An IASH Work-in-Progress seminar, delivered by Dr Paula Sledzinska (Visiting Research Fellow 2026):
Playing Radical? National Theatre of Scotland, Literary Scholarship and Civic Engagement
Over the last twenty years, the National Theatre of Scotland (NTS) has played a significant role in shaping Scotland's contemporary civic imagination. The company has challenged the ways in which national theatres have traditionally operated and the stories they have told. My research began by exploring how the NTS has constructed its national storytelling through its dramatic and musical repertoire. Conducting detailed literary and musical analysis, I have investigated how close interdisciplinary reading can illuminate the relationship between theatre, national identity and belonging. Developing this work into a monograph, however, has prompted a broader methodological reflection on the relationship between literary scholarship and civic life.
This Work-In-Progress seminar explores that evolving research trajectory. Reflecting on my parallel experience as a Researcher Developer, I will consider how knowledge exchange activities across disciplines influenced my thinking about humanities research and ask what more collaborative forms of literary scholarship might look like without relinquishing its interpretative strengths. Rather than presenting conclusions, I hope to open a discussion around an emerging question: how might literary scholarship move from interpreting cultural texts towards participating more directly in the civic conversations which those texts help to shape?
Meeting ID: 384 971 962 716 1
Passcode: nV6Rg79e