Professor Michelle MacLeod

Biography

I have worked at the University of Aberdeen since September 2004 and was promoted to Personal Chair in Gaelic in 2019. In addition to my teaching and research responsibilities I have also held various admin and leadership roles, most recently as the Director of the Confucius Institute at the University of Aberdeen.

I teach and carry out research in areas related to Scottish Gaelic language and culture. I am passionate about multilingualism and inter-cultural communication and have attempted to learn a number of other languages to various degrees of success.

Prizes and Awards

In 2021 I won the Donald Meek Prize for the best non-fiction Gaelic book Fichead Bliadhna air An Ard-urlar / A Century of Gaelic Drama published by the Association for Scottish Literary Studies.

In 2022 I was one of three AHRC Future of Languages Research Fellows.

Research Overview

My areas of research include: modern Gaelic literature; the concept of Gaelic identity; the modern Gaelic community; Gaelic drama; language teaching and language planning.

Current Research

Gaelic drama, modern Gaelic literature, community language planning and adult language acquisition.

Collaborations

I am Co-Director of the Soillse Research Network - a research collaboration between the University of the Highlands and Islands, The University of Aberdeen, Edinburgh University and the University of Glasgow.  It has been established to provide a much enhanced research capacity to inform public policy towards the maintenance and revitalisation of gaelic language and culture. www.soillse.ac.uk

Teaching Responsibilities

 I teach Gaelic language across the degree programme and sub-honours introductory courses on Gaelic society and literature.  I also teach honours courses on: Modern Gaelic Poetry, Gaelic Dialectology, Modern Irish Language and Language and Identity.