On 6 August 2019, Michael Morris co-organised a workshop with Emma Bond (St Andrews) at the V&A Dundee as part of the Transnational Scotland Project.
Purpose:
As a new design museum, V&A Dundee must continue to work hard to ensure the content of its Scottish Design Galleries reflects current scholarship on the systems of exploitation and empire that underpin Scotland’s successful design heritage. This workshop will critique the Scottish Design Galleries (the first to attempt to tell the story of Scottish design) and will explore how the museum can improve in its ambition to tell the transnational history of Scotland.
The aim of the workshop is to deepen the museum’s understanding of Scottish design within the context of post-colonial studies, and to help re-frame the content of the galleries by identifying alternative narratives that might challenge or complicate this story, and developing a more inclusive interpretative framework for the objects on display. The workshop will propose new objects for inclusion in the future and will consider ideas for new commissions or research projects. Objects or themes within the galleries that will form the basis for discussion will include: shipping and the maritime trade; slavery; Scotland and Asia; Turkey Red fabrics; jute; and Paisley shawls.
Victoria Adukwei Bulley and Hannah Young in conversation
The day featured a packed lunchtime public talk in the Auditorium with Dr Hannah Young and Victoria Adukwei Bulley. They discussed their collaboration on ‘Unfortunate Inheritances: Slave-ownership and the V&A’
Speakers:
Michael Morris (University of Dundee) and Lisa Williams (Edinburgh Caribbean
Association): Scotland and Slavery
• Prof Chris Whatley (University of Dundee): Jute
• Prof Bashabi Fraser (Edinburgh Napier University): East India Company
• Dr Rosie Spooner (University of Glasgow): Robert Weir Schultz and the Anglican Church in Khartoum
• Dr Suchitra Choudhury (Independent Scholar): Paisley shawls
• Dr Sally Tuckett (University of Glasgow): Turkey Red
