Whose church is it anyway? Normans vs Welsh in medieval Neath and Wales

English conquest led to the creation of new chapels and parish churches across Wales, as well as some unique buildings like fortified churches and new elements such as the Norman-style font. Some new churches, like St Thomas, Neath, were founded to serve an English incomer community, while others, like St Illtyd’s, were much older and … Read more

Postgraduate Conference in Welsh Studies

Gynhadledd Astudiaethau Cymreig Canolfan Richard Burton Centre Dydd Mercher 25 Mai 2022 Wednesday 25 May 2022 Y Studio, Creu Taliesin, Campws Parc, Prifysgol Abertawe The Studio Taliesin Create, Park campus, Swansea University 2.00 Guinevere Clark – The Psychogeography of The Mumbles in Swansea through 3 Poems   2.30 Daniel Jones – Caliban’s Cultural Wounds: Language … Read more

Queer Data

12 October Queer Data Event Invitation – GENCAS Wednesday 12 October 2022, 2-3pm: Kevin Guyan joins us on Zoom to discuss his recent book, Queer Data: Using Gender, Sex and Sexuality Data for Action (Bloomsbury). Data has never mattered more. Our lives are increasingly shaped by it and how it is defined, collected and used. But … Read more

The Last Welsh Princess of Wales

Online Research seminar: Wed 8 December 1.15pm Dr Rhea Seren Phillip This paper will discuss identity, memory and uses of the past, along with global interactions and connections which have a Welsh association. The primary focus of the paper will be the history of Princess Gwenllian ferch Llywelyn and her rebellious familial ties. However, I … Read more

The Symbolism of the White Poppy in Britain

The interwar period brought a wave of cultural change, and the white peace poppy was a fringe commemorative symbol that exemplified these changes. The white peace poppy was organised and sold by the Women’s Cooperative Guild, typically working-class women who had lost multiple family members to the Great War and sought to exercise their newly … Read more

History in the News

Dr Sarah Crook writes: History students on HIH284 Disunited Kingdom? Class, Race, Gender and Social Division in 20th Century Britain, an optional second year module, have – as well as lectures and seminars – a weekly ‘workshop’ session. Each week these workshops challenge the students to develop new skills and to put their skills as … Read more

Romanticising Rebecca: Reinterpreting the Mid-Nineteenth Century Revolts of Mid and South-West Wales

The nineteenth century was a time of significant change across rural Wales. Plagued with socio-political unrest, a series of factors laid the foundations for a series of uprisings known as the Rebecca Riots. The upper classes controlled all government and local parliaments, allowing for oppressive laws to be introduced and passed without resistance. The Turnpike … Read more

The Swansea-Mannheim city partnership and German impressions of Swansea University over the years

In an earlier blogpost I sketched the history of the city partnership between Swansea and Mannheim (Baden-Württemberg, Germany), from its establishment in the 1950s. That blog focused in particular on the creation of a monument to the partnership, a miniature replica of the German city’s main landmark, which was erected in Swansea in 1985. Since … Read more

The Curious Case of Ted Dexter and Cardiff South East

Sam Blaxland The former England cricket captain, Ted Dexter, died on 26th August 2021, aged 86. This article, about a peculiar event in his career, originally featured in the 2016 edition of the Conservative History Journal. In 1964 the electorate of Cardiff South East faced the unusual situation of having the England cricket captain as … Read more