Scottish American Studies

Introductions & Overviews

Scottish Americans face a dilemma similar to other ethnicities that lost much of their distinctiveness as they were assimilated into a generic "whiteness" under the pressure of the color line. Although there is a thriving "musuem culture" of traditional games and attire it is difficult to connect this with the day to day experience of most people of Scottish descent. For me, the best strategy is to research my own history and to oppose some uses Scottish heritage has been put to (such as by the KKK). I'm also interested in how Sir Walter Scotts depictions of highlanders as a "colorful but vanishing" race helped shaped similar (and enduring) depticions of Native Americans by Cooper and others. --Hedges