Before this year I had not only never attempted to create a podcast, but I had also never written a blog post. And now I am about to write a reflective blog post about making a podcast, so bear with me. One of the best things about being a Swansea University student has been the…Continue Reading Podcasting as Final Year Assessment: A Reflective Blog Post
Learning to Live with Covid-19: Perspectives from Past Pandemics
Recently, Dr. Michael Bresalier gave two public lectures from a project he’s developing on “Learning to Live with Covid-19: Historical perspectives on how humanity adapts to epidemics”. The first lecture, “Learning to Live with Covid-19: What can the history of influenza teach us?”, was part of the Hay Festival’s lunchtime talk series. It addressed a…Continue Reading Learning to Live with Covid-19: Perspectives from Past Pandemics
How Beano and Dandy artist Dudley D. Watkins made generations of comic fans roar with laughter
David Anderson, Swansea University You may not be familiar with the name Dudley Dexter Watkins, but chances are you will recognise his art. Half a century after his death, the work of the talented British comic strip artist and illustrator is as well known, and as much loved, as it has ever been. Characters such…Continue Reading How Beano and Dandy artist Dudley D. Watkins made generations of comic fans roar with laughter
The perpetual evolution of a research project: Challenging Occupational Generalisations of the ‘Other’ in a Nineteenth-Century Welsh Industrial Community
Dissertations are the culmination of an exhilarating journey which invariably demands days lost to fascinating yet redundant research, but which is also rich with discovery and presents fresh perspectives of the world we thought we knew. This construction of history as we know it became central to my research. How have we interpreted our past,…Continue Reading The perpetual evolution of a research project: Challenging Occupational Generalisations of the ‘Other’ in a Nineteenth-Century Welsh Industrial Community
An Introduction to the French and Indian War (1754-60)
The French and Indian War (1754-1760) was the last of the intermittent colonial conflicts that had erupted between Britain, France, their respective North American colonies and Native American allies during the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Unlike the conflicts that had preceded it, the French and Indian War proved decisive, resulting in the conquest of…Continue Reading An Introduction to the French and Indian War (1754-60)
Contested Histories: Creating and Critiquing public monuments and memorials in a new age of iconoclasm
Conflict, Reconstruction and Memory (CRAM) research group. 28-29 June 2021 This workshop will explore debates surrounding the cultural and political uses of monuments, reflecting upon their role in the memorialisation and imagining of the past. It considers artefacts such as war memorials, cenotaphs and public statuary as well as urban sites damaged through war, or…Continue Reading Contested Histories: Creating and Critiquing public monuments and memorials in a new age of iconoclasm
Riots and toxic heritage
On 20 May 2021, a vigil for a young man who had recently died turned into an hours-long riot in Mayhill, Swansea. The widespread shock and dismay that followed showed both a determination to do something about their causes and to punish the offenders. There were arguments over the perpetrators deserved help or condemnation. Whether…Continue Reading Riots and toxic heritage
Attitudes to Death and Dying During the Reformation
The Reformation had a great impact on many aspects of daily life and lived religion. It proposed to alter a system of rituals and worship that had evolved over centuries and which promised to ensure a better future in the afterlife; the Reformation denied established culture and brought the fate of many souls into jeopardy…Continue Reading Attitudes to Death and Dying During the Reformation
The Welsh and Empire: Early Reflections on India
The persistent legacies of colonial domination have become a flashpoint in recent years. On the one hand, movements like Black Lives Matter and Rhodes Must Fall have provided a platform through which we can analyse how structural hangovers from imperialism continue to impact on the lives of underrepresented groups. On the other, that observation alone…Continue Reading The Welsh and Empire: Early Reflections on India
The Swansea-Mannheim City Partnership and the 1985 Mannheim Monument in Swansea’s Maritime Quarter
One of Swansea’s least well-known monuments stands in the city’s Maritime Quarter. Formerly the site of the docks that facilitated much of the industrial activity upon which Swansea thrived in the nineteenth century and first half of the twentieth, this quarter was redeveloped into a residential district in the 1970s and 80s. In the part…Continue Reading The Swansea-Mannheim City Partnership and the 1985 Mannheim Monument in Swansea’s Maritime Quarter