Cardiff Centre for Welsh American Studies
The Cardiff Centre for Welsh American Studies promotes the study of the culture, language, literature and history of the Welsh in the Americas, and in the United States, Canada and Patagonia in particular.
The Cardiff Centre for Welsh American Studies was established in 2001 in order to promote the study of the culture, language, literature and history of the Welsh in the Americas, and in the United States, Canada and Patagonia in particular.
The Centre is located in the School of Welsh at Cardiff University, and its current director is Dr Iwan Wyn Rees.
Aims
By organising seminars, lectures and conferences, through publications, and by encouraging scholarly collaboration and discussion, it provides a focal point for an international network of scholars who have an interest in this rapidly growing field of study.
Taught postgraduate
There are opportunities for studying aspects of the Welsh in North and South America as part of the taught MA in Welsh and Celtic Studies.
The North America Wales Foundation welcomes applications for scholarships from candidates from North America. Further details on these can be found on the foundation’s website.
Postgraduate research
Supervision for research degrees (MPhil/PhD) is also available on a wide range of subjects relevant to the Welsh in North and South America.
Previous PhD students associated with the Centre include:
- Orwig, Sara. 2018. ‘Jysd enjoia'r geiria fel tasa nhw’n dda-da yn dy geg di’: Cyfnewid cod mewn llenyddiaeth o Gymru a Chanada. PhD thesis: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/118228
- Joseph Wyn Roberts. 2017. ‘News gathered from all parts of Gwalia Wen’: The Druid and the Welsh American Relationship with home. MA dissertation.
- Sulien Morgan. 2015. The Welsh of the United States and Plaid Cymru 1925-1945: A study in the response of emigrants to nationalism in the home country. PhD thesis: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/73350
- Orwig, Sara 2015. Cyfnewid cod mewn llenyddiaeth nofelau Cymraeg a Ffrangeg-Canadaidd: datblygu methodoleg newydd. MPhil thesis: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/86640
- Walter Ariel Brooks. 2012. Welsh Print Culture in y Wladfa: The Role of Ethnic Newspapers in Welsh Patagonia, 1868-1933. PhD thesis: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/46450
- Matthew Carter. 2011. Industrial, Industrious, and Diverse: Comparative Case Studies of the Welsh in Urban and Rural America during the Late Nineteenth Century. PhD thesis.
- Sally Roberts. 2011. ‘The Language Question’: Welsh immigrant attitudes towards language and identity: a comparative study of Welsh immigrant experiences in Australia and North America, 1860-1935. MA dissertation.
- Gethin Matthews. 2010. ‘Addoli'r Dduwies Aur’ (Worshipping the Goddess Gold): the Patterns and Processes of nineteenth century Welsh Migration to the British Columbia Gold-fields. PhD thesis.
- Geraldine Lublin. 2008. Memoirs and identity in Welsh Patagonia: constructions of Welsh Patagonian identity as reflected in memoirs written by Welsh descendants in the province of Chubut towards the end of the twentieth century. PhD thesis. See also Lublin’s more recent volume entitled Memoir and Identity in Welsh Patagonia: Voices from a Settler Community in Argentina (2017), University of Wales Press.
- Ian Johnson. 2007. Subjective ethnolinguistic vitality of Welsh in the Chubut Province, Argentina. PhD thesis at ENCAP (in collaboration with Prof. Robert Owen Jones): https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/56163
- Lois Dafydd. 2007. Y Cymry a Rhuthr Aur Califfornia (1849-1855). MA dissertation.
- Felicity Childs. 2007. ‘... from your dear brother Jack’: Emigrant letter-writing as an historical source: An analysis of the letters of Jack Edwards, Aberystwyth. MA dissertation.
- Robert Huw Griffiths. 2004. The Welsh and the American Civil War c.1840-1865. PhD thesis.
Lead researcher
Dr Iwan Wyn Rees
Senior Lecturer and Director of the Cardiff Centre for Welsh American Studies
- Welsh speaking
- reesiw2@caerdydd.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 4843
Academic staff
Professor Colin H Williams
Honorary Professor
- Welsh speaking
- williamsch@caerdydd.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 0413
Public lectures
National Eisteddfod lectures 2013 - present
Since 2013, the Cardiff Centre for Welsh American Studies holds an annual lecture at the National Eisteddfod. These lectures were delivered by Professors E. Wyn James and Bill Jones.
- 'Cambria, Knoxvilla - a Llanrwst!', 2019
- 'Morganiaid yn y Wladfa ac yn America - ac ar yr Ais', 2018
- 'Jonesiaid ym Môn, y Wladfa a Chile yn ail hanner y bedwaredd ganrif ar bymtheg', 2017
- 'Dau Evans, Blaenau Gwent a'r Byd Newydd', 2016
- 'Meifod a 'Merica: Cofio Cylchoedd Ann Griffiths a Sarah Maldwyn', 2015
- 'Tunplat Llanelli, "Lladron" America a'r "Mugwump" o Dregaron', 2014
- 'Gwilym Hiraethog, "Gohebydd" y Faner, a rhyddhau caethion America', 2013
Other recent lectures
- '"Ffroes ffein gan Nain": Datblygiad geirfa Gymraeg yn y Wladfa', The Wales-Argentina Society at the 2019 National Eisteddfod. Delivered by Dr Iwan Wyn Rees, August 2019
- 'The Welsh in diaspora: Patagonia', 'Social Anthropologies of the Welsh: Past and Present' at Cardiff University (a joint symposium by WISERD, the Learned Society of Wales, the Royal Anthropological Institute and the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion). Delivered by Dr Iwan Wyn Rees, May 2019
- 'Sbaeneiddio, lefelu a safoni: golwg ar amrywiadau Cymraeg Patagonia heddiw', a series of Research Seminars at the School of Welsh, Cardiff University. Delivered by Dr Iwan Wyn Rees, April 2019
- 'Golwg ar waith Irma Hughes de Jones', The Wales-Argentina Society. Delivered by Dr Rhiannon Marks, May 2017
- 'Contemporary Varieties of Welsh in Chubut Province, Argentina: Some Preliminary Findings', a colloquium on 'Hispanization' at Bremen University, Germany. Delivered by Dr Iwan Wyn Rees, May 2017
- 'O Lysau Cochion Ardudwy i Garets y Wladfa: Ar Drywydd y Tafodieithoedd Cymraeg', Cymdeithas Cwm Nantcol. Delivered by Dr Iwan Wyn Rees, January 2017
- 'Ar drywydd barddoniaeth y Wladfa', Cylch Llenyddol Llŷn. Delivered by Dr Rhiannon Marks, November 2015
- 'Golwg ar farddoniaeth y Wladfa', the Cardiff University pavilion at the 2015 National Eisteddfod. Delivered by Dr Rhiannon Marks, August 2015
- 'Tafodieithoedd Cymraeg y Wladfa heddiw', The Wales-Argentina Society. Delivered by Dr Iwan Wyn Rees, May 2015
- 'Blas ar amrywiadau Cymraeg y Wladfa', Cymrodorion Caerdydd. Delivered by Dr Iwan Wyn Rees, Feburary 2015
- 'Irma Ariannin a'r "wlad lle cyferfydd cyfandiroedd"', Gŵyl Farddoniaeth Tŷ Newydd 2014. Delivered by Dr Rhiannon Marks, November 2014
Annual lectures 2003 - 2011
Between 2003 and 2011 a series of 8 annual lectures were held by the Cardiff Centre for Welsh American Studies.
- Eighth Annual Public Lecture: 'The Office of Language Commissioner: The Welsh Model from a Canadian Perspective'. Delivered by Professor Colin H. Williams (Research Professor, School of Welsh, Cardiff University), 31 March 2011
- Seventh Annual Public Lecture: 'The Sociology of Welsh in Chubut - Resilience, Integration, Rediscovery'. Delivered by Professor Robert Owen Jones (Emeritus Professor, School of Welsh, Cardiff University), 18 February 2010
- Sixth Annual Public Lecture: 'Welsh Coal Miners in America'. Delivered by Professor Ron Lewis (Department of History, West Virginia University, USA), 22 May 2008
- Fifth Annual Public Lecture: 'Welsh Patagonians: The Australian Dimension'. Delivered by Professor Michele Langfield (Deakin University, Victoria, Australia), 20 July 2007
- Fourth Annual Public Lecture: 'Black Skins, Blue Books: Slavery, Translation and Victorian Wales'. Delivered by Dr Daniel Williams (English Department, Swansea University), 24 November 2006
- Third Annual Public Lecture: 'The Great and Good Work Committed to His Hands: Robert Everett and the Abolition of American Slavery'. Delivered by Dr Jerry Hunter (Department of Welsh, University of Wales, Bangor), 6 May 2005
- Second Annual Public Lecture: 'Welsh Labor in American Iron'. Delivered by Dr Anne Knowles (Middlebury College, Vermont, USA), 1 June 2004
- First Annual Public Lecture: '"Raising the Wind": Emigrating frmo Wales to the USA in the late nineteeth and early twentieth centuries'. Delivered by Dr Bill Jones (School of History and Archaeology, Cardiff University), 20 May 2003
'Reinterpreting Y Wladfa’, September 2021
This event was a joint trilingual multidisciplinary symposium organized by the Cardiff Centre for Welsh American Studies in collaboration with the University of Bremen’s Department of Linguistics and Literature. The aim was to bring together academics from a variety of disciplines and different countries (in Europe and South America) to discuss new interpretations of the Welsh settlement in Patagonia including some debating points. The event was held on Zoom Webinar with around 50 attendees joining from parts of Wales, Argentina, and the United States to listen to the panellists. The full programme is shown below.
English Schedule
Monday afternoon 20 September
13.00 – Welcome by Dylan Foster Evans (Head of the School of Welsh) and Iwan Wyn Rees (the Cardiff Centre for Welsh American Studies) | ||
Time | Name | Title |
13.15 | Geraldine Lublin (Swansea; Literary Theory) | Keynote lecture: ‘Memoir and identity in Welsh Patagonia: voices from a settler community in Argentina’ |
13.55 | Break | |
14.00 | Sara Borda Green (Bangor; Literature and Film) | ‘Defnyddio Patagonia yng Nghymru’ |
14.30 | Lucy Trotter (LSE and Aberystwyth; Anthropology) | ‘“The community is a family and the choir is the glue”: power and belonging in Gaiman Music School, Patagonia’ |
15.00 | Break | |
15.10 | Ian Johnson (independent scholar; Sociolinguistics) | 'Agweddau’r 21ain ganrif tuag at iaith, diwylliant a hunaniaeth Gymreig yn y Chubut' |
15.40 | Elan Grug Muse (Swansea; Literature) | ‘“Plant natur”: darlunio’r bobloedd frodorol mewn llenyddiaeth daith am y Wladfa’ |
16.10 | Break | |
16.20 | Lucy Taylor (Aberystwyth; Politics) | Keynote lecture: ‘“Where the Welsh are”: the politics of indigenous experience and Welsh reminiscence’ |
19.30 | Dinner | |
Tuesday afternoon 21 September
Time | Name | Title |
13.00 | Marcelo Gavirati (independent scholar; ante Centro Nacional Patagónico Conicet; History) | Keynote lecture: ‘Chupat-Camwy, Patagonia: historia de la coexistencia pacífica, entre galeses, pampas y tehuelches’ |
13.40 | Break | |
13.50 | Rhiannon Marks (Cardiff; Literary Theory) | ‘Irma Hughes de Jones: barddoniaeth “leol” mewn cyd-destun trawsgenedlaethol’ |
14.20 | Hywel Griffiths (Aberystwyth; Geography) | ‘Cofio llifogydd a sychder yn y Wladfa’ |
14.50 | Break | |
15.10 | E. Wyn James (Cardiff; Literature) | ‘Creative tensions in the life and writings of Eluned Morgan (1870-1938)’ |
15:40 | Simon Brooks (Swansea; Politics) | ‘The diaspora as scapegoat - the problem of civic nationalism and liberal universalism in Welsh leftist discourse around Patagonia’ |
16.10 | Walter Ariel Brooks (British Council Cymru; Journalism) | ‘Swyddogaeth y wasg ethnig Gymraeg yn y Wladfa (1868-1933)’ |
Wednesday afternoon 22 September
Time | Name | Title |
13.00 | Fernando Williams (Universidad Nacional de La Plata / Centro Nacional Patagónico Conicet; History) | Keynote lecture: ‘Agua y poder en el valle del Chubut: desafíos y conflictos en torno al establecimiento y manejo de un sistema de riego’ |
13.40 | Break | |
13.50 | Deborah Arbes (Bremen; Linguistics) | ‘Pluralization of loanwords in Patagonian Welsh’ |
14.20 | Iwan Wyn Rees (Cardiff; Dialectology) | ‘Y Wladfa: un o “fethiannau godidocaf” puryddiaeth ieithyddol?’ |
14.50 | Break | |
15.00 | Guillermo Williams (Patagonia; History) | Keynote lecture: ‘Reading and writing Y Wladfa’s past: disputes over history and memory in Chubut’s Welsh Settlement’ |
15.40 | Closing remarks; the way forward and future possibilities | |
Spanish Schedule
Tarde – lunes 20 de septiembre
13.00 – Palabras de bienvenida a cargo de Dylan Foster Evans (Director de la Facultad de Galés) y Iwan Wyn Rees (Centro de Estudios Galeses en América) | ||
Horario | Nombre | Título |
13.15 | Geraldine Lublin (Swansea; Teoría Literaria) | Conferencia magistral: ‘Memoir and identity in Welsh Patagonia: voices from a settler community in Argentina’ |
13.55 | Receso | |
14.00 | Sara Borda Green (Bangor; Estudios de Literatura y Cine) | ‘Defnyddio Patagonia yng Nghymru’ |
14.30 | Lucy Trotter (LSE & Aberystwyth; Antropología) | ‘“The community is a family and the choir is the glue”: power and belonging in Gaiman Music School, Patagonia’ |
15.00 | Receso | |
15.10 | Ian Johnson (investigador independiente; Sociolingüística) | 'Agweddau’r 21ain ganrif tuag at iaith, diwylliant a hunaniaeth Gymreig yn y Chubut' |
15.40 | Elan Grug Muse (Swansea; Literatura) | ‘“Plant natur”: darlunio’r bobloedd frodorol mewn llenyddiaeth daith am y Wladfa’ |
16.10 | Receso | |
16.20 | Lucy Taylor (Aberystwyth; Política) | Conferencia magistral: ‘“Where the Welsh are”: the politics of indigenous experience and Welsh reminiscence’ |
19.30 | Cena | |
Tarde – martes 21 de septiembre
Horario | Nombre | Título |
13.00 | Marcelo Gavirati (investigador independiente; ante Centro Nacional Patagónico Conicet; Historia) | Conferencia magistral: ‘Chupat-Camwy, Patagonia: historia de la coexistencia pacífica, entre galeses, pampas y tehuelches’ |
13.40 | Receso | |
13.50 | Rhiannon Marks (Cardiff; Teoría Literaria) | ‘Irma Hughes de Jones: barddoniaeth “leol” mewn cyd-destun trawsgenedlaethol’ |
14.20 | Hywel Griffiths (Aberystwyth; Geografía) | ‘Cofio llifogydd a sychder yn y Wladfa’ |
14.50 | Receso | |
15.10 | E. Wyn James (Cardiff; Literatura) | ‘Creative tensions in the life and writings of Eluned Morgan (1870-1938)’ |
15:40 | Simon Brooks (Swansea; Política) | ‘The diaspora as scapegoat - the problem of civic nationalism and liberal universalism in Welsh leftist discourse around Patagonia’ |
16.10 | Walter Ariel Brooks (British Council Cymru; Periodismo) | ‘Swyddogaeth y wasg ethnig Gymraeg yn y Wladfa (1868-1933)’ |
Tarde – miércoles 22 de septiembre
Horario | Nombre | Título |
13.00 | Fernando Williams (Universidad Nacional de La Plata / Centro Nacional Patagónico Conicet; Historia) | Conferencia magistral: ‘Agua y poder en el valle del Chubut: desafíos y conflictos en torno al establecimiento y manejo de un sistema de riego’ |
13.40 | Receso | |
13.50 | Deborah Arbes (Bremen; Lingüística) | ‘Pluralization of loanwords in Patagonian Welsh’ |
14.20 | Iwan Wyn Rees (Cardiff; Dialectología) | ‘Y Wladfa: un o “fethiannau godidocaf” puryddiaeth ieithyddol?’ |
14.50 | Receso | |
15.00 | Guillermo Williams (Patagonia; Historia) | Conferencia magistral: ‘Reading and writing Y Wladfa’s past: disputes over history and memory in Chubut’s Welsh Settlement’ |
15.40 | Palabras de cierre; perspectivas y posibilidades a futuro | |
The symposium’s details and aim are available trilingually. Read further details about the symposium's aims.
An item about the symposium, including the organizer’s response to the event, can be found on the university website. Read the news item about the event.
A selection of recordings from the symposium is also available. View the recordings on the university’s YouTube channel.
'The Welsh Settlement in Patagonia, 1865 - 2015', July 2015
This was an International Conference organised by the Cardiff Centre for Welsh American Studies (School of Welsh, Cardiff University), in cooperation with the Wales-Argentina Society, the Culture of the 18th and 19th Centuries Section, and the Ethnology and Folk Studies Section of the University of Wales Alumni Association.
View the full details of this event.
Read BBC Cymru Fyw's item on the conference.
You can view videos of the conference on Cardiff University's YouTube channel.
Further details of the speakers and the papers delivered are also available.
'The Welsh in Patagonia: A Symposium', February 2010
Through the generosity of Banco Santander, a symposium was organised to enable members of staff of the National University of Patagonia San Juan Bosco and the Cardiff Centre for Welsh American Studies to disseminate aspects fo their research into the life, history and culture of the Welsh settlement which was established in Patagonia in 1865.
Conferences 2001 - 2011
Over the ten years between 2001 and 2011 the Cardiff Centre for Welsh American Studies held a series of annual conferences.
- Tenth Annual Conference: 'Welsh Travel Writing in the Americas', 11 November 2011
- Ninth Annual Conference, 'The Welsh and American Wars', 6 February 2010
- Eighth Annual Conference: 'The Welsh and Latin America', 29 November 2008
- Seventh Annual Conference: 'The Welsh and Native Americans', 24 November 2007
- Sixth Annual Conference: 'Welsh Women in the Americas', 25 November 2006
- Fifth Annual Conference: 'The Welsh in Patagonia: Past, Present and Future', 24 September 2005
- Fourth Annual Conference: 'Wales and the Caribbean', 27 November 2004
- Third Annual Conference: 'Letter from America: Welsh Immigrants and their Correspondence', 29 November 2003
- Second Annual Conference: 'The Welsh and American Slavery', 30 November 2002
- Official Launch and Innaugural One-Day Conference, 19 and 20 October 2001