Joshua MacRae (MA (Hons) MSt FSAScot)

Thesis title: The Canmores: A Thematic Study of Dynastic Politics in Scotland and Europe, c.1058-1290

Biography

Background

I study History, in part because it raises interesting questions about the present. The medieval period – broadly defined – can appear so distant and otherworldly to some observers that assumptions and inequalities taken for granted in the twenty-first century become more visible in an unfamiliar context. Medieval history can empower its students to lead challenging conversations about the present and suggest alternative futures.

I grew up in a Scotland making increasingly binary choices about its future: on independence and on membership of the European Union. Against the backdrop of polarising debates on what Scotland is or might be, I look to the past – the mid-eleventh to mid-fourteenth centuries, especially – to collect a wider range of perspectives. My intention is not to venerate or condemn the kings and queens I first encountered in a sticker book during my childhood, but to understand how people lived, the possibilities they imagined for themselves and their contemporaries, and how this information reaches researchers today.

My state education at Inverurie Academy in north-east Scotland prepared me to pursue my undergraduate studies in History and Politics at the University of Edinburgh. Thereafter, I read Medieval History at the University of Oxford, before returning north of Hadrian's Wall to undertake my AHRC/SGSAH-funded doctoral research jointly at Edinburgh and the University of St Andrews.

Alongside my research, I am a Tutor in History at Edinburgh and a bookseller at Topping and Company Booksellers, where I have chaired literary events with world-leading researchers, including Professors Mary Beard, Peter Frankopan and Alvin Jackson. Away from a book or computer screen, I might be found walking somewhere green, nursing a peppermint tea, or admiring the stained glass in St Giles' Cathedral.

I would be glad to hear from those - especially current or prospective students - who share my research interests.

Qualifications

MSt, Medieval History, University of Oxford (2025)

MA (Hons), History and Politics, The University of Edinburgh (2024)

Responsibilities & affiliations

  • Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland
  • Royal Historical Society (Postgraduate Member)
  • Scottish History Society
  • Scottish Medievalists
  • Stair Society
  • HEIRS: Household Economy and Inheritance Research Studies (Lund University, Sweden)

In 2026/27, I am Co-Convener of the Scottish History Postgraduate Network, an interdisciplinary research group open to all taught and research postgraduates at Edinburgh with an interest in the study of Scotland's past.

Additionally, I am a Steward at St Giles' Cathedral, the High Kirk of Edinburgh.

Undergraduate teaching

I teach on the following courses for Pre-Honours undergraduates:

  • HIST08035 Medieval Worlds: A Journey through the Middle Ages
  • HIST08036 The History of Edinburgh: From Din Eidyn to Festival City

Research summary

Places:

  • Scotland
  • Britain and Ireland
  • North-West Europe

Themes:

  • Family and family relationships
  • Politics
  • National Identity
  • History-Writing
  • Memory
  • Change and continuity

Periods:

  • High Middle Ages (c.1050-c.1350)

Current research interests

With AHRC DTP2 funding, I am completing a doctoral thesis on Crínán, Abbot of Dunkeld (d.1045), his wife, Bethóc, and their descendants - known best as 'the Canmores' - as a network active in elite politics within and outwith the kingdom of Scots. I examine the family both as a composite of filial, sibling and affinal relationships, and as a collective with a corporate identity. Through this research, I am problematising the distinction between royal and aristocratic power, conceptualising kinship and kinship bonds over time, and re-evaluating the utility of nations in historical research.

Affiliated research centres

Current project grants

SGSAH AHRC DTP2 Scholarship (2025-29)

Organiser

Crossing Currents: History PGR Conference 2026. University of Edinburgh, 12-13 May 2026: https://hca.ed.ac.uk/updates-events/events/crossing-currents-history-pgr-conference-2026 (Co-Convener)

Rituals and Ceremonies: Oxford Medieval Graduate Conference 2025. University of Oxford, 24-25 April 2025: https://oxgradconf.wixsite.com/omgc/2025-rituals-ceremonies (Committee Member and Treasurer)

Participant

Crossing Currents: History PGR Conference 2026. University of Edinburgh, 12-13 May 2026.

Scotland Within and Outwith: Postgraduate Symposium 2025. Centre for Scottish and Celtic Studies, University of Glasgow, 30 April 2025.

Outsiders-Insiders: Medieval History Postgraduate Forum. University of Reading, 2 April 2025.

Papers delivered

'"[H]e was a king and not a monk": Expectations of Family and the Temptation of Malcolm IV, King of Scots in William of Newburgh’s 'Historia Rerum Anglicarum' (1190s)'. Paper presented at Crossing Currents: History PGR Conference 2026. University of Edinburgh, 12-13 May 2026.

'Scottish Queens and Queens of Scots: Rulership and Identity in Medieval Historical Research'. Paper presented at Scotland Within and Outwith: Postgraduate Symposium 2025. Centre for Scottish and Celtic Studies, University of Glasgow, 30 April 2025.

'Queens after Queenship: Royal Widows in Thirteenth and Fourteenth-Century Scotland'. Paper presented at Outsiders-Insiders: Medieval History Postgraduate Forum. University of Reading, 2 April 2025.

'Material Authorities: Hegemonic Masculinity and the Great Seal of William Rufus, King of England (r.1087-1100)'. Paper presented at Worcester College History Society guest lecture series. Worcester College, Oxford, 22 November 2024.

In the press

'Take the Floor: A PhD Researcher's Guide to the Ceilidh', SGSAH Blog, 27 January 2026, https://sgsahblog.com/2026/01/27/deoch-an-doris-a-phd-researchers-guide-to-the-ceilidh/.

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