2017: Gordon Raeburn

Scholarly article: Weaponised emotions and their use in Civil War tracts and pamphlets

Gordon's project investigated the presence and use of emotions in the extensive collection of English Civil War tracts and pamphlets contained in the Library's Emmerson collection.

Gordon's research examined these works in order to determine what emotions were present, and to what use, if any, these emotions were put, such as inspiring hope, confidence or even fear in their intended audience, and whether that changed over the course of the Civil War. The research resulted in a scholarly article.

Gordon Raeburn holds a BD (Hons) from the University of Aberdeen, an MSc (Theology in History) from the University of Edinburgh and a PhD from the University of Durham. His PhD thesis, The long reformation of the dead in Scotland, studied the development of Scottish burial practices between 1542 and 1856, with an eye towards the effects of major societal changes such as the Reformation, the Enlightenment and the Disruption.

Gordon is undertaking research on the emotional responses to early-modern Scottish disasters, such as plagues and massacres, across the country as a whole between the 15th and 17th centuries.