Evan T. Jones introduces the new edited volume, The World of the Newport Medieval Ship: Trade, Politics and Shipping in the Mid-Fifteenth Century. Ships have always played a prominent role in the popular imagination, and not just of seafaring communities. From the Ancient world to modern times, ships were the largest, most expensive and most
Lisa Lewis introduces Performing Wales: People: Memory and Place. Performing Wales: People, Memory and Place, begins from the premise that culture can be analysed in terms of performance, and focuses on four distinct areas of Welsh culture – Museum, Heritage, Festival and Theatre – in which performance helps to sustain specific relationships between people, memory
Patrick B. Sharp introduces Darwinian Feminism and Early Science Fiction: Angels, Amazons, and Women. Despite all the work that has been done on women’s SF over the past two decades, I still hear people at conferences state with confidence that women didn’t publish – or were excluded from publishing – in SF magazines before the Second World
On the fiftieth anniversary of May ’68, Chris Reynolds introduces his book Memories of May ’68: France’s Convenient Consensus. The commemorative fervour currently sweeping France on the topic of mai 68 is further confirmation of the thesis set out in Memories of May ’68: France’s Convenient Consensus. In it, I outline and analyse the role the
Laura Wainwright introduces her new book, New Territories in Modernism: Anglophone Welsh Writing, 1930-1949. In the early decades of the twentieth century, Modernist writers and artists sought to represent and respond to the modern world in myriad experimental and ground-breaking ways. In recent years, Modernist studies have opened up as critics have increasingly looked beyond the
Russell Davies introduces his new book, Sex, Sects and Society: ‘Pain and Pleasure’: A Social History of Wales and the Welsh, 1870-1945 Despite the hardship and hardscrabble existences endured by many, over the period 1870–1945 the life expectancy of the Welsh people doubled. The fact that death had lost the frightening immanency, which it had in
Rhianon Washington introduces The Mentor’s Companion: A Guide to Good Mentoring Practice. ‘I am here for you, I believe in you, I will not let you fail. You have the power.’ [1] Pascarelli’s powerful tenet was one of the earliest influences that inspired me to practise, study and research mentoring. I came to mentoring late, having
Emily Lyle introduces her new collection, Celtic Myth in the 21st Century: The Gods and their Stories in a Global Perspective. Antlered humans, dragons, princesses, one-eyed giants, enchanted islands, transformations, transcendent states: this is part of the stuff of Celtic myth explored in this book by experts in the field. The story-making is evident and, in
Patricia Skinner introduces her new collection, The Welsh and the Medieval World: Travel, Migration and Exile. The modern era has seen extensive studies of Welsh migration to all parts of the globe as well as immigration to Wales from Europe and beyond,[1] but these migrant histories have a long prehistory that is rather less well-known. Wales
The editors of Kant’s Doctrine of Right in the 21st Century introduce their new collection. For a long time, Kant’s Doctrine of Right languished in relative neglect, even among Kantians. The work was best known for its uncompromising views on punishment and revolution, and for a seemingly limited and not particularly original emphasis on private property. Kant’s more
For Women’s History Month, Manon Ceridwen James introduces her new book Women, Identity and Religion in Wales: Theology, Poetry, Story. Why did the women I worked with lack confidence? Why did I lack confidence? These were questions that intrigued me as I went about my work as a parish priest and diocesan officer within the Church
An advantage of working at a relatively small university is that most of one’s daily interactions are interdisciplinary. Some years ago, I was having lunch at the campus cafeteria with David Crawford, an economic anthropologist. Taking a break from the usual faculty pastime of griping about the administration, David asked me what I was working
