EDITORIAL

Identity, in all its complexity, is of interest across the arts, humanities and social sciences.

In a year marked by significant attention to anniversaries including the abolition of the British slave trade
and the Treaty of Union between England and Scotland, it is clear that today’s identities are influenced by
our understanding and commemoration of the past.

Interdisciplinary work while fashionable is problematic. This volume offers a range of articles, broad in
scope, bound together by a common theme with distinct epistemological approaches. This includes articles
that synthesise the tools of several disciplines; articles that consider the interests of one discipline through
the lens of another; and articles that require multiple perspectives to better consider situations, places and
people.

Our common identity has been as undergraduate students of the University of Glasgow. This academic
community informed our work as authors and editors. The Scottish undergraduate Master of Arts degree
has a long tradition of encouraging breadth of thought through the requirement to follow a variety of
academic subjects before specialisation, and in the significant numbers of students who graduate with joint
honours degrees.

Groundings emerged from within the Glasgow University Dialectic Society. Our campus debating society
has, over the centuries, brought together students from all disciplines in a shared pursuit of knowledge
through discussion.

Our aim, today, is to further debate on identity and commemoration, in interdisciplinary perspective,
through the critical insights of talented undergraduate students.

GROUNDINGS EDITORIAL BOARD