In early February, I submitted an abstract to the University of Glasgow, to present a paper at the Outlander Conference in July. Since then, I have been refreshing my emails and checking the conference website for any news. Tonight, it finally came!
My abstract got accepted and I will be heading to Scotland in July!
I have been a fan of both the book series by Diana Gabaldon and the Starz TV show for years now. I’m absolutely ecstatic to have a tiny, official part in this phenomenon that is Outlander, and present at the first-ever Outlander-specific academic conference. Since I opened my email at 7.30pm, I haven’t stopped grinning and I’m still really giddy. For my paper, my two worlds will basically collide. My academic research of ecoliterature and ecocriticism which is focus of my PhD dissertation, and my nerdy, geeky side as an Outlander fan.
Now that is has been accepted, I can share the abstract I submitted for this conference:
“Reading and watching Outlander through an environmental and eco-critical lens”
From the highlands of Scotland to the American colonies, the environment and geography of place play an important role in Outlander. The dual temporalities of the protagonists allow readers and viewers to compare 18th and 20th-century approaches to such diverse aspects as land cultivation, herbal medicine, animal treatment, and environmental protection, among others. Through ecology, the series illustrates the socio-cultural and socio-political differences between Scottish and English practices, and colonial and indigenous approaches. As the global focus on environmental protection has become more pronounced since the release of the first Outlander book, the series chronicles the author’s attitudes towards environmental and ecological issues. The audience can visualise changing global attitudes by observing where the 2014 TV show has included, changed, highlighted, or omitted these details from the books. This paper examines excerpts from the Outlander book series by Diana Gabaldon, published between 1991 and 2021, seasons one to six of the Starz TV show Outlander, and available behind-the-scenes interviews with the production team and the author. Classified most commonly as historical fiction, romance, drama, and fantasy, Outlander nonetheless focuses on the protagonists’ ecological relation to the Scottish highlands and colonial America as a main and recurring theme from a colonial and post-colonial point of view. This environmental, geographical, and cultural focus allows for the tracking of shifting global ecological issues since the 1990s, and the stylistic choices made by the author and the production team to portray them.
The Call for Papers suggested a wide range of topics that linkto Outlander, and I probably could have written three or four papers on these various aspects, ranging from literary tourism to language use, and revival of Scottish Gaelic. But for now, I thought it best to stay close to my PhD research. I haven’t heard whether there are any plans to publish the conference proceedings, though I really hope they will! If not, I will definitely try and publish my paper myself. But just having all this Outlander-related academic research in one place will be amazing!
According to the website, Diana Gabaldon herself will be the plenary speaker on 18th July, the first day of the conference. She holds a PhD in ecology and for me it’ll be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to meet her not just as a fan, but as a colleague, and discuss her work in eco-critical context.
Robyn Irving, who shared the Call for Papers with me and got me started, also had her abstract accepted. So have several other My Peak Challenge members, with topics for papers and roundtables ranging from psychology to 18th-century dressmaking. I can’t wait to meet them all in Glasgow this summer and hear their presentations. Five days of Outlander, in Scotland, in the summer. Perfection.
Several of my friends in Scotland and North England have also already invited me to visit them, like Sara in Durham, Islay in St Andrews, and Sarah in Edinburgh, and with Glasgow only 1 hour away by train, I may just pop down to Carlisle for a bit as well.
Lots of plans to make, but for now, I have an acceptance to celebrate and a paper to write!