Craig Lamont is the Project Lead, seeking to create a new stream of research into Scottish life-writing. The focus on care experience is based on his work on the archive of Dorothy K. Haynes (1918–87), and her time in Aberlour Orphanage, which led to the 1973 memoir Haste Ye Back (re-edited by Craig in 2023). Craig is Lecturer in Scottish Studies at the University of Glasgow [staff profile here], and has worked on the scholarly editions of Robert Burns, Allan Ramsay, and John Galt – all of whom have nice examples of life-writing! Craig also co-founded the Memory Lab with the project co-lead, and continues to work on all things memory…
Maria Wimber is the Project co-lead. She is Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience & Memory in the School of Psychology & Neuroscience at the University of Glasgow. Her research explores how people remember the past, why memories change over time, and how remembering can sometimes strengthen, reshape, or even distort what we recall. She studies this dynamic and reconstructive nature of memory using behavioural experiments and advanced brain-imaging techniques. Maria trained in Germany and Cambridge before taking up a tenured position at the University of Birmingham in 2013 and joining the University of Glasgow in 2020. [Photo: www.nadineboydphotography.com]
Emily Hay is the Postdoctoral Research Assistant on the ‘Memory and Care Experience’ project. Her AHRC-funded PhD, which she completed in 2026, explored the textual self-presentation of Mary Queen of Scots from 1567-1587, focussing on how she used writing to influence her own posthumous memory. During this, she also worked with Perth Museum designing and facilitating engagement workshops for ‘The Last Letter of Mary Queen of Scots’ exhibition; and in 2023-24 she led the ‘Scots in the Classroom’ project with Scottish Book Trust, investigating the benefits of Scots language education in schools. Her broader research interests include Scottish women’s writing, cultural memory, and how we can use difficult histories to help those undergoing similar experiences today.