Dr Stephen Royle

Geography of small islands:

• Atlantic islands, especially St Helena and the Falkland Islands
• Islands of Ireland

Historical geography:

• Company colonies
• Hudson’s Bay Company and Vancouver Island
• Ireland, especially Belfast
• Canadian Maritime Provinces 

Books

Royle, S.A. (2007) The Company’s Island: St Helena, Company Colonies and the Colonial Endeavour, I.B. Tauris: London.

Royle, S.A. (2007) Belfast Part II, 1840-1901, Irish Historic Towns Atlas No 17, Royal Irish Academy: Dublin.

Gillespie, R. and Royle, S.A. (2007) Belfast c.1600-c.1900: The Making of the Modern City, Royal Irish Academy: Dublin.

Hodgett, S., Johnson, D. and Royle, S.A. (eds), (2007) Doing Development Differently: Regional Development on the Atlantic Periphery, Cape Breton University Press: Sydney, Nova Scotia.

Boal, F.W. and Royle, S.A. (eds) (2006) Enduring City: Belfast in the Twentieth Century, Blackstaff Press: Belfast.

Gillespie, R. and Royle, S.A. (2003) Belfast Part 1, to 1840. Irish Historic Towns Atlas No. 12, Royal Irish Academy: Dublin.

Royle, S.A. (2001) A Geography of Islands: Small Island Insularity, Routledge: London.

Journal, Special Issues

Hodgett, S. and Royle, S.A. (eds) (2006) Governance, Culture and Identity in Contemporary Canada, British Journal of Canadian Studies, 19.2.

Dodds, K. and Royle, S.A. (eds) (2003) The Historical Geography of Islands, Journal of Historical Geography, 29.4.

Book Chapters

Royle, S.A. (2008) ‘“Mainland” and “entry” islands: distinctions in island tourism’, in Babu, S., Mishra, S. and Parida, B.B. (eds) Tourism development revisited: concepts, issues and paradigms, Response Books: New Delhi, pp. 120-31.

Royle, S.A. (2008) ‘The construction of islandness, a literal example: St Helena in the seventeenth century’, in I. Novaczek (ed.) Refereed Papers from the 3rd International Small Island Cultures Conference, Small Island Cultures Research Initiative: Sydney, pp. 1-9.

Royle, S.A. (2007) ‘Islands off the Irish coast and the “bridging effect”’, in G. Baldacchino (ed.) Bridging Islands: The Impact of ‘Fixed Links’ , Acorn Press: Charlottetown, pp. 203-18.

Royle, S.A. (2007) ‘Island spaces and identitis: definitions and typologies’, in G. Baldacchino (ed.) A World of Islands , Agenda Academic: Luqa, Malta, pp. 3-26.

McFerran, K.E. and Royle, S.A. (2007) ‘Rural development in an insular setting: Prince Edward Island’, in S. Hodgett, D. Johnson and S.A. Royle (eds), Doing Development Differently: Regional Development on the Atlantic Periphery, Cape Breton University Press: Sydney, Nova Scotia, pp. 186-212.

Royle, S.A. (2006) ‘Culture, environment and the tourist gaze: the Falkland Islands’, in H. Johnson (ed.), Refereed Papers from the 2nd International Small Island Cultures Conference, Small Island Cultures Research Initiative: Sydney, pp. 119-28.

Royle, S.A. (2006) ‘The Falkland Islands’, in G. Baldacchino (ed.) Extreme Tourism: Lessons from the World’s Cold Water Islands, Elsevier: Oxford, pp. 181-92.

Royle, S.A. (2006) ‘Belfast: foundations of the twentieth century’, in F.W. Boal and S.A. Royle (eds) Enduring City: Belfast in the Twentieth Century, Blackstaff Press: Belfast, pp. 11-29.

Royle, S.A. (2006) ‘Inseltourismus: Inseln der Träume?’, in H. Weinhäupl and M. Wolfsberber (eds) Trauminseln? Tourismus und Alltag in ‘Urlaubsparadiesen’, IIT Verlag GmbH; Vienna, pp. 13-36.

Royle, S.A. (2004) ‘Small towns in Ireland, 1841-1951’, in H. Clarke, J. Prunty and M. Hennessey (eds) Surveying Ireland’s past: Multidisciplinary Essays in Honour of Anngret Simms, Geography Publications: Dublin, pp. 517-44.

Journal articles

Royle, S.A. (2008) ‘From marginality to resurgence: the case of the Irish islands', Shima: The International Journal of Research into Island Cultures, 2.2, pp. 42-55.

Royle, S.A. and Tsai, H-M. (2008) ‘Cultural heritage and development strategies of the offshore islands of Ireland and Taiwan’, Insula, International Journal of Island Affairs , 17.1, pp. 47-56.

Royle, S.A. (2007) ‘St Helena and the East India Company, 1659-1710: colonial development on a tabula rasa’, in L. Nilsson (ed.) Urban Europe in a Comparative Perspective, Studier I Stads-och Kummunhistoria , 31 (CD).

Royle, S.A. and Ní Laoire, C. (2006) ‘“Dare the boist’rous main”: The role of the Belfast News Letter in the process of emigration from Ulster to North America, 1760-1800’, The Canadian Geographer/Le Géographe Canadien , 50.1, pp. 56-73.

Royle, S.A. (2004) ‘Human Interference on Ascension island’, Environmental Archaeology , 9, pp. 127-34.

Royle, S.A. (2004) ‘“The island has been handed over to me”: Ascension Island as a company colony, 1922-1942’, Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography , 25.1, pp. 109-26.

Hodgett, S. and Royle, S.A. (2003) ‘Conceptualising community: policy implications for Atlantic Canada’, British Journal of Canadian Studies , 16.2, pp. 309-18.

Royle, S.A. (2003) ‘Perilous shipwreck, misery and unhappiness: the British military at Tristan da Cunha, 1816-1817’, J ournal of Historical Geography , 29.4, pp. 516-34.

Royle, S.A. (2003) ‘Exploitation and celebration of the heritage of the Irish islands’, Irish Geography , 36.1, pp. 23-31.

Royle, S.A. (2002) ‘Regional development issues in Prince Edward Island, Canada’, in M.M. Klemencic (ed.) Podezelje na Prelomu Tisocletja: Izzivi in Problemi. Rural Areas at the Millennium Shift: Challenges and Problems , Dela, 17, pp. 230-37.

Eccles Centre Visiting Fellow in North American Studies at the British Library (2008)

J.B. Harley Fellow in the History of Cartography (2005)

Shackleton Scholar (2004)

Support from Royal Irish Academy for Belfast projects

Secretary, Royal Irish Academy Committee for Geography
Member, Council of British Geography (COBRIG)
Committee Member, EUGEO, the European Society for Geography
Chief Examiner, A Level Geography, CCEA

Steve Royle is an inveterate traveler and conference attendee, which often links with his fascination for small islands, of which he has visited 639 in 63 different countries and territories. Another fascination is an inextinguishable fondness for the Blues, aka Birmingham City, that perennially underachieving football club, which he has supported - miserably - since 1963.