modernist Cosmopolitanation: Lewis Grassic Gibbon and James Joyce’. Association for Scottish Literary Studies Conference: Scottish and International Modernism, University of Stirling, Stirling, 6–7 June 2009.

 

Media Activity

  • Radio feature: discussing the poet Hugh MacDiarmid on the anniversary of his birth, interviewed by Stig Abell, Times Radio, 11 August 2020.
  • Newspaper article: interviewed for 'Hugh MacDiarmid: The Poet who Divided Opinion', The Scotsman, 16 June 2017.
  • Radio feature: 'The Panoramic Pen’, discussing writers of Montrose, BBC Radio Scotland, 28 December 2004.
  • TV appearance: Andrew Marr's Great Scots, episode 3: Hugh MacDiarmid, BBC TV, first broadcast 30 August 2014.
  • Newspaper article: interviewed for 'Proof of poet's date with Destiny revealed', The Scotsman, 16 February 2008.

 

Membership of Professional Body

  • Member: International Association for the Study of Scottish Literatures.
  • Member: Scottish Network of Modernist Studies.
  • Member: Universities Committee for Scottish Literature.
  • Member: Association for Scottish Literature.

 

Public/Community Engagement

  • Chair and Co-Organiser: 'Patrick Geddes and Revival': A Public Event organised by The Scottish Revival Network in association with The Patrick Geddes Centre, Online Event, 8 June 2022.
  • Chair and Organiser: Celebrating the Life and Work of Nan Shepherd, National Library of Scotland, 11 February 2020.

 

Research Degree External Examining

  • External Examiner: MSc by Research, University of Edinburgh, Bethany Davison, 'Re-Imagined Feminine Archetypes in the Novels of Nan Shepherd', September 2022.
  • External Examiner: MPhil, University of Glasgow, Fiona E. Paterson, '"The Gael Will Come Again": Reconstruction of a Gaelic World in the Work of Neil M. Gunn and Hugh MacDiarmid', October 2019.
  • External Examiner: PhD, University of Edinburgh, James Benstead, 'A Study of Hugh MacDiarmid's In Memoriam James Joyce', date examined: 27 September 2019.
  • External Examiner: MLitt, University of Aberdeen, Graham Stephen, '"A torch cannot be handed on that has not been lit": a study of the formative influence of Aberdeen University on Nan Shepherd's life and writing', date examined: 16 November 2018.
  • External Examiner: PhD, University of Glasgow, Richard McCaffrey, ‘Poets as Legislators: Self, Nation and Possibility in World War Two Scottish Poetry’, date examined: 19 February 2015.

 

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Date


88 results

The Scottish Revival Network

Digital Artefact
Lyall, S., & Benstead, J. (2021)
The Scottish Revival Network. [Website]

The Future of Scottish Women's Writing

Presentation / Conference
Lyall, S. (2021, June)
The Future of Scottish Women's Writing. Presented at Unforgettable, Unforgotten? Continuing the Recovery of Scottish Women Writers, c. 1880−1940, University of Edinburgh [Online]

The Scottish Revival Network

Presentation / Conference
Lyall, S. (2021, March)
The Scottish Revival Network. Paper presented at The Future of Scottish Cosmopolitanism at the Fin de Siècle, University of Glasgow [Online]

Pagan Modernism: First World War and Spiritual Revival in Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s Sunset Song and Neil M. Gunn’s Highland River

Book Chapter
Lyall, S. (2020)
Pagan Modernism: First World War and Spiritual Revival in Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s Sunset Song and Neil M. Gunn’s Highland River. In D. A. Rennie (Ed.), Scottish Literature and World War I (180-199). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press
Abstract not available.

Scottish Modernism and the “Renaissance”

Book Chapter
Lyall, S. (in press)
Scottish Modernism and the “Renaissance”. In I. Duncan (Ed.), The Cambridge History of Scottish Literature. Cambridge University Press
No abstract available. Forthcoming 2024.

The novel between the wars

Book Chapter
Lyall, S. (in press)
The novel between the wars. In I. Duncan (Ed.), The Cambridge History of Scottish Literature. Cambridge University Press
No abstract available. Forthcoming 2024.

Modernist Scottish Women Writers [Website]

Digital Artefact
Lyall, S., Simpson, K., & Thompson, T. (2019)
Modernist Scottish Women Writers [Website]. [Website]

The Living Mountain: in an age of ecological crisis, Nan Shepherd’s nature writing is more relevant than ever

Other
Lyall, S. (2019)
The Living Mountain: in an age of ecological crisis, Nan Shepherd’s nature writing is more relevant than ever. The Conversation

Nan Shepherd, or the Troublesome Nature of Scottish Modernism

Presentation / Conference
Lyall, S. (2019, June)
Nan Shepherd, or the Troublesome Nature of Scottish Modernism. Paper presented at Troublesome Modernisms: British Association for Modernist Studies International Conference, Kings College, London

Nan Shepherd, Scotland and the nature of rural modernism

Presentation / Conference
Lyall, S. (2019, May)
Nan Shepherd, Scotland and the nature of rural modernism. Presented at Modernist Legacies and Futures: Modernist Studies Ireland inaugural conference, NUI Galway, Ireland
No abstract available.

Pre-Napier Funded Projects

  • Postdoctoral Research Fellowship: Irish Higher Education Authority-funded postdoctoral research fellowship in English in the Centre for Irish-Scottish Studies, 23,000 Euros, Trinity College Dublin, Oct.2004−Oct. 2005.
  • Research Grant: The Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland, fully-funded PhD award, £30,000, University of St Andrews, Oct. 2000−Sept. 2003.

Current Post Grad projects

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