Regional Focus

North America

The University has strong historical and research connections with North America.

United States

Two signatories of the Declaration of Independence, John Witherspoon and Benjamin Rush, were Edinburgh graduates.

Our alumni today include physicians, academics, lawyers, Congressmen, the co-founder of TiVo, a Vice-President of Chevron, an Emmy award-winning actor, a Group Vice President of Unilever and many more.

Recent University honorary degree recipients include Bill Gates, Alan Greenspan and Neil Armstrong.

The University welcomes over 1,700 North American students each year, one of the largest concentrations in the United Kingdom.

We collaborate with:

The California Institute of Technology
The University of Pennsylvania
Georgetown University
The University of Virginia
The University of Chicago
The University of California system

School of Divinity and Dartmouth College

For many years, the University’s School of Divinity has enjoyed a highly popular exchange programme with the Department of Religion in Dartmouth College, located in New Hampshire.

As a member of the prestigious Ivy League, Dartmouth College is one of the leading liberal arts institutions in the United States. Members of the faculty in the Department of Religion include internationally recognised scholars specialising in historical and contemporary religions, and in interdisciplinary and comparative disciplines.

Scottish Transatlantic Relations Project (STAR)

STAR is led by the University of Edinburgh and convened by Prof Susan Manning. It is funded by the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland.

Its mission is to provide a focus for international research with a Scottish dimension.

Through a combination of seminars, conferences, publication ventures, and other collaborations, it fosters interchange and discussion.

In the three years since its inception, the STAR group has expanded from a small body of interested scholars into a recognised international network.

STAR members have initiated the new Literature and Transatlanticism, MSc at the University of Edinburgh as well as the series ‘Edinburgh Studies in Transatlantic Literature’.

Regular sessions of the STAR Seminars continue to provide a rich source of interdisciplinary exchange for colleagues from across the Scottish universities and beyond.

Scottish Transatlantic Relations Project (STAR) Project

Canada

Sir Charles Tupper, Canadian Prime Minister and one of the fathers of Canadian Confederation, received his MD from the University in 1843.

Today, the University ranks third in the UK as a host destination for Canadian students, behind the University of Oxford and the London School of Economics.

The University has active undergraduate exchange links with the University of British Columbia, Carleton University, McGill University, Queens University and the University of Toronto.

The University of Edinburgh collaborates with:

McGill University
The University of British Columbia
Queens University

The Centre of Canadian Studies

The University has the largest team of researchers on Canada in the UK. The Centre of Canadian Studies is funded by the University, the Government of Canada, and the Foundation for Canadian Studies in the UK.

The Centre has previously received generous support from Standard Life and the Jessiman Foundation.

Our interdisciplinary approach draws on Politics, Sociology, Anthropology, Law, Literature, History, Cultural Studies, Scottish Studies and Geography. The Centre has active links with a range of major Canadian research Centres.

Centre for Canadian Studies

Global collaboration

Some examples of current partnerships and collaborative projects in North America, or with North American partners, are:

This article was published on Sep 25, 2012