Research

Research fields

• Philosophy of David Hume
• History of Scottish Philosophy
• Aesthetics, Philosophy of Culture

• Eighteenth-Century Fiction, Prose, Poetry & Criticism
• Modern Fiction & Poetry
• Irish Literature in English

• Scottish Enlightenment Studies
• British & Post-British Cultural Studies

Current Research Interests

• Hume's Treatises IV & V
• Philosophical ideas in 20th century Belfast, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, St Andrews
• Concept of criticism and problems of genre during the Enlightenment
• Historiographical Paradigms of British Literature
• Poetry of Derek Mahon

Research Fellowships

Research Fellow WS 2006, Centre for the History of Ideas in Scotland Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh

'David Hume's Treatise of Human Nature (1739 - 40) as unfinished project of classical modernity'

Editorial Boards

Zeitschrift für Kultur- und Bildungswissenschaften (Flensburg)
Editorial Board and General Editor, 2003-09

Cencrastus: Scottish & International Literature, Arts and Affairs (Edinburgh)
Editorial Board, 1981 - 93
Editor, 1981 - 87 Edinburgh Student Publications Board (Polygon)
1982 - 83

Memberships

Hume Society, 1999 -
Eighteenth Century Scottish Studies Society, 2000 -
Scottish Studies International Network, University of Glasgow, 2005 -