Dr Linden Bicket – RSE Grant Success

Dr Bicket will work closely with her Co-Principal Investigator, Dr Rebekah Lamb (University of St Andrews) on this project, which lasts for two years and involves partners from the Universities of Warwick, Cambridge, and St Patrick's Pontifical University, Maynooth, as well as colleagues at other institutions in the UK and overseas. 

The project will involve workshops in Edinburgh and St Andrews, a teaching event at the Gillis Centre (the Edinburgh Campus of St Mary’s University Twickenham), and a symposium at the National Library of Scotland, featuring an exhibition of manuscript treasures by the Scottish Catholic authors. 

‘Catholic Women Writers in Scotland and Beyond’ will be a cross-institutional collaboration, directed out of Scotland, aimed at producing the first interdisciplinary handbook to Catholic women’s writing and covering its diversity across periods, geographies, and genres, with a special emphasis on Scotland’s pivotal role in past and present contexts.  Scotland is an emerging hub of Catholic Literary Studies, with scholars using collections like The Scottish Catholic Archives (Aberdeen) and Columba House (Edinburgh) and making plans to relocate materials from these and other archives to a new Catholic Museum in Glasgow. Although Catholic Literary Studies is expanding, it lacks sustained, cross-institutional collaboration, and the canon remains predominantly male-centric with research on Graham Greene, Evelyn Waugh, et al shaping the field. This project will bring together scholars to engage in workshops and public-facing events to recover Catholic women’s literary voices and highlight the rich body of work of Scottish Catholic women writers.

The RSE’s Research Awards Programme runs twice a year in spring and autumn. It aims to support Scotland’s research sector by nurturing promising talent, stimulating research in Scotland, and promoting international collaboration.

63 exceptional research projects were selected at the autumn 2024 Research Awards open call including Professor Helen Bond and Dr Linden Bicket.