KIRSTEN GOW

Biography

I am an islander and islands reseacher interested in the creation of sustainable futures for Scotland's inhabited islands. I'm jointly supervised by the University of Aberdeen and The James Hutton Institute and funded by Macaulay Development Trust.

As part of my PhD research I developed of Gow's Typology of Scotland's Islands. I then built on this in an internship with the Scottish Government to develop the Scottish Government Scottish Islands Typology (2024).

In 2024 I became co-convenor of the global New Voices in Island Studies network from the Small Island Cultures Research Initiative.

Before starting my PhD I worked in a range of community development and third sector roles including supporting community-led housing projects across rural Scotland; community energy and climate change initiatives; and project managing a national community-led island tourism project.

I was the architect and facilitator of the 2021 Rural Housing Summit for Rural Housing Scotland in partnership with UN Habitat which brought together 50 speakers and over 1,000 attendees from three continents to discuss the impacts of and potential solutions to the rural housing crisis.

I am also an artist and, in 2022, I was shortlisted for the John Byrne Award for the installation 'Remote / Far Away' which challenges perceptions of remoteness and peripherality.

I am a former board member of the Scottish Islands Federation and former member of the Craft Scotland Advisory Panel.

External Memberships

Co-convenor of the New Voices in Island Studies network from the Small Island Cultures Research Initiative.

Postgraduate Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society.