Latest News

The North Atlantic Fiddle Convention 2018 will return to Aberdeen, 11-15 July. Concerts, workshops, live gigs, interviews, sessions, busking, and academic conference and more! Featuring traditons of fiddle music and dance from countries and communities around the North Atlantic. Reserve these dates in your diary! The convention is timed to celebrate the re-opening of...

The winner of the Toulmin Prize 2016 is Mary Leith from Kintore, with her story Duck Number 38. Mary received her award at the May Festival, at a special event, 'The Toulmin Celebration and Short Story Prize' on Sunday 29 May, where her entry was read aloud to the assembled audience...

Congratulations to Carley Williams, PhD student at the Elphinstone Institute, for winning the prestigious 'Prix du Québec' for her upcoming project, 'Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage: A Comparative Study of Québec and Scotland'. The prize, which is awarded by the Québec Government, promotes academic studies dealing with issues relating to the province. Carley...

Rod Nicol and Athanasios (Sakis) Barmpalexis were both recently in the spotlight of Aberdeen newspaper The Press and Journal. Rod's research on the folk memory of the Piper Alpha disaster was featured in an article on 14 April. Sakis's research on shamanism in the North-East was featured in an article on 16...

We are pleased to announce that the Elphinstone Institute's spring 2016 newsletter is now available to download. A hard copy of the newsletter can also be picked up at the Elphinstone Institute, in the MacRobert Building. In this term's newsletter you will find a tribute to our dearly missed colleague, Bill...

Congratulations to Pat Ballantyne, who has successfully defended her PhD thesis! We are all very proud of and happy for Pat, whose thesis is titled 'Regulation and Reaction: The Development of Scottish Traditional Dance with Particular Reference to Aberdeenshire, from 1805 to the Present Day'. In addition to doing vital research on dance,...

With great sadness we share the news that W. F. H. Nicolaisen, Emeritus Professor at the Elphinstone Institute, passed away in the early morning of Monday, 15 February 2016. An eminent folklorist and place-name scholar, Bill was also a beloved teacher. His infectious enthusiasm for the disciplines of Folklore and Onomastics...

We are honoured that the Very Rev. Iain Torrance, Pro-Chanceller of the University, has accepted to become Patron of the Elphinstone Institute. In our 2015 Autumn/Winter Newsletter, Iain Torrance writes: I am honoured to be Patron of the Elphinstone Institute. I became aware of the Institute early on in Ian Russell’s tenure...

Keep up to date with the Elphinstone Institute by downloading our newsletter: 2015 Autumn/Winter Newsletter The latest newsletter includes updates on the launch of the David Buchan Lecture Series, an introduction to our new patron, the Very Rev. Iain Torrance, a list of all upcoming Institute events, and much more.

Congratulations to Ian Kinnear, Siân Burke, and Heather Lodge, all three of whom have been awarded the MLitt degree in Ethnology and Folklore! Ian graduated on campus, while Siân and Heather were unable to come to Aberdeen for the ceremony, so graduated in absentia. Well done Ian, Siân, and Heather!