2013-14
Dr Andrew Mac Killop
In January 2014, the Trinity Long Room Hub was delighted to welcome Dr Andrew MacKillop from the University of Aberdeen.
Bio
Polly Ha is currently a Lecturer in Early Modern British History at the University of East Anglia. She studied history at Yale University and the University of Cambridge and is the author of English Presbyterianism, 1590-1640 (Stanford University Press) and co-editor with Patrick Collinson of The Reception of European Reformation in Britain (Oxford University Press). Dr Mackillop is a senior lecturer in the Department of History at the University of Aberdeen.
Research
Dr MacKillop’s research interests lie in comparative history, especially the highly distinctive experiences of Ireland, Scotland and Wales within British imperialism in Asia over the course of the 'long eighteenth century' from c. 1690-c.1815. His research utilises the concept of 'human capital' - the idea that individuals and their social networks are themselves valuable resources and capable of generating 'monetary capital' - to reinterpret the often neglected Asian dimension of Ireland and Scotland's well known history of emigration during this crucial era of British expansion.
During his fellowship at the Trinity Long Room Hub Dr MacKillop focused on researching the development and character of Irish networks in British India over the long eighteenth century and the extent to which these facilitated the repatriation from Asia of material profits and complex webs of financial credit back into Irish society and life. In this way he hoped to shed new light on Ireland's experience of what is now recognised as a major aspect of an historically significant phase of early globalization.
Dr Mackillop gave a lecture on 'People and Profits: Irish Human Capital and the Eighteenth Century British Empire in Asia' on March 13th 2014 at 6pm in the Trinity Long Room Hub.
Irish ‘Human Capital’ & the British Eastern Empire
