The move partly reflects growing links between Dunedin, the Edinburgh of the South, and its Scottish sister city.
This is believed to be the first such appointment by an Otago University staff member to Edinburgh University.
The professor of Scottish and Irish history in the Otago history department, was "thrilled" to be offered the "visiting" post at such a highly-regarded Scottish institution.
She is also associate director of the Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies at Otago.
Her appointment links her to the Scottish Centre for Diaspora Studies, and to Edinburgh's School of History, Classics and Archaeology.
As Scotland moved closer to potential independence, there was growing interest within that country in what had happened to Scottish people who had previously emigrated to other parts of the world, including New Zealand and Dunedin, she said.
She took up her new appointment on September 1, and will undertake this work mainly from Dunedin, visiting Edinburgh perhaps about twice a year, and maintaining close links through the internet.
Her new duties include helping with postgraduate supervision, contributing to joint research projects and providing expertise in Irish-Scottish diaspora history, especially from an Australasian perspective.
The appointment, initially for three years, helped strengthen her connections with "leading scholars in my own field of historical studies", she said.
Other international connections will also be strengthened when the Otago Centre for Irish and Scottish Studies hosts the 19th Australasian Irish Studies Conference, on November 7.
The conference, which runs for several days, focuses on "Global Ireland" and includes more than 40 papers on a host of subjects, ranging from history, to literature and economics.
And on November 8, two teams, chaired by Dougal Stevenson, will conduct a public debate on the topic: "An Irish identity is better than a Scottish identity".
