Dr Tom Turpie

I am a late medieval and early renaissance Scottish specialist with expertise in religious and urban history, and a strong interest in community engagement. I am particularly interested in how society functioned in the 12th to 17th centuries, and how the people and religious, economic, political and social structures of pre-modern Scotland understood and coped with the cataclysmic environmental, religious and political changes of that period.

It was at Stirling as an undergraduate that I developed my passion for medieval, and specifically Scottish, history and after graduating in 2005 I decided to take this interest further. Moving to Edinburgh I completed a MSc in Medieval History and then a PhD which explored the role of local and national saints’ cults and shrines in the devotional culture of late medieval and early modern Scotland. My research in this area has been heavily influenced by Eamon Duffy, and a most positive vision of the vitality of religious life in late medieval England that he has espoused in works such as 'Stripping of the Altars' (1992).

Since completing my doctorate at Edinburgh in 2011, I have worked on a series of research projects which have helped to broaden my interests to include late medieval religious practice and sacred landscapes more generally, medieval and early modern burghs, as well as a keen interest in the response to infectious disease (especially Plague), climate stresses and warfare in pre-modern Scotland.

Working as a freelance historian, I have also collaborated on a number of projects outside of academia, writing short books on the Declaration of Arbroath (2020), a guidebook for Dunfermline (2020/2023), and collaborating on large projects including the Family Names UK Project (2013-2014), the Fife Pilgrim Way (2016), Kilrenny, Anstruther and Cellardyke Burgh Survey (2016-2017) and Inverkeithing Community Burgh Survey (2020-). Working with community groups and other heritage stakeholders has also helped me to develop a strong interest in how Scotland's pre-modern past is used in the present, and can be utilised in the future, as well as methodologies for helping local communities to better understand and explain their own past.

My research span the religious and economic history of pre-modern Scotland, as well as how this period is, and has been, used in a community and heritage context. I have a particular interest in;

a) the cult of the saints b) religious practice and belief in the wider population (beyond the political elite) c) medieval and early modern burghs and their international connections d) the impact and response to climate change and epidemic disease in the past

I am currently working on these main research projects;

i. The Parish Church in Late Medieval Scotland. Building on my work on the Corpus of Scottish Medieval Parish Churches (2012-2013) (https://arts.st-andrews.ac.uk/corpusofscottishchurches/index.php) and Sacred Landscapes of Fife (2020-2022) (https://sacredlandscapes.org/projects/sacred-landscapes-of-fife/), to explore what patronage and investment in these churches can tell us about the health of religious life in late medieval Scotland beyond the elite

ii. Devotion to the Saints, Piety and Religious Practice and the Late Medieval Crisis. Continuing my research into the trends in devotion to the saints in medieval Scotland, with a particular concern for connections between religious practice and pandemic disease, climate change and warfare

iii. Public and Community History. a) Exploring the public history application of medieval and early modern research (for example in pilgrim way projects, community history/archaeology projects such as Burgh Surveys and other publications) b) To further develop methodologies to help communities across Scotland access the past of their places through collaboration and co-production, c) explore and promote the Health and Wellbeing potential of Heritage Activities

I currently coordinate the following two modules;,

HISU9X4 Back to the Future; Putting History and Heritage to Work, and HISU9H3 Key to the Kingdom. The History and Heritage of Stirling

I also lecture and tutor on the large Scottish Medieval and Early Modern courses;

HIS9A1 For the Lion: Scotland in the British Isles and Europe, c.1100-1542 HIS9A2 Renaissance, Reformation & Revolution : Scotland 1542-1715

-provide lectures for the modern British history course; The making of modern Britain, 1707 – 2000: an introduction

-and research-led seminars for the Heritage MSc module; HERPP07 Understanding and Managing Historic Environments: a Scottish Perspective.

In the past I have also supervised MSc Heritage and BA History Dissertations, and taught on a range of medieval and early modern modules and broader thematic modules listed below;

HISU9C2 Concepts of History: themes and transformations

HIS9S3 Reputations in History

HISU9J4 War, Famine. Disease and Death, c.1250-1650

HIS9Q4 Scotland in the Age of Wallace and Bruce 1286-1329

HIS9P5 The Stewart Kings of Scotland, 1424 - 1513

HISU9I6 Castles: Power and Authority, Landscapes and Contexts

HISU9H5 Medieval Archaeology and Heritage

HIS9X7/X8 History Dissertation

HERPPD2 MSc Heritage Dissertation