Professor Colin H. Williams

It is with great sadness that we have heard of the death of Professor Colin H. Williams, a global expert on language planning and policy, on 2 May 2026. He was a research professor at the School of Welsh at Cardiff University between 1993 and 2015 and then a professor emeritus. He was awarded the honorary degree of D.Litt. by the University of Wales in 2017.

Colin was born in Barry and educated at Ysgol Gynradd Gymraeg St Ffransis and then at Ysgol Uwchradd Rhydfelen. He was among the first in the area to benefit from a Welsh-medium education and was interested from a young age in the language’s future. From his boyhood onwards he was very aware of how activity at a local level benefited Welsh, including the tireless work of community leaders in schools, chapels, eisteddfodau and elsewhere. But he also saw Welsh in a wider context. He viewed it as part of a global network of languages and considered its future in the context of basic values such as equality and equity. That understanding formed the basis of his academic career.

Colin gained a first-class BSc Econ degree at the University College of Swansea before completing a PhD there on ‘Language Decline and Nationalist Resurgence in Wales’ (1978). During his doctoral studies he had the opportunity to spend a formative period at the University of Western Ontario studying the place of the French language in Canada. After a period working at the university in Swansea, he was appointed to a lectureship at North Staffordshire Polytechnic (later Staffordshire University) in 1976. In 1993, by which time he was Professor of Geography, he moved back to Wales to be a research professor in the Department of Welsh at Cardiff University. He retired in 2015 and in 2018 was appointed as a senior research associate at the Von Hügel Institute at St Edmund’s College, Cambridge University. Throughout his career he had periods as a visiting scholar at universities such as Oxford and Cambridge as well as institutions in South Africa, the United States of America, Slovenia, Romania and, most notably, in Canada.

Colin’s arrival at the Department of Welsh at Cardiff University was a key part of Professor Glyn Jones’ vision to ensure that language planning and policy, and indeed sociolinguistics more broadly, was a core part of the discipline of Welsh. Colin taught students from the first year of the undergraduate degree up to PhD level, inspiring generation after generation to study or pursue a career in his areas of expertise. Research students came to him from Wales and beyond, creating an enthusiastic and supportive community.

Colin made a fundamental contribution in Wales by placing language planning and policy on solid intellectual foundations. In Wales, we have become familiar with language strategies at national, local and institutional levels, and it is hard to remember how underdeveloped the field was in the earlier years of Colin’s career. The same was true of many other countries and languages in which Colin took an interest, and throughout his career his academic research went hand in hand with the sharing of practical expertise and work to advise bodies and governments across several continents.

Colin was an official advisor to the National Assembly for Wales regarding its use of the Welsh language and in 2000 he was appointed a member of the Welsh Language Board. He was an active member of international bodies such as the Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity and the European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages. One key contribution amongst many was his work relating to the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. He wrote position papers on group equality, linguistic rights and cultural diversity, many aspects of which became part of the final agreement.

In 2022, a volume in his honour was published – Language, Policy and Territory: A Festschrift for Colin H. Williams – with contributions from colleagues and friends from around the world, and a number of his former students among them. At the end of that volume there was a chapter by Colin himself looking back over his career and also considering the current state of play in the field in which he had worked over decades. Fully recognizing the complexity of the factors that affect the future of minoritised languages, it is typical that he drew attention to two simple and practical questions that he would ask himself every time he proposed a policy in Wales: ‘can this improve the situation of Welsh speakers?’ and ‘are the recommendations I am proposing ones that can be implemented?’

One of Colin’s favourite questions was ‘so what?’ – a supportive encouragement for his colleagues and students to take that next step to ensure that their research, in whatever field, has the greatest impact. It is appropriate to note that the ‘so what?’ question is a very easy one to answer in Colin’s case, whether that be in terms of the impact of his own research or the way in which he developed and mentored others.

Colin published several influential studies, including his latest monograph Official Language Regimes in 2025. In 2024, a conference in his honour was organized by the Welsh Government and Cardiff University, which gave colleagues from various countries the opportunity to come together to pay tribute to him and thank him for his work. Colin continued to work despite the cruel symptoms of motor neurone disease and his good humour and enthusiasm during his illness were inspirational.

Colin’s colleagues and former students have the fondest of memories of him, and we extend our deepest sympathies to his widow Meryl and his son Rhodri.