Search Results - Pittock, Murray

Murray Pittock

Murray G. H. Pittock MAE FRSE (born 5 January 1962) is a Scottish historian and cultural and textual scholar. He holds the position of Bradley Professor of Literature at the University of Glasgow and serves as Pro Vice-Principal at the university, where he has occupied senior roles, including Dean and Vice-Principal, since 2008. He led the University's involvement in the Kelvin Hall redevelopment project in collaboration with the City of Glasgow and the National Library of Scotland (kelvinhall.org.uk), and since 2016 has chaired Glasgow's early career development programme, which has been considered influential across the sector.

Pittock has acted as lead or co-lead on various national and international partnerships, including with the Smithsonian Institution, and plays a significant role in the University of Glasgow's engagement with government and the cultural and creative industries (CCIs). He organised the 'Glasgow and Dublin: Creative Cities' summit at the British Embassy in Dublin in 2019, and contributed to the European network CIVIS through work on a European policy document concerning universities and civic engagement. He also delivered a masterclass on this topic at La Sapienza University, and he serves on the governing board of the European Alliance for Arts, Social Science and the Humanities (EASSH).

In 2020, he authored a major report for the Scottish Government on the economic impact of Robert Burns, the findings of which were debated in the Scottish Parliament and have since been cited in policy discussions. In 2022, he was named Scotland's Knowledge Exchange Champion of the Year.

Beyond the University of Glasgow, Pittock served on the Research Excellence Framework (REF) Institutional Environment Pilot Panel from 2018 to 2022 and again in the 2025 People, Culture and Environment Pilot Panel, and Board and Investment Committee of the National Trust for Scotland (NTS). He also co-chairs the Scottish Arts and Humanities Alliance (SAHA) and is a member and former chair of the Governance Board of the Scottish Council on Global Affairs. He provides guidance to a range of national heritage bodies and the Scottish Parliament. He has recently advised both the Scottish and UK parliaments on matters related to the international promotion of Scotland and serves on the Scottish Government's Scottish Connections Advisory Panel on the diaspora.

Pittock is a member of the advisory board of NISE, a European research network comprising over 40 centres focused on national identities. He served as President of the Edinburgh Walter Scott Club in 2019–2020 and again in 2021–2022. He has delivered numerous distinguished lectures, including the Magnusson, MacCormack and Caledonian lectures.

Earlier in his career, Pittock was Professor of Scottish and Romantic Literature and Deputy Head of Arts at the University of Manchester, where he became the first Professor of Scottish Literature appointed at an English university. He has held visiting positions globally in fields including Celtic Studies, English, History, Languages, and Equality and Diversity, at institutions such as Yale University (1998, 2000–01), the University of Wales (2002), Auburn University (2006), Trinity College Dublin (2008), Charles University in Prague (2010), the University of Notre Dame (2014), and New York University (2015). He has also been invited to speak at leading universities including Harvard, Stanford, Columbia, Berkeley, and the Sorbonne. Provided by Wikipedia