Dr Rebecca Thomas
British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow
- thomasr165@caerdydd.ac.uk
- John Percival Building, Colum Drive, Cardiff, CF10 3EU
- Welsh speaking
Overview
I am a medieval historian and British Academy Postdocotral Fellow, specializing in the history, culture, and literature of medieval Wales. My research focuses especially on the construction of Welsh identity in medieval texts, and my monograph on this subject, History and Identity in Early Medieval Wales, was published by Boydell & Brewer in April 2022. This volume investigates the characteristics used as markers of identity in ninth- and tenth-century Latin and vernacular texts, including names, territory, language, and origin legends. Intertextuality is a key theme, and I explore the influence of texts from other parts of Britain and Europe on Welsh strategies of identity construction.
I am also interested in political and cultural connections between Wales and the wider world in the Middle Ages. My research in this area includes an investigation of royal Welsh pilgrimage to Rome in the ninth and tenth centuries, and discussion of the Irish Sea connections of the Welsh king Gruffudd ap Cynan (d. 1137). I am currently examining the depiction of eleventh-century Anglo-Welsh relations in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles.
My interest in Welsh identity construction also spans later periods, and I am currently working on a study of medievalism, identity, and language in twentieth-century Welsh nationalistic writing.
Projects
2019-present: British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship ('Writing the Medieval Welsh World')
2019: Research Assistant, Vitae Sanctorum Cambriae Project (AHRC-funded project, University of Cambridge and University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies)
Creative Writing
I also write creatively and my Welsh medieval historical novel for young adults, Dan Gysgod y Frenhines (In the Queen's Shadow), will be published by Gwasg Carreg Gwalch in July 2022: Gwales: Dan Gysgod y Frenhines
My personal essay on landscape and names in south Wales, 'Cribo'r Dragon's Back', won the inaugural O'r Pedwar Gwynt Essay Prize in 2021: Cribo'r Dragon's Back
Biography
Academic Positions
2019-present: British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, Bangor/Cardiff University
2019: Research Assistant, Vitae Sanctorum Cambriae Project (University of Cambridge; University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies)
Education and Qualifications
2019: Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy
2019: PhD, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, University of Cambridge (funded by an AHRC Full Doctoral Training Partnership Award; honorary Vice-Chancellor awrad (University of Cambridge); St John's College Cambridge scholarship)
2015: MPhil, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, University of Cambridge (funded by a St John's College Cambridge scholarship)
2014: BA History, University of Cambridge
Other positions
2014-19: Research Assistant, Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles
2017-18: Teaching Assistant, King's College London
Publications
2022
- Thomas, R. 2022. History and Identity in Early Medieval Wales. Studies in Celtic History. Boydell & Brewer.
- Thomas, R. 2022. An Irish sea king?: Ethnicity and legitimacy in the Vita Griffini filii Conani and Historia Gruffud vab Kenan. In: Raffensperger, C. A. ed. Authorship, Worldview, and Identity in Medieval Europe. Routledge, pp. 238-255.
2021
- Callander, D. and Thomas, R. 2021. Amser yn Armes Prydein Vawr. Studia Celtica 55(1), pp. 1-28. (10.16922/SC.55.1)
- Thomas, R. 2021. Ystyr anghyfiaith mewn testunau Cymraeg Canol. Studia Celtica 55, pp. 75-96. (10.16922/SC.55.4)
- Thomas, R. 2021. Cribo'r Dragon's Back. O'r Pedwar Gwynt 17, pp. 13-15.
2020
- Thomas, R. 2020. Three Welsh Kings and Rome: royal pilgrimage, overlordship, and Anglo-Welsh relations in the early Middle Ages. Early Medieval Europe 28(4), pp. 560-591. (10.1111/emed.12430)
- Thomas, R. 2020. Geoffrey of Monmouth and the English past. In: Byron Smith, J. and Henley, G. eds. A Companion to Geoffrey of Monmouth. Brill, pp. 105-128.
- Thomas, R. 2020. The view from Wales: Anglo-Welsh relations in the time of England's Conquests. In: Ashe, L. and Winkler, E. J. eds. Conquests in Eleventh-Century England: 1016, 1066. The Boydell Press, pp. 287-306.
- Guy, B. et al. eds. 2020. The chronicles of Medieval Wales and the March: New contexts, studies, and texts. Brepols.
2019
- Thomas, R. 2019. The Vita Alcuini, Asser and scholarly service at the court of Alfred the Great. English Historical Review 134, pp. 1-24. (10.1093/ehr/cez005)
2018
- Thomas, R. 2018. Remembering the 'Old North' in Ninth- and Tenth-Century Wales. Peritia 29, pp. 181-201. (10.1484/J.PERIT.5.118491)
2017
- Thomas, R. and Callander, D. 2017. Reading Asser in early medieval Wales: the evidence of Armes Prydein Vawr. Anglo-Saxon England 46, pp. 115-145. (10.1017/S0263675118000066)
Teaching
I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
I have taught extensively at Cardiff, Bangor, KCL, and Cambridge in the following fields: medieval history (especially Britain and Wales); History in Practice; Welsh identity and culture (medieval and modern); Welsh Language and Literature. I have supervised undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations on topics relating to medieval and modern Wales.
My research interests in the field of medieval history include:
- Connections between Wales and the wider world
- Identity construction
- Historical writing and origin legends
- Language, multilingualism and the translation of Latin texts into the vernacular
- Intertextuality and scholarly networks
- Nations and nationalisms
I am also interested in the reception of the medieval past in modern Wales.