Prof David Worthington
University of the Highlands and Islands Centre for History
Burghfield House
Cnoc-an-Lobht
Dornoch
IV25 3HN
Twitter @WorthingtonD @UHIHistory
Available to talk to the media about
- The Highlands, Scotland and Europe (1500 - 1800)
- The north of Scotland in the seventeenth century
- Coastal history
- Scottish-Polish historical relations
- British and Irish diasporas
- 'Central Europe' in history
Public lectures
Watch Professor David Worthington's public lecturet Professor David Worthington's inaugural lecture
‘Sugar, Slave-Owning and the Scottish Highlands Before 1707’ (2020)
‘Coastal History in Scotland’ (2018)
In these languages
English, PolishBiography
Professor Worthington is an historian of Scottish (and wider British and Irish) connections with central Europe (c.1500-c.1700). He researches and publishes also on the history of the firthlands of mainland northern Scotland from within a Coastal History context.
He completed his PhD in the Department of History, University of Aberdeen, in 2000, and, prior to taking up his position at the University of the Highlands and Islands, held the following posts: Irish Research Council for the Humanities and Social Sciences Postdoctoral Fellow at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth (2001-2002); Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen (2005-2007); Visiting Professor on two separate occasions at Polish universities, in the cities of Kielce (2004-2005) and Wrocław (2007-2008).
Having arrived at the Centre for History as a lecturer in July 2008, he led on the development and launch of both the BA (Hons) History and Politics in 2010 and the online MLitt History of the Highlands and Islands in 2011. He has been programme leader for the latter ever since and now also leads on the MLitt History, the MLitt History and Archaeology of the Highlands and Islands, and, from 2017, the MLitt Coastal and Maritime Societies and Cultures.
Professor Worthington has been head of the Centre since 2011 and was awarded a readership in 2015.
Current research
His current research can be viewed.
Research groups and interests
David represents the University of the Highlands and Islands on the Inverness Castle Project Delivery Group and chairs the separate University of the Highland and Islands and High Life Highland advisory group to the project.
In 2020, as a response to the pandemic, he instigated the Coastal History Network, a regular, global, online gathering of what is now 160-plus scholars, considering the past, present and future of the spaces that lie between land and sea.