Postgraduate Students

Erin C. M. Grant, BA (Hons) (Guelph), MA (Guelph)

The Pipe Band Diaspora: Bands, Bonnie Lassies, and Scottish Identity 1896-2009

Erin Grant is investigating the global community that has been cultivated by the competitive culture of the Great Highland Bagpipe in the form of pipe bands throughout the twentieth century. The development of instant communication and convenient methods of travel throughout this time period has had significant effects on the identity of what has been historically defined as the ‘local band’. As an amateur professional piper herself, Erin seeks to focus on questions of how national identity is perceived and cultivated in transplanted communities such as New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the United States by using pipe bands as a case study. Erin is particularly struck by the large number of pipe bands in New Zealand as compared with Canada especially in the top levels of competition when considering the large difference in demographics.

Erin is also decidedly interested in the social composition and interaction of piping society. Themes of masculinity and femininity are quite conspicuous in the history of piping, yet they have curiously remained unexplored by academia to any great extent. Erin is currently attempting begin to restore this imbalance, to understand the basis of its existence and to explain these concepts in relation to Scottish identity and Diaspora.

Supervisor: Professor Angela McCarthy

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