Dr Tomos Owen

Publication

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Research

The principal focus of my research to date has been on the literatures of Wales (in both languages).

I have published essays and chapters on topics including: animal life in the work of Ron Berry; the 'enigma of the date' in Dylan Thomas's birthday poems; Roald Dahl and the traces of industrial Wales; riots in Amy Dillwyn's The Rebecca Rioter; and London-Welsh literary culture. I have contributed notes, an afterword and a foreword to the Library of Wales editions of texts by Arthur Machen, W.H. Davies and Rhys Davies respectively.

I am currently writing a book on London-Welsh writing at the turn of the twentieth century; this is entitled London-Welsh Writing: Spectres, Tramps and Prodigal Sons and is under contract with University of Wales Press.

With Dr Daniel Hughes I am also working on a book on the poet, translator and critic Tony Conran; this is contracted for inclusion in University of Wales Press's Writers of Wales series. With Professor Helena Miguelez-Carbaillera (Bangor University) I am working on a book chapter considering the poetics of flooding in contemporary Welsh and Galician culture.

Beyond this and in the longer term I am preparing material for a book-length project considering Wales, writing and the end of the world.

Between 2019-22 I was co-editor of the International Journal of Welsh Writing in English, alongside Dr Neal Alexander (Aberystwyth University) and Professor Diana Wallace (University of South Wales).

I am also interested in new writing and edited two anthologies for Parthian: Nu: Fiction and Stuff (2009) and Nu 2: Memorable Firsts (2011). In 2019 was appointed to the Literature Wales Bursaries Panel, which awarded funding and mentoring to emerging and established writers in Wales.

My research interests are in the following areas:

• modern and contemporary literature and culture
• the literatures of Britain and Ireland
• the literatures of Wales (in both languages)
• the writing of the apocalypse
• eco-critical approaches to literature
• literature and the city
• mobility, itinerancy and modernity
• new writing

Teaching

At Cardiff I convene (or have recently convened) the following modules:

• SE2146 Critical Reading and Critical Writing (Year One)
• SE2619 Contemporary British Fictions (Year Two)
• SE2611 Apocalypse Then and Now (Year Three)
• SET284 The Open Road (MA)
• SET296 Research Methods and Communications I (MA)
• SET297 Research Methods and Communication II (MA)

In my career to date I have taught modules on a range of topics including: modernism; The Twentieth-Century Novel; contemporary literature; Welsh writing in English; American literature; Irish literature; Postcolonial Literature; crime fiction; critical and cultural theory; culture and the city.

Biography

I joined Cardiff University in 2017 from Bangor University, where I was a lecturer from 2013. I have also taught at Swansea University, Cardiff Metropolitan University and the University of South Wales.

During my time at Bangor University I was founding co-director of the pioneering MA Literatures Wales / Literatures of Wales (2014-15). In 2016 I was awarded an Academia Europaea Burgen Scholarship.

I appear regularly on television, radio and at events including the Hay Festival to discuss literary topics including the Library of Wales and dystopian fiction in the age of Donald Trump, and on authors including Arthur Machen, W.H. Davies and Roald Dahl. I have contributed to the following documentaries: Caradoc Evans: The Row of My People (Caradoc Evans: The My People Controversy, S4C, 2015); Huw Edwards and the Story of London Welsh (Huw Edwards and the Story of the London Welsh, S4C, 2015); Bob Lliw's Stories: Fernhill (BBC Radio Cymru 2014).

Supervisions

I welcome informal enquiries and applications for PhD supervision in areas which overlap with my own interests and expertise:

• modern and contemporary literature and culture
• the literatures of Britain and Ireland
• the literatures of Wales (in both languages)
• the writing of the apocalypse
• eco-critical approaches to literature
• literature and the city
• mobility, itinerancy and modernity
• new writing

I am currently supervising the following PhD students:

• Martha O'Brien, ''Wee wenhonourGhosetrayn': The spectres of Modern Welsh Writing in English' (AHRC SWW DTP; co-supervisor with Dr Kirsty Sedgman, University of Bristol, 2020 - )
• Zainab Alqublan, 'Poetic Presentation Of Oriental Kingship In The Nineteenth Century' (co-supervisor with Professor Bill Bell, 2018 - ).

I have previously acted as supervisor or co-supervisor four PhD projects, including, to completion, Daniel Hughes, 'Breaking up the Traditional Skyline: Writing Modernist Wales in English' (Bangor University, 2013-17).