Dr. Siún Carden
Research Fellow
Dr Carden grew up in County Down and moved to Shetland from Belfast in 2016. Her academic background is in social anthropology and her PhD (2010) from Queen’s University Belfast is titled ‘Place-making from the periphery: reimagining place and culture in Belfast’s Gaeltacht Quarter.’ In the Centre for Island Creativity she has worked on projects involving a range of partners, including community groups like Shetland Peerie Makkers and Shetland ForWirds, national charities like Who Cares? Scotland and The Promise, businesses in the knit industry in Scotland and Ireland, artists and arts organisations, public sector bodies and care experienced young people. She teaches on UHI’s MA Art and Social Practice, leading the modules ‘Communities of Practice’ and ‘Practice and Research’. She won a Scottish Book Trust New Writers Award for poetry in 2024.
Her research interests include islands, the anthropology of art and craft, arts-based research, rural creative economies and textile making. Example projects include ‘Home and Belonging’ (2019-2022, Life Changes Trust), a 3-year arts-based project in partnership with Who Cares? Scotland and the #ShetlandCrew of care experienced young people; ‘The Social and Cultural Capital of Island Communities: Exploring Mechanisms to Inform the UHI Islands 2020 Strategy’ (2022); and ‘Micro-manufacturing and place-based maker cultures: textile production and skill transmission in Shetland and the west of Ireland’ (2028-19, Carnegie Trust Research Incentive Grant).
She supervises research students in Creative Practice and welcomes inquiries from prospective MRes and PhD candidates, particularly those pursuing topics related to:
- Creative practice based in or related to islands
- Textile-making communities
- Cultural heritage in relation to islands
- Connections between Scotland and Ireland
- Poetry