The Trust is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Allan Kennedy of the University of Dundee as our new Pre-1707 Editor.

Allan has consolidated a strong reputation in the field since completing his doctorate at the University of Stirling in 2011. Focussing particularly on the later seventeenth century, Allan has published widely in social and political history. Alongside numerous edited books, chapters, and peer-reviewed articles - including essays in the SHR on the Highlands (2017), migrancy (2019), and witchcraft (2022) - Allan has published two major monographs, Governing Gaeldom (2014) and Serious Crime in Late Seventeenth-Century Scotland (2025). He was Co-Investigator on the project, The Scottish Privy Council Records, 1689-1708, funded by the Leverhulme Trust, now freely accessible online, and a consultant editor for History Scotland until 2025. He is currently working on a survey of early modern Scottish history for Routledge. 

Allan says, "I'm humbled and delighted to be taking on the pre-1707 editorship of the Scottish Historical Review. It is an outstanding journal with a proud track-record, and I am determined to honour that legacy. I'm also excited to help build on the Trust's wider missions of promoting diversity and expanding public engagement with Scottish historical research."

Laura Stewart, Convener of the Trust, welcomes Allan to the SHR. "Allan has garnered wide respect both for the quality and the ambition of his research. His interests in marginality and deviance are broadening our scholarly horizons and that chimes very well with what the SHR wants to achieve. Trustees look forward to working with Allan as we continue to develop the journal as the leading outlet for cutting-edge research in the field and as a forum to debate issues of wider public interest. Allan joins a fantastic editorial team and it's great to have him on board."

Allan will join the team in winter 2026 as successor to Dr Alastair Macdonald of the University of Aberdeen. Alastair has been a great colleague, working closely with Post-1707 Editor, Naomi Lloyd-Jones, to support authors and diversify our profile. Our readers, reviewers, and authors will want to join the Trustees in thanking Aly for all his efforts over an exciting if sometimes challenging half-decade!