Breakthrough 2013 (PDF) - Swansea University

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College of Arts and Humanities ]
Recent and Forthcoming Publications:
A representative selection of the diverse publications produced across the College of Arts and Humanities is given below.
Senior Lecturer, Dr John Goodby from the
Wales Since 1939 (2012) was published by
Published by Palgrave Macmillan (New York)
Department of English Language and Literature
Manchester University Press and written by
in 2012, Baader-Meinhof and the Novel:
has won an award to complete a new edition
leading historian, Dr Martin Johnes, Head of
Narratives of the Nation / Fantasies of the
of the collected poems of Dylan Thomas for
History and Classics. It is the first major survey
Revolution, 1970-2010 was written by
publication in 2014, the centenary of
of Wales in this period and has a particular
Professor of German, Julian Preece. The Red
Thomas’s birth. The Prestigious AHRC
emphasis on social history and national
Army Faction or the Baader-Meinhof Group
Fellowship, worth £86,000, will enable Dr
identity. This highly readable work will be a
(1970-1998) has been the subject of a very
Goodby to visit holdings of Dylan Thomas
core text on many programmes of study, but it
large number of German and international
manuscripts in US university libraries at
also offers a complete, objective and modern
novels, from serious literary fiction to
Buffalo, N.Y. and Austin, Texas, among other
survey of Wales that is interesting to the
bestselling thrillers. Through an analysis of
locations. Dr Goodby, an international expert
cultural historian and anyone wanting to find
plot lines, recurrent character types, narrative
on the poet, is also publishing the first
out more about the development of Wales in
disavowals and omissions, and adaptations
full-length study of Thomas’s poetry to appear
recent times.
of national classics, Professor Preece’s study
since the 1960s. The Poetry of Dylan Thomas:
Under the Spelling Wall will be published in
Spring 2013 with Liverpool University Press.
Both works aim to re-interpret Dylan Thomas
in an early 21st-century context.
The Philosophy of Software: Code and
Mediation in the Digital Age (2011) published
by Palgrave Macmillan is written by Senior
Lecturer in Digital Media, Dr David M Berry.
Publishing widely since he joined the College,
Dr Berry’s research covers a broad theoretical
Oxford University Press has published
Professor Michael Franklin’s book ‘Orientalist
Jones’: Sir William Jones, Poet, Lawyer, and
Linguist, 1746-1794. (2011). Professor Franklin,
from the Department of English Language and
Literature, conducted extensive archival
research to reveal new insights into this radical
intellectual. Unpublished poems and new
letters shed fresh light upon Jones in rare
moments of relaxation and Professor Franklin’s
research of the legal documents in the courts
reveals an unease at the heart of the
democratic settlement in the Federal
Republic. Baader-Meinhof and the Novel
sheds new light on the emotional character
of post-war Germany, its troubled
relationship with its own past and the
authority of the state. It is the first book to
examine this rich literary corpus, treating it as
a political unconscious which expresses
submerged anxieties and moral blind-spots in
Europe’s most powerful country.
area problematising questions raised by the
of the King’s Bench, the Carmarthen circuit,
Together with Alan D Schrift (Grinnell
computational, from software studies to “the
and the Supreme Court of Bengal illustrates
College), Professor of German Duncan Large
computational turn” in Arts & Humanities and
Social Sciences (e.g. Digital Humanities); he is
a noted expert in his field.
Cambridge University Press has published
Dr Krijn Peters’ book, War and the Crisis
of Youth in Sierra Leone (2011). Based on
extensive fieldwork periods during and just
after the war, the text includes numerous
interview extracts with young and under-age
combatants, and a discussion on the so-called
‘crisis of youth’ which currently manifests itself
in Sierra Leone as well as other African
countries. The book is chosen for an
honourable mention in the category of best
book published on African politics in 2011 by
the African Politics Conference Group
(APCG). Dr Peters’ current research focuses on
armed conflict and post-war reconstruction in
Africa and drug trafficking in West Africa. He
has previously provided consultancy services
for a number of international organisations
including the World Bank and the Institute for
Security Studies.
Jones’ passion for social justice, his legal
acumen, and his principled independence.
Dr David Turner from the Department of
History and Classics has won the Disability
History Association’s Outstanding Publication
Award 2012 for his book, Disability in
Eighteenth-Century England: Imagining
Physical Impairment (Routledge, 2012). The
prize is awarded to the best book published
worldwide in English between 2010 and
2012 on any aspect of disability history. The
research for Dr Turner’s book was funded by
a prestigious AHRC Fellowship and adds to
Swansea University’s growing reputation as
a centre of international excellence in
disability history. It also follows the award in
2011 of a grant of almost £1million from the
Wellcome Trust for a research project on
‘Disability and Industrial Society: A
Comparative Cultural History of British
Coalfields 1780-1948’ led by Professor
Anne Borsay (Human and Health Sciences)
and Dr Turner, which involves collaboration
has taken over the General Editorship of The
Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche,
published by Stanford University Press. This is
the first English edition to include the fragments
and variants from Nietzsche’s notebooks.
One volume appeared in 2012, another is in
press, and a total of 19 volumes will appear
by the end of the decade.
The surviving diaries of Richard Burton, dating
from 1939 until shortly before his death in
1984, were donated to Swansea University
by his wife Sally Burton and now form part of
The Richard Burton Archives. Historian
Professor Chris Williams, Director of RIAH,
was invited to edit the diaries and the volume
has just been published by Yale University
Press (2012). It presents in their entirety the
surviving diaries, which cover his career and
the years of his celebrated marriages to
Elizabeth Taylor. Diary entries appear in their
original sequence, with annotations to clarify
the people, places, books, and events
Burton mentions.
The Postgraduate Research Community
Academic and professional development is an integral part of the
student experience in the College and its importance has been
recognised by the development of a Graduate Centre within the
Research Institute for Arts and Humanities (RIAH). The Graduate Centre
offers a vibrant and supportive environment for students pursuing
postgraduate research and taught masters study.
Postgraduates in the College have access to state-of-the-art facilities,
opportunities to attend postgraduate training, to enhance academic
and professional development, and the chance to participate in
seminar programmes, workshops and international conferences. All
postgraduate students enrolled in an Arts and Humanities subject have
access to an allowance for conference participation and research trips.
RIAH has recently awarded a number of College-funded masters and
PhD studentships and a further seven were sponsored by the Arts and
Humanities Research Council (AHRC). Some of the projects to which
the students will be attached, such as a project linked to Port Talbot
and its steelworkers, focus on Wales and have a high-level of public
engagement, while other studentships offer professional skills and
are designed to meet the needs of the employment market.
The Graduate Centre works with international heritage organisations
to offer students a range of internships and knowledge exchange
placements. For example, an AHRC-funded, heritage-themed
programme of workshops and master classes runs in collaboration
with a number of high-profile heritage organisations, including the
National Waterfront Museum, Blaenavon World Heritage Site
and the Glamorgan-Gwent Archaeological Trust.
Funding has also been secured for an innovative ‘Heritage Apprentice
Programme’ modelled on the popular BBC TV series. The programme
will bring together research students from across the UK giving them the
opportunity to work on the Cu@Swansea project (see page 38).
There are further opportunities for students to engage with major
heritage projects, such as the South Asasif Conservation project in
Egypt, with extended internships at the site in summer 2013.
The College has also hosted a successful Erasmus Mundus MA in
Global Journalism with partners in Europe, the US and Australia, and
has many agreements with universities in North America, East and
South-East Asia, as well as across Europe involving student exchanges
and student placements. The Graduate Centre is developing joint PhD
programmes with European and international partners and the potential
for the development of professional doctorates is being explored.
with the Universities of Aberystwyth,
Strathclyde and Northumbria.
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