Workshop on Early Modern Parliamentary Culture in Poland-Lithuania and Scotland, England and Ireland

Our third workshop in Aberdeen was an exciting opportunity to discuss the book as it started to reach a more advanced stage. Prof. Robert Frost from Aberdeen, who has contributed to the project in many important ways, including as an author, co-organised and generously hosted the workshop. Almost everyone who is contributing to the volume was present and we were joined by several faculty members from Aberdeen who took the time to share their thought. 

In advance of our meeting in Aberdeen we had all either submitted a draft chapter or an extended abstract and just as crucially we had all had an opportunity to read one another’s chapters. The workshop was structured so that we discussed each contribution in the order in which it will appear in the book. In each session the lead author of the chapter presented its core ideas before receiving feedback from a respondent who had read the draft in detail in advance.  

The format encouraged open discussion and the productive exchange of ideas. Everyone had useful information to share or perspectives to bring to each chapter and some of the most interesting discussions came from cross-disciplinary interventions, which were particularly helpful where methodological questions remained to be resolved. In cases where a full draft had not yet been completed, the chance to hear everyone’s thoughts on the structure and arguments undoubtedly helped save many hours at the keyboard. More broadly, we generated far more ideas than we will have space to cover in the volume. 

Being able to examine the individual chapters collectively also helps us bring coherence to the volume, making sure we are using the same terms in the same way, have a shared understanding of parliamentary culture, and the same approach to the chronological challenges of writing a volume on this topic. Nevertheless, the chapters retain their own unique approach and each has a different balance between breadth and depth. 

Some unusual and entertaining factoids were revealed during the workshop. Perhaps most memorable was the lady who fell through a parliamentary gallery floor and was left suspended mid-air—a damning indictment of the safety of some kinds of parliamentary space, but also a rare insight into the gender dynamics of parliamentary audiences.  

The workshop was valuable in helping the editors as they work on a proposal for the volume and think about which of our different topics would work best as sample chapters when they approach a press later this year or in early 2025.