Fashion models, haunted hospitals and the Shetland fishing industry are just three of the diverse topics being discussed at a major academic event in Aberdeen this week.
The 'Varieties of Cultural History' conference marks 21 years of the University's undergraduate Cultural History programme – the only one offered in Britain.
Running from July 5-8, the event will embrace fields as diverse as paternity, maternity and sex; entertainment and education; cultural histories of medicine and disease; and architecture and identity.
Academics from across the world will present a host of hugely varied papers at venues across campus, including a Saturday lecture on fashion models by Barcelona-based scholar Patricia Soley-Beltran.
Patricia was a top model in the 1980s before becoming disillusioned with the exploitative fashion scene and enrolling on the University's Cultural History programme. One of the early students on the course, it inspired her to go on to pursue a career in academia.
Conference organiser Dr David Smith, Senior Lecturer in the History of Medicine said he had been overwhelmed by the clamour to present papers.
"This week we have speakers from eight different European countries, as well as North America. Indeed, the enthusiasm of the speakers has been such that we've been inspired to organise a meeting to establish a Cultural History society on the final day of the conference.
"The society will establish a journal of cultural history and we are already in discussion with an interested publisher. There has long been a need for a society and journal of cultural history and we are determined to see that this need is now met."
For more information on the conference and all the speakers, visit http://www.abdn.ac.uk/ch/conference.shtml