James Johnson
Published: 21 January 2019
The relationships between communities and their graveyards through the 18th and 19th centuries, and the effects of historical use on modern-day graveyard interaction and communal value.
University of Stirling
The relationships between communities and their graveyards through the 18th and 19th centuries, and the effects of historical use on modern-day graveyard interaction and communal value.
In particular, my work will focus on comparing Gaelic- and Welsh-speaking communities in Scotland and Wales respectively, to assess whether long-term patterns of use, construction, and embellishment can reveal the ways in which communal value and community identity are created at these sites by local people, visitors, and external influences. I am especially interested in patterns of language use, graveyard and monument layout, and decoration in rural Gaelic and Welsh sites.
This research hopes to focus on Scotland and Wales specifically, without using England and its commemorative traditions as the main comparative model, to attempt to find a correlation in language use and interaction with graveyards, within and between minority language areas, during a time of increased tension and cultural pressure. My work will also include practical, fieldwork-based training for communities and students in gravestone recording, graveyard surveying, and the publication of graveyard data.
First published: 21 January 2019