Cynhadledd Astudiaethau Cymreig / Postgraduate Conference in Welsh Studies

Gynhadledd Astudiaethau Cymreig

Postgraduate Conference in Welsh Studies

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 Loss and Dialect in Sheepshagger and Pigeon
3.00	Egwyl / break
3.30	Rhys Owens - A Welsh Vision of Empire? Welsh Imperialists and the Indian Empire
4.00	Aled Jones - 'Bullets, Bibles and Booze: How the Union Army Influenced the Americanisation of Welsh Cultural and National Identity during the American Civil War'.
4.30	David Cooke - The Development of Sport in 19th-Century Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire
5.00	Diodydd /Drinks

 

 

Mae Canolfan Richard Burton yn dod ag arbenigedd ac adnoddau at ei gilydd er mwyn hybu a meithrin ymchwil rhyngddisgyblaethol â ffocws Cymreig a Chymraeg ar draws Prifysgol Abertawe a thu hwnt.

 

The Richard Burton Centre for the Study of Wales brings together expertise and resources in Welsh studies located across Swansea University, encouraging interdisciplinary research of international quality.

 

Am fwy o wybodaeth ar y canolfan – for more information on the Centre

https://www.swansea.ac.uk/cultural-institute/richard-burton-centre/

 

 

Brittle with Relics: Kirsti Bohata interviews Richard King

 

 

Cyfres Salon Llenyddol y Sefydliad Diwylliannol Dydd Mercher 6ed Ebrill 12yp – 1yp Creu Taliesin, Campws Singleton ‘Brittle with Relics’   Ar y cyd â Canolfan Astudiaethau Cymreig Richard Burton   Fel rhan o Gyfres Salonau Llenyddol, bydd Richard King yn sgwrsio â Kirsti Bohata, Athro Llenyddiaeth Saesneg a Chyfarwyddwr CREW (y Ganolfan Ymchwil i Lên ac Iaith Saesneg Cymru) ym Mhrifysgol Abertawe.   Llyfr sy'n torri tir newydd am hanes pobl Cymru yn ystod cyfnod o newid cenedlaethol mawr.   Yn ystod traean olaf yr ugeinfed ganrif, profodd Cymru effeithiau dad-ddiwydiannu, colli cyflogaeth a chydlyniad cymunedol yn sgil hyn, a brwydr am ei hiaith a'i hunaniaeth, i gyd ar yr un pryd. I raddau helaeth, gorfodwyd y newidiadau hyn ar y wlad a bu'n rhaid i'w llais ei hun, na cheir cytundeb yn ei gylch braidd byth o fewn ei ffiniau, frwydro i gael ei glywed y tu allan i Gymru.   Mae Brittle with Relics yn adrodd hanes pobl Cymru wrth iddynt fynd drwy rai o ddigwyddiadau mwyaf seismig a thrawmatig y wlad: trychinebau Aberfan a Thryweryn; twf mudiad yr iaith Gymraeg; Streic y Glowyr a'i sgil-effeithiau; a'r bleidlais o drwch blewyn o blaid datganoli rhannol.   Gan gynnwys lleisiau Neil Kinnock, Rowan Williams, Leanne Wood, Gruff Rhys, Michael Sheen, Nicky Wire, Siân James, ymgyrchwyr dros y Gymraeg, aelodau'r hen gymunedau glo a llawer mwy, dyma stori hollbwysig am genedl sy'n benderfynol o oroesi, gan goleddu'r gobaith y bydd Cymru, ryw ddydd, yn ffynnu ar ei thelerau ei hun.   Richard King yw awdur Original Rockers (a gafodd ei gynnwys ar restr fer Gwobr Gordon Burn ac ar restr Rough Trade, The Times ac Uncut o lyfrau'r flwyddyn), How Soon is Now? (Llyfr Cerddoriaeth y Flwyddyn The Sunday Times) a The Lark Ascending (Un o lyfrau'r flwyddyn Rough Trade, Mojo a'r Evening Standard, a llyfr rhestr fer Gwobr Penderyn) y cyhoeddwyd pob un ohonynt gan Faber & Faber. Cafodd ei eni i deulu dwyieithog yn ne Cymru a bu'n byw yng nghefn gwlad Powys am yr 20 mlynedd diwethaf.   COFRESTWRCH YMA:  bit.ly/brittlewithrelics

Cultural Institute Literary Salon Series   Wednesday 6th April 12pm – 1pm Taliesin Create, Singleton Campus ‘Brittle with Relics’   In association with Richard Burton Centre for the Study of Wales   As part of the Literary Salon Series, Richard King will be in conversation with Kirsti Bohata, Professor of English Literature and Director of CREW (Centre for Research into the English Literature and Language of Wales) at Swansea University.   A landmark history of the people of Wales during a period of great national change.   In the closing third of the twentieth century, Wales experienced the simultaneous effects of deindustrialisation, the subsequent loss of employment and community cohesion, and the struggle for its language and identity. These changes were largely forced upon the country, whose own voice, rarely agreed upon within its borders, had to fight to be heard outside of Wales.   Brittle with Relics is a history of the people of Wales undergoing some of the country's most seismic and traumatic events: the disasters of Aberfan and Tryweryn; the rise of the Welsh language movement; the Miners' Strike and its aftermath; and the narrow vote in favour of partial devolution.   Featuring the voices of Neil Kinnock, Rowan Williams, Leanne Wood, Gruff Rhys, Michael Sheen, Nicky Wire, Sian James, Welsh language activists, members of former mining communities and many more, this is a vital history of a nation determined to survive, while maintaining the hope that Wales will one day thrive on its own terms.   Richard King is the author of Original Rockers (shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and a Rough Trade, The Times and Uncut Book of the Year), How Soon Is Now? (the Sunday Times Music Book of the Year) and The Lark Ascending (a Rough Trade, Mojo and Evening Standard Book of the Year, shortlisted for the Penderyn Prize), all published by Faber & Faber. He was born into a bilingual family in South Wales and for the last twenty years has lived in the rural county of Powys, in mid-Wales.     REGISTER HERE: bit.ly/brittlewithrelics

Upcoming Event (7/11/2021): Culture is Ordinary | Film Financed by the Raymond Williams Foundation

Wales Millenium Centre, Weston Studio, Sunday 7 November, 7pm - 7.30pm (FREE): Join us for the film premier of Culture is Ordinary, a piece created to mark the centenary of the birth of the Welsh writer and thinker Raymond Williams. Financed by the Raymond Williams Foundation, the 20 minute film focuses on the way culture is interpreted by young people in Wales. Directed by Colin Thomas and created by Cardiff-based artist Tom Goddard with new music by Cardiff musician Kiddus Murrell, currently working at Tŷ Cerdd. 

Link: https://www.wmc.org.uk/en/festival-of-voice/2021-artist-line-up/sundays-free-performances

Raymond Williams in Asia / Raymond Williams yn Asia

The next two symposia in the ‘Raymond Williams in the Age of Globalisation’ series are dedicated to Japan (October 22) and China (October 27) respectively. 

Full details of speakers, paper and registration links are on the website:

https://www.swansea.ac.uk/crew/raymond-williams/the-centenary-symposia/

----------------------------------------------

Ar ddydd Gwener Hydref 22 mi fyddwn yn trafod gwaith Raymond Williams gyda myfyrwyr ac ysgolheigion o Siapan. Fel y mae blogiadau blaenorol yn tystio, dyma berthynas hynod gyfoethog a gychwynnodd gyda ymweliad Shintaro Kono a Takashi Onuki yn 2009. Yna ar Hydref 27 mi fydd ysgolheigion o Tseina yn ymuno gyda ni.

Manylion llawn ar y wefan: 

https://www.swansea.ac.uk/cy/celfyddydauardyniaethau/ymchwil-y-celfyddydau-ar-dyniaethau/canolfannau-a-grwpiau-ymchwil-celfyddydau-a-dynoliaethau/crew/raymond-williams/cynadleddaur-canmlwyddiant/

Raymond Williams Symposium in China

Dr Zhou Mingying (who has been a Richard Burton Fellow working on the Raymond Williams papers at Swansea University) has written a report on a Raymond Williams that took place at Shaanxi Normal University. Some of those involved with speak at the Raymond Williams in China symposium on October 27th. 

Retrospection and Transcendence: Raymond Williams Centenary and Travel of Cultural Studies 

The Symposium was jointly hosted by Center for the Research of Literary and Cultural Theory of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Journal of Theory and Criticism of Literature and Art and School of Chinese Language and Literature of Shaanxi Normal University. Around 35 scholars from many famous Chinese universities and research institutes attended the gathering on the campus of Shaanxi Normal University, Xi’an. They shared their studies on Raymond Williams from their distinct points of view to commemorate this prestigious Western Marxist together.

The symposium began at 9:00, 25th of September. Professor Su Zhongle ,Dean of School of Chinese Language and Literature, Shaanxi Normal Univeristy, Professor Cheng Wei, Dean of Institute of Foreign Literature, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and Professor Lu Taiguang, Deputy Director of Institute of Marxist Literary Theory, Chinese National Academy of Arts, gave their respective speech in the opening ceremony. Dean Su reviewed Raymond Williams’ important position in  Marxist history as well as in literary history, especially Williams Leftist stance in the domain of cultural studies that promoted the popular culture of the ordinary people. Director Cheng talked about the changing historical subjects of Marxists in the different historical contexts, and then warned against “the unconscious” embedded in the texts when studying western scholars. Whereas, Director Lu made an introspection of the studies in humanities and social sciences in China and made a positive view about the symposium in Raymond Williams studies as well as Western Marxist studies in China. The symposium comprised five sessions, with each session focusing on different topics, ranging from the discussions on the concept of “community” and “structure of feelings”, to the translation and introduction of Williams’ works in China, and even to the textual analysis of Williams’ fiction. In the closing ceremony, Prof. Xu Delin, on behalf of Center for the Research of Literature and Theory, Chinese Academy of Social Science, expressed deep gratitude to Dean Su Zhongle for hosting such a meaningful and memorable symposium and to the scholars from different parts of China for attending the academic gathering despite the covid-19 pandemic. Prof. Xu further pointed out that the British Marxists since 1970’s were worth our attention and the current China also needed such neo-Marxists like Raymond Williams.

Raymond Williams Symposium1

Centenary Symposia  https://www.swansea.ac.uk/cy/celfyddydauardyniaethau/ymchwil-y-celfyddydau-ar-dyniaethau/canolfannau-a-grwpiau-ymchwil-celfyddydau-a-dynoliaethau/crew/raymond-williams/cynadleddaur-canmlwyddiant/                                                               

Symposia’r Canmlwyddiant  https://www.swansea.ac.uk/crew/raymond-williams/the-centenary-symposia/

Raymond Williams in an Age of Globalisation.
Raymond Williams yng nghyfnod Globaleiddio

Symposium 1: Raymond Williams in Europe
Symposiwm 1: Raymond Williams yn Ewrop

Wednesday, September 29, 2021 

Dydd Mercher, Medi 29, 2021

Attendee Registration:
https://swanseauniversity.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_-ucEu3G1Ti2TUZwE88YRug

See Website for abstract, speaker bios etc:
https://www.swansea.ac.uk/crew/raymond-williams/

10.00 Opening the Centenary Symposia. 

Daniel Williams introduces Merryn Williams (Raymond Williams’s daughter) who will launch the Centenary Symposia. 

10.30 – 11.30

Phoebe Braithwaite, Harvard University

Raymond Williams and Stuart Hall 

Julian Preece, Swansea University 

Raymond Williams and Elias Canetti

11.30 – 11.45 Break. 

11.45 - 12.45 

Rhian Jones, Red Pepper Magazine.

Raymond Williams and the Break-up of Britain

Kirsti Bohata, Swansea University 

Williams and Environmentalism

12.45 – 1.15. Lunch Break

1.15 – 1.45 

Harald Pittel, University of Potsdam

Feelings without Structure: A Cultural Materialist View of Populism and Affective Politics.

1.45 - 2.30  

From the German New Left to Ethnic Modernism 

Werner Sollors, Harvard University in discussion with Daniel G. Williams 

2.30 Close. 

Evening Event 6 – 7.30

A Creative Response to Raymond Williams as Psycho-Geographer

Separate Attendee Registration: https://swanseauniversity.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_bF_-iWdZS96o0iereFIQVA

A Creative Response to Raymond Williams as Psycho-Geographer

Creative Evening Event. 6pm. Wednesday. September 29

Digwyddiad Creadigol. 6pm. Dydd Mercher. Medi 29.

In this presentation we consider how place and time were significant to Raymond Williams. In particular, Aled Singleton and Jon Gower pick elements of Border Country to explore how the structure of feeling concept is applied to capture the specificity of everyday life.

Performance artist Marega Palser gives short responses to a dialogue between Jon and Aled. We hope that the event inspires people to consider walking and site-specific performance as a means for future creative research.

3-minute film of the collaboration between Aled, Jon and Marega in 2019 https://vimeo.com/373090583

Aled Singleton is interested in psychgeography, walking, and using creative ways to explore emotional attachments to place. He has a professional background managing community and urban regeneration projects (2006-18) including community asset transfers, landscape architecture, events, and local economic development. Aled is now starting an ESRC Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in human geography at Swansea University, focusing on the post-war environment: a time of industrial renewal, increased private motor vehicles and semi-detached suburban living. 

Marega Palser  is a performance based artist living in Newport, South Wales. She originally studied at the London School of Contemporary Dance, and after graduating in 1985 went on to work with various theatre companies, as well as being a founder member of the dance theatre group Paradox Shuffle who were based in Cardiff. Since 2001 she has worked with Gareth Clark as one half of the performance duo Mr & Mrs Clark.

She has collaborated with many artists and musicians and has performed and made work for Gallery spaces and for outdoor events both in this country and abroad. In 1994 she went to Japan to study and work with Butoh dancer Tetsuro Fukuhara.

In 2008 she completed a BA Honours in Fine Art at Howard Gardens (UWIC) in Cardiff, and a year later received a Creative Wales Award to develop her art and performance practice.

Jon Gower is a prize-winning author with over thirty books to his name. These include The Story of Wales, which accompanied the landmark BBC TV series and Y Storïwr, which won the Wales Book of the Year.  His volume An Island Called Smith, about a disappearing island in Chesapeake Bay was awarded the John Morgan Travel Writing Prize. Recent publications include studies of the radical film-maker Karl Francis and the visual artist John Selway as well as Gwalia Patagonia, being an account of the Welsh settlement in Patagonia and Wales: At Water’s Edge about the country’s coastal path. Jon has also published five novels and five collections of short stories.  He was an inaugural Hay Festival International Fellow and has been awarded an Arts Council of Wales Prize, a Creative Wales award and won both The National Eisteddfod Short Story Prize and the Allen Raine Short Story Competition.

Raymond Williams Centenary Conference: University of Hyderabad

 

CREW's Daniel Williams be delivering the 'Closing Plenary' at this international conference held on the Centenary of Raymond Williams's birth.  

 

Paulo Freire and Raymond Williams at 100 / Conference organised by UNICAMP, Brazil

COLÓQUIO INTERNACIONAL CENTELHAS DE TRANSFORMAÇÕES - PAULO FREIRE & RAYMOND WILLIAMS 

CONFERÊNCIA INTERNACIONAL DE ABERTURA

HOMENAGEM DA DIREÇÃO DA FE-UNICAMP A PAULO FREIRE

PAULO FREIRE AND RAYMOND WILLIAMS CENTENARY - SPARKS OF TRANSFORMATION

OPENING INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE  

HOMAGE FROM UNICAMP’S FACULTY OF EDUCATION TO PAULO FREIRE

 

CENTENÁRIO PAULO FREIRE

Profa. Dra. Luiza Cortesão (Univ. do Porto e Instituto Paulo Freire de Portugal)  

Profa. Dra. Débora Mazza (FE – Unicamp)

 

DIÁLOGOS INTERNACIONAIS - PAULO FREIRE & RAYMOND WILLIAMS

 

CONFERÊNCIA INTERNACIONAL - CENTENÁRIO RAYMOND WILLIAMS

Profa. Dra. Maria Elisa Cevasco (USP)

Prof. Dr. Daniel Williams (Swansea University – País de Gales)

 

CONFERÊNCIA INTERNACIONAL - DIÁLOGOS COM PAULO FREIRE & RAYMOND WILLIAMS

Prof. Dr. Hywel Dix (Bournemouth University - Londres)

 

Inscrição gratuita

Carga horária: 8 horas

Limite: 400 inscrições

Para ter direito ao certificado de participação, é necessário se inscrever e atestar frequência na lista do evento.

 

Programação

Mesa 1: 9h00 às 11h30 – Conferência Internacional de Abertura - Centenário do Paulo Freire 

Homenagem da Direção da Faculdade de Educação - Unicamp
Luiza Cortesão (Universidade do Porto - Portugal)
Débora Mazza (Unicamp)
Mediadora: Nima I. Spigolon (Unicamp)

Mesa 2: 12h30 às 15h00 – Conferência Internacional: Centenário de Raymond Williams

Maria Elisa Cevasco (USP - Brasil)
Daniel Williams (Swansea University - País de Gales)
Mediador: Alexandro Henrique Paixão (Unicamp)

Mesa 3: 15h30 às 18h00 – Diálogos com Paulo Freire & Raymond Williams: Brasil e Grã-Bretanha

Hywel Dix (Bournemouth University - Londres)
Mediadores: Alexandro Henrique Paixão (Unicamp), Débora Mazza (Unicamp) e Nima I. Spigolon (Unicamp)

 

 

 

PAULO FREIRE AND RAYMOND WILLIAMS CENTENARY - SPARKS OF TRANSFORMATION

OPENING INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE  
HOMAGE FROM UNICAMP’S FACULTY OF EDUCATION TO PAULO FREIRE

 

• PAULO FREIRE CENTENARY
Prof. Luiza Cortesão (University of Porto and Paulo Freire Institute of Portugal)
Prof. Débora Mazza (UNICAMP’s Faculty of Education – Brazil)

• INTERNATIONAL DIALOGUES - PAULO FREIRE & RAYMOND WILLIAMS

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE - RAYMOND WILLIAMS CENTENARY
Prof. Maria Elisa Cevasco (University of São Paulo - Brazil)
Prof. Daniel Williams (Swansea University - Wales)

INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
DIALOGUES WITH PAULO FREIRE & RAYMOND WILLIAMS
Prof. Hywel Dix (Bournemouth University - England)

Date of the event:
August 26, 2021 – 09:00 a.m. - 06 p.m.

Registration period:
From July 26 – 12 a.m.
To August 25, 2021 - 09:00 a.m.

Limit:
400 registrations

Link for FREE registration: https://www.sympla.com.br/coloquio-internacional-centelhas-de-transform…. (Please select "International Participants").

Duration of the event: 8 hours

To receive a certificate of participation, it is necessary to register and check attendance on the event's list.

 

Objective:
In 2021, Paulo Freire would be 100 years old and to commemorate this decisive event for the current scenario in education, both in and outside of Brazil, UNICAMP’s Faculty of Education will engage the generative word of life, education, criticism and freedom through international journeys about the author, throughout the second semester of 2021, starting with a round table, opening the celebrations in the morning of August 26 th.
In the same year, Raymond Williams, who was also an adult educator, in the UK, would have been 100 years old and, to celebrate this occasion, we will build an international dialogue between Paulo Freire and Raymond Williams, as centennial educators, through another round table on the same day, in the afternoon.

Target Audience: Professors; Undergraduate and Postgraduate students; Staff; Community.

Host: Direction of UNICAMP’s Faculty of Education

Organizing Committee: Alexandro Henrique Paixão, Débora Mazza, Nima Spigolon.

People in Charge:
Prof. Renê José Trentin Silveira (Faculty of Education - Unicamp)
Prof. Alexandro Henrique Paixão (Faculty of Education - Unicamp)

 

Schedule

Round Table #1: Opening International Conference - Paulo Freire's Centenary
09:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

- Homage from the Direction of UNICAMP’s Faculty of Education
- Luiza Cortesão (University of Porto - Portugal)
- Débora Mazza (UNICAMP - Brazil)
Mediator: Nima I. Spigolon

Round table #2: International Conference: Raymond Williams' Centenary
12:30 p.m – 03:00 p.m.

- Maria Elisa Cevasco (USP - Brazil)
- Daniel Williams (Swansea University - Wales)
Mediator: Alexandro Henrique Paixão

Round table #3: Dialogues with Paulo Freire & Raymond Williams: Brazil and Great Britain
03:30 p.m. – 06:00 p.m.
- Hywel Dix (Bournemouth University – England)
Mediators: Alexandro Henrique Paixão, Débora Mazza and Nima I. Spigolon

 

Realização:

• Direção da Faculdade de Educação/Unicamp

Apoio:

• Instituto Dialética

Comissão organizadora:

• Alexandro Henrique Paixão (Unicamp)
• Débora Mazza (Unicamp)
• Nima Spigolon (Unicamp)

Responsável:

• Prof. Dr. Renê José Trentin Silveira (FE/Unicamp)
• Prof. Dr. Alexandro Henrique Paixão (FE/Unicamp)

Emyr Humphreys Centenary at CREW, Swansea University

Here are some highlights and pictures from the Emyr Humphreys Centenary symposium and public lecture organised by CREW at Swansea on 13 April 2019.

We were very lucky to have photographer Bernard Mitchell in attendance and most of the pictures here are taken by him.  

 

 

Twitter #EmyrHumphreys100 captured a flavour of the discussions of Humphreys' literary legacy and his place in ongoing academic debate, a few of which are embedded here.

The Deputy Minister for Culture, Lord Dafydd Elis-Thomas, opened the day with personal reflections on the national and international significance of Emyr Humphreys.

.@wgdep_culture reflects on the influence of Emyr Humphreys on his own cultural development.

Humphreys was producer of the Y Ddrama yn Ewrop radio series, which led to the translations of Beckett that @Rhianeddjewell considered in our lecture earlier this week!@CREWswanuni pic.twitter.com/cCYOsCsePt

— The Learned Society of Wales (@LSWalesCDdCymru) 13 April 2019

Meanwhile some on Twitter were more interested in the stylish socks.

Personal reflections on the importance of Emyr Humphreys by the Minister for Culture @SwanseaUni pic.twitter.com/GEpPTQo7AI

— CREW Swansea Uni (@CREWswanuni) 13 April 2019

M. Wynn Thomas delivers a powerful and moving paper on the ‘nonconformist consciousness’ of #EmyrHumphreys and #MarilynRobinson. #Gilead and #OutsideTheHouseOfBaal #Emyr100 pic.twitter.com/JRRaiYYunH

— Daniel G. Williams (@DanielGwydion) 13 April 2019

Three greats on one stage. #EmyrHumphreys @CREWswanuni pic.twitter.com/M5vsWVMGwU

— Michelle J Deininger (@dr_deininger) 13 April 2019

@dr_deininger on Emyr Humphreys’ “eco feminism”, environmentalism and the short story pic.twitter.com/X62wPiMhEA

— CREW Swansea Uni (@CREWswanuni) 13 April 2019

Humphreys as critic of the civic. His Non-conformity not messianic universalism, much closer to the Jewish particularism of the early church as explored by W. D. Davies. The Welsh-Jewish analogy explored by @JasmineDonahaye characteristic of Humphreys’ fiction. 3 prophets look on pic.twitter.com/kofgVs8063

— Daniel G. Williams (@DanielGwydion) 13 April 2019

@andywebbtweets a @ej_shepley yn trafod storiau byrion y 2000au. Storiau hwyr Humphreys yn trin themau cyson ei waith, ond o safbwynt henaint. Ewrop yn fygythiad ac yn ffynhonnell gobaith yn ôl Webb. #EmyrHumphreys100 pic.twitter.com/vnVXJQthLz

— Daniel G. Williams (@DanielGwydion) 13 April 2019

@ej_shepley on the gendering of old age, Emyr Humphreys and “Reifungsroman” (novel of ripening) and EH’s late style. #EmyrHumphreys100 pic.twitter.com/sr14iibfHR

— CREW Swansea Uni (@CREWswanuni) 13 April 2019

We managed to over-run a little what with me getting carried away with parallels between Tristan Hughes' Revenant and Emyr Humphreys' Toy Epic and a heated debate amongst the audience about whether Humphreys' writing can be described as Faulknerian.  Faulkner was certainly important to the development of both Humphreys and Hughes.

@tristankhughes closes the conference @CREWswanuni @SU_EngLit_CW in conversation with organiser @kbohata . A novelist of Ynys Môn, never told about Humphreys. Revalation of discovering the work later in life. Faulknerian resonances of Welsh place. #EmyrHumphreys100 pic.twitter.com/p73Gbx13gJ

— Daniel G. Williams (@DanielGwydion) 13 April 2019

And to finish the day we decamped to Cinema & Co, for a moving talk by Candida Clark.  There was indeed wine - and futons!

We're in a cinema for the public lecture rounding off today's symposium. It has FUTONS! AND WINE! WOOHOO! #EmyrHumphreys100 @kbohata @CREWswanuni pic.twitter.com/EUq9TccY3w

— Michelle J Deininger (@dr_deininger) 13 April 2019

#CandidaClark is doing a wonderful talk & being honest about talking about someone as accomplished as EH #EmyrHumphreys100 pic.twitter.com/H2fuYOwGEs

— Michelle J Deininger (@dr_deininger) 13 April 2019

#EmyrHumphreys100 ends at the great Cinema and Co, Swansea. Candida Clark yn traddodi darlith Emyr Humphreys / delivers the Emyr Humphreys lecture. Recalls EH at 99 quoting Dante - in the original!

Llongyfarchiadau Prof  @kbohata on a great day! pic.twitter.com/T2q5RoFGZ7

— Daniel G. Williams (@DanielGwydion) 13 April 2019

We are very grateful to UWP who created a stupendous display of their Humphreys titles, coped with running upstairs to get a signal their card reader and still managed to sell loads of books.

We’re all ready to go at the Emyr Humphreys Centenary Symposium. Make the most of our discounted titles today! pic.twitter.com/lKJRqW6jap

— Uni of Wales Press (@UniWalesPress) April 13, 2019

Abstracts: Bonds of Attachment: Emyr Humphreys at 100

Professor M. Wynn Thomas

'Soul-searches: Marilynne Robinson's Gilead and Emyr Humphreys's Outside the House of Baal.' (The Saunders Lewis Memorial Lecture)

Abstract:  Marilynne Robinson is one of the most eminent novelists of contemporary America, and was honoured by President Obama with an invitation during his term in office to conduct a public conversation with him at the White House. Her key fiction has been firmly underpinned by her strong moral principles and religious faith, and in this respect it invites comparison with the resonant fiction of Emyr Humphreys.

Biography: M. Wynn Thomas FBA FLSW OBE is Professor of English and holder of the Emyr Humphreys Chair of Welsh Writing in English at Swansea University. He is the author of over twenty books and his most recent book is a new study of Emyr Humphreys (2018). The record of his thirty-year close friendship with Emyr Humphreys will be preserved in the Emyr Humphreys Archive at Swansea University being formally launched at this symposium.

Dr Michelle Deininger 

Emyr Humphreys’ Short Fictions: Landscapes, Communities, Contexts

Abstract:  Emyr Humpreys’ short fictions span his entire career, from Natives (1968) to The Woman at the Window (2009). As Linden Peach notes in The Fiction of Emyr Humphreys (2011), stories in Natives explore ‘changes which are taking place at a local, community level [that] are analogous to larger dilemmas within Wales in the middle of the twentieth century’. This paper will examine the ways in which communities, and the landscapes they reside in, are constructed in Humphreys’ fictions, exploring changes and continuities between the earlier stories and those published more recently. It will pay particular attention to the way industrial landscapes are depicted, from motorway link roads to ‘desolate docklands’ and how these kinds of images speak to wider environmental concerns. Finally, this paper will make connections with other Welsh short story writers who critique industrialisation and its impact on communities and environments, such as Elizabeth Baines, contextualising Humpreys’ work in a wider tradition of short story writing and its potential for political and cultural change.

Biography: Dr Michelle Deininger is Co-ordinating Lecturer in Humanities in the division of Continuing and Professional Education at Cardiff University. She manages the broader adult education humanities provision as well as co-ordinating several open access Pathways to a Degree programmes in English, Creative Writing, Philosophy and Media. She is currently co-writing a book with Dr Claire Flay-Petty (Bridgend College) entitled Scholarship and Sisterhood: Women, Writing and Higher Education for UWP.

Professor Daniel G Williams

 What’s Wrong with Ancestor Worship? Emyr Humphreys in the 1970s

Abstract: The 1970s in Wales witnessed successful strikes by miners in 1972 and 1974, and considerable vitality in Welsh language culture as manifested in politics and in popular music. Yet much of the decade’s writing dwells on themes of loss, despair and melancholia. The fact that a remarkably vibrant decade in politics, sport and culture gives rise to a literature of nostalgia, loss and grief needs explaining. Was the debacle of the 1979 referendum foreseen in the decade’s novels? This is a question that I will try to address with reference to Emyr Humphreys’ writings.  

Biography: Daniel G. Williams is Professor of English and Director of the Richard Burton Centre for the Study of Wales at Swansea University. His latest book is Wales Unchained: Literature. Politics and Identity in the American Century (2015).

Dr Elinor Shepley

‘There was always an unspecified goal. It has turned out to be old age’: Ageing in Emyr Humphreys’s novels and short stories

Abstract: Emyr Humphreys has attended to experiences of and attitudes towards ageing in his writing for much of his literary career. One might read the proliferation of older characters to be found in Humphreys’s oeuvre as reflecting the demographic shifts at play in our society since the early twentieth century. Critics have also argued that literary texts are particularly appropriate for rendering the complexities of aged experience and Humphreys’s ability to reveal human frailties and failings with a combination of cutting insight, humour and benevolence is certainly suited to exploring the intricacies of growing older. Studies of novels and short stories about ageing often reveal a concern with the trajectories of older protagonists’ lives. Traditional conceptions of later life characterised by degeneration and loss have been designated ‘decline narratives’ and are usually viewed as problematic due to their involvement in the propagation of ageist attitudes and limiting expectations of later life. Critics have also explored intersections between age and gender and the concept of ‘late style’ – described by Edward Said as ‘a sort of deliberately unproductive productiveness’ – has been applied to the late works of a number of creative writers. This paper will consider a selection of Humphreys’s fictional works with reference to recent critical perspectives on age and ageing in literature.

Biography: Elinor Shepley recently completed a PhD at Cardiff University. Her thesis examines the representation of ageing in modern and contemporary Welsh fiction in English. Elinor wrote her Masters dissertation on old age in Emyr Humphreys’s fiction, a section of which was published in Almanac: The Yearbook of Welsh Writing in English. She currently works for the Institute of Welsh Affairs.

Dr Andy Webb

Twenty-First Century Humphreys

Abstract: This paper explores Humphreys most recent publications and the representation of Wales in Europe. 

Biography: Andy Webb is a Senior Lecturer in English Literature at Bangor University and the author of Edward Thomas and World Literary Studies

Dr Tristan Hughes

In conversation

Abstract: Hughes explores the contours of his own and Emyr Humphreys' writing in conversation with Kirsti Bohata.

Biography: Tristan Hughes was born in Atikokan in northern Ontario and brought up on the Welsh island of Anglesey.  He is the author of four novels, Send My Cold Bones Home, Revenant, Eye Lake and Hummingbird - which won the Edward Stanford Award for Fiction with a Sense of Place and the Wales Book of the Year People's Choice Prize - as well as a collection of linked short stories, The Tower.  His short fiction has appeared in various journals, including Ploughshares, The Southern Review, and New Welsh Review.  He is a winner of the Rhys Davies short story prize and the recipient of an O. Henry Award.  He currently teaches creative writing at Cardiff University.