Centre for History

Research Fellow - Social History of Forestry in 20th Century Scotland - oral history project.
E-mail: jill.defresnes@thurso.uhi.ac.uk

Jill de Fresnes joined the Centre for History in May 2009 as a Research Fellow for the Centre's latest oral history research project entitled, 'The Social History of Forestry in 20th Century Scotland'. She completed her PhD through the UHI Millennium Institute, graduating in the summer of 2010, and her research focuses on the lives of the Scots Herring Girls 1900-1950, using oral history as the central methodology.

Prior to taking up her role at the Centre for History Jill has been involved in a wide variety of projects including, research into the access to education in remote areas of Scotland, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Iceland as project manager of a Northern Periphery Project between 2000 and 2005; community projects such as the setting up of the Learning Centre and Marine Training Centre in Mallaig; and individual projects such as the editing of the journals of Constance Astley and the subsequent publication of a book about her travels in New Zealand.
 
As an oral historian she has also taken part in projects including an oral history project run by the West Highland Museum in Fort William, and the setting up and managing of an oral history project in Mallaig which is collecting reminiscences relating to the fishing community there.

Publications:

de Fresnes, Jill; Constance Astley's Trip to New Zealand; Victoria University Press, 1997

de Fresnes, Jill; editor: Lessons from the Edge, Reflections of a Learning Community; UHI Press 2006

de Fresnes, Jill; editor: The Edge Newsletter, Building a Learning Community; Issues 1 - 8, 2002 - 2005, http://edge.ramk.fi

de Fresnes, Jill; O Miachachain, Sean; Hughes, Alun; On Top of It, Overcoming the Challenges of ICT and Distance Education in the Arctic; Chapter: Lessons from the Edge: Building Networks Between Remote Learning Centres and their Members; University of the Arctic Press, 2004

de Fresnes, Jill; editor: Travels and Travails of the Scots Herring Girls; UHI publication of conference papers, 2007