Dr Nicola Martin

Research

My research is focused on British imperialism throughout the long eighteenth century. I combine top-down approaches that examine the role of the British army in implementing empire with bottom-up approaches that foreground the ways that Indigenous peoples, Scottish Highlanders, French Canadians, and colonial settlers were impacted by, and impacted on, empire. My first book investigated the overarching cultural frameworks, individual circumstances, and local conditions guiding the actions and understandings of British army officers as they waged war, pacified hostile peoples, and attempted to assimilate ‘other’ population groups within the British Empire. It demonstrated the impact of the Jacobite Rising of 1745-46 on British imperialism in North America and centred the material role of British army officers in the imperial crisis that led to the American Revolution.

My current research develops this focus on the British army and eighteenth-century imperialism in numerous ways: examining how the laws of war were used to both moderate conventional warfare and justify state sponsored violence, investigating the role of Whig loyalists in shaping British policy during the Jacobite era, and interrogating specific military-civil interactions throughout the empire.

Publications

Books

• The British Army in Scotland and North America 1745-1775: militarisation on the fringes of the empire (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025).

Articles and book chapters

• ‘Principle, Patronage, Pragmatism: the Earls of Sutherland and the Spectrum of Whig Loyalism during the Jacobite Era’, Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies (Forthcoming Autumn 2026).
• ‘Loyalty and Resistance: Whig responses to anti-Jacobite imperatives in the Scottish Highlands’ in K. German and D. Layne (eds.), The Cultures of Scottish Jacobitism [Manchester University Press]. Forthcoming.
• ‘Inculcating loyalty in the Highlands and beyond, c.1745–1784’, Atlantic Studies, 2023.
• ‘Lord Loudoun, the Highlands, and imperial subjecthood in North America’, Scottish Historical Review, Vol. 100(2), (Oct 2021).
• Several biographies of Scottish representative peers in The History of Parliament: The House of Lords 1715-1790 (History of Parliament Trust). These include Hugh Campbell, 3rd earl of Loudoun, John Murray, 2nd earl of Dunmore, John Sutherland, 16th earl of Sutherland, William Sutherland, 17th earl of Sutherland, James Stewart, 2nd earl of Orkney, and William Home, 8th earl of Home.

Other media podcasts, blogs, etc.

• Cumberland’s Army in North America, National Trust for Scotland Culloden War Stories (2022)
• Unearthed Podcast, Two-part Highland Clearance Special (2020)
• Blood of the Clans, BBC (2020)
• ‘In the Heart of the Vile Race: the British army, the Highlands and the Empire’, History Scotland (2020).
• Frankie Boyle’s Tour of Scotland, BBC (2019)
• Several blog posts for ‘A Civilised Nation?’ Project, Scotland’s Futures Forum (2017).
• ‘The Influence of the Scottish Highlands on the British Army in early America’, The Junto, online (2016).
• ‘After Culloden’, Centre for Scottish Studies, online (2016).

Teaching

I was appointed a fellow of the Higher Education Academy in December 2019.

I currently act as Module Leader for the following modules, several of which are based on my own research interests:

• What Is History? (First Year)
• Themes in US History (Second Year)
• Jacobites: Patriots, Rebels, or Opportunists (Third Year)
• Empire and ‘Others’: the shaping of British imperialism in North America (fourth year)
• Undergraduate History Dissertation (fourth year)

I also teach/have taught on:

• Empire, Environment, and Identity: Scotland 1600-2000 (First Year)
• People, Protest and Power (First Year)
• Historians and History (Second Year)
• Scots in North America: experience and identity (Third Year)
• Emigration from the Highlands and Islands (Third Year)
• Public History (Third Year)
• Royal Power, Propaganda and Performance in Early Modern Europe (MLitt)
• Arguments and Alternatives (MLitt)

Additional Activities

• National Trust for Scotland, external review of Culloden Battlefield audio guide tour script (2026).
• National Trust for Scotland, Culloden Annual Commemoration (2026), invited speaker.
• Scottish Association for the Study of America Conference, (University of the Highlands and Islands, 2026), local organiser.
• Trustee of Archaeology for Communities in the Highlands (ARCH) (appointed September 2025).
• Keynote speaker for Scottish Association for the Study of America Conference (2024).
• Secretary of the Jacobite Studies Trust (appointed February 2023).
• Grants Officer for the Society of Army Historical Research (appointed August 2023).
• Research Assistant, Victorian Election Violence Project, Durham University (2019).
• National Trust for Scotland, Culloden Annual Commemoration (2018), invited speaker.
• ‘Scotland 2030 – Technology and Society’ Royal Society of Edinburgh and Scotland’s Futures Forum (2017), invited speaker.
• ‘Negotiating Academic Careers’ Scottish Association for the Study of America Workshop (University of Edinburgh, 2017), co-organiser.
• Scottish History Network (2016-19), co-founder. The Scottish History Network produced a weekly digest of Scottish History news within and outwith academia and organised a State of the Field Workshop (April 2016) and ‘Scottish History: British or European?’ Panel Discussion (August 2016).
• Scottish Association for the Study of America Annual Conference (University of Stirling, 2016), organiser.