Department of History & Welsh History

Wellcome Trust Programme Award - Disability & Industrial Society: A Comparative Cultural History of British Coalfields

25 October 2011

WELLCOME TRUST PROGRAMME AWARD - DISABILITY AND INDUSTRIAL SOCIETY: A COMPARATIVE CULTURAL HISTORY OF BRITISH COALFIELDS, 1780-1948

Dr Steven Thompson is the Aberystwyth partner in a Swansea-led project which uses the coal industry to explore how understandings and experiences of disability were affected by industrialization between 1780 and the end of the Second World War. The consortium of Swansea, Aberystwyth, Northumbria and Strathclyde Universities is co-directed by Professor Anne Borsay and Dr David Turner. It is adopting a comparative approach, with a focus on three coalfields in south Wales, the north east of England and Scotland. A methodology fusing social and cultural history is being applied to an extensive portfolio of primary sources, ranging from parliamentary papers and official reports to diaries and imaginative literature. A team of research associates, research fellows and a PhD student are conducting this work, and Dr Ben Curtis has been appointed as the research associate in Aberystwyth.  A two-volume comparative history of disability in the coal industry will be published, together with articles and conference papers. To connect with disabled, professional and lay audiences, public engagement events will be held in each coalfield and an exhibition will tour Wales in partnership with the National Waterfront Museum.

GWOBR RHAGLEN YMDDIRIEDOLAETH WELLCOME – ANABLEDD A CHYMDEITHAS DDIWYDIANNOL: HANES DIWYLLIANNOL CYMHAROL MEYSYDD GLO PRYDAIN, 1780-1948

Dr Steven Thompson yw partner Aberystwyth yn y prosiect a gaiff ei arwain gan Brifysgol Abertawe sy’n defnyddio’r diwydiant glo i ddarganfod sut yr effeithiodd diwydaneiddio ar ddealltwriaeth a phrofiadau anabledd rhwng 1780 a’r Ail Ryfel Byd.  Mae’r tîm, sy’n cynnwys prifysgolion Abertawe, Aberystwyth, Northumbria a Strathclyde, yn cael ei arwain gan yr Athro Anne Borsay a Dr David Turner.  Mae’r prosiect yn defnyddio dull cymharol i astudio anabledd ym meysydd glo de Cymru, gogledd-ddwyrain Lloegr a’r Alban, a bydd yn mabwysiadu methodoleg sy’n cyfuno dulliau hanes diwylliannol a dulliau hanes cymdeithasol i astudio ystod eang o ffynonellau gwreiddiol, sy’n amrywio o bapurau seneddol i adroddiadau swyddogol, ac o ddyddiaduron i lenyddiaeth. Caiff yr ymchwil ei gyflawni gan dîm o ymchwilwyr gyda Dr Ben Curtis wedi ei benodi fel yr ymchwilydd sydd ynghlwm wrth Aberystwyth.  Cyhoeddir hanes cymharol ar anabledd yn y diwydiant glo ar ffurf dwy gyfrol, yn ogystal ag erthyglau a phapurau eraill. Er mwyn cynnwys pobl anabl, unigolion proffesiynol a’r cyhoedd, cynhelir digwyddiadau ym mhob un o’r tri maes glo a threfnir arddangosfa ar y cyd ag Amgueddfa Genedlaethol y Glannau a fydd yn teithio ledled Cymru.