2026/03/02 by Tomas Vancisin, Aileen Fyfe · 2 voices
Arts and Humanities · #Historical Studies of British Isles #Oral History, Memory, Narrative Analysis #Scottish History and National Identity
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/0046760x.2026.2631124
openalex publication_date 2026/03/02 · openalex created_date 2026/03/06 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/15
This paper uses the historical student records of the University of St Andrews to demonstrate how an exploration of the student community can contribute to our understanding of the ways UK universities have been implicated in British colonial/imperial activities. It also contributes to the investigation of student origins, international student mobility and alumni career patterns. Using digital technology, we identified 901 individuals who came from or later lived or worked in the colonies and who studied at (or were accredited by) St Andrews between 1700 and 1897. Furthermore, we developed a custom-built, web-based and interactive visualisation to better understand the chronological, geographical and career trends within the records. This allowed us to explore trends in finer detail than traditional tabular statistics and it was crucial in directing our attention to particular groups of people. We close with reflections on the challenges involved in using information visualisation on incomplete historical records.