University to host Outlander conference on show’s history and culture

A university is to stage a conference exploring the history and culture featured on the television programme Outlander.

The show is based on the books by Diana Gabaldon and the conference at the University of Glasgow will look at the history, politics, culture, languages, clothes and music in the series.

Dr Gabaldon will give a keynote speech during the event.

The series of nine novels and six television seasons has put Scotland on the map for a world readership and audience.

Outlander season seven will begin this summer and the conference will take place from July 18 to 22.

Dr Gabaldon said: “I’m honoured (and very excited) that this conference is taking place under the sponsorship of the University of Glasgow.

“A tremendous amount of work and organisation has gone into it, and I’m so looking forward to being a part of it.”

Willy Maley, professor of renaissance studies (English literature), at the university’s School of Critical Studies, said: “Scotland not only has a great tradition of historical writing from Walter Scott to Dorothy Dunnett, but offers the ideal setting for fiction that combines adventure, fantasy and romance.

“Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series was inspired by Scotland and in turn has helped put Scotland on the map, boosting tourism and engagement with the languages of Scotland as well as interest in the country’s complicated past, from Jacobite resistance to diasporic identities and colonial complicity.”