Dr Stephen Bowman is Lecturer in History at the University of Stirling. He has interests in the historical cultural and political connections between Scotland and the US, including through his work on urban history and a project on the cultural memory of Scot’s born ‘father’ of the US Navy John Paul Jones. His first book The Pilgrims Society and Public Diplomacy, 1895–1945 was published by Edinburgh University Press in 2018, and he has also published with the Journal of Transatlantic Studies, the Journal of Scottish Historical Studies, and History Scotland. In addition, Stephen has interests in the field of ‘creative history’, and led the research, writing, and production of one of the first scholarly historical treatments of the Covid-19 pandemic: the film and article ‘“An Unusual Period of Unspecified Length”: A Creative Oral History of the Covid-19 Pandemic’ published in 2024 by UCL Press in Paper Trails: The Social Life of Archives and Collections. The creation of the Covid-19 oral interviews at Stirling was highlighted in newsletters by the National Archives, Kew, and the Scottish Library and Information Council as among the most notable developments in the archive sector in 2024. His most recent publication is Portable City: Modern Glasgow’s Transatlantic Connections (Peter Lang, 2026), which he originated, co-edited, and contributed two chapters to.

Dr Kieran Taylor is Lecturer in Education and Programme Leader for the MA Inclusive Education in the Division of Psychology, Sociology and Education at Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh. His research focuses on migration and change in Scottish society. Prior to entering higher education, Kieran worked as a secondary school teacher and has experience supporting children and young people in mainstream and specialist educational settings.

Kieran’s doctoral research at the University of Stirling examined the relief of Belgian refugees by Glasgow Corporation during the First World War. His work explored how local government, faith groups, and voluntary organisations responded to displacement. This research led to several publications on refugee history, humanitarianism, and civic responses to migration.

Kieran’s contemporary research focuses on the experiences of migrant and refugee children and young people. He has worked as a research fellow on an AHRC funded grant investigating the experiences of survivors of child trafficking at the University of Stirling and was Principal investigator on BA funded projects to explore the educational experiences of unaccompanied children and to investigate Afghan young people’s involvement in Cricket in the North of Scotland respectively.  

Kieran has published on refugee history, migration, education, and social policy, with work appearing in journals including The Innes Review, Development Education Review, Scottish Educational Review, and the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. He serves as a reviewer for British Catholic History and Equity in Education & Society and serves on the Scottish Catholic Historical Association and the Scottish Catholic Heritage Collections’ councils.