Welsh Theatre and Media Research Group
Research Centres
Research Group Details
TFTS acknowledges its special responsibility for conducting research into Welsh – especially Welsh language – theatre, film, media and performance, which it does by means of a focused interrogation of the experience of community, the cultural construction of nationality, and the artistic investigation of social identity.
Particular research interests include contemporary Welsh theatre and performance; Welsh theatre history; minority language media; the media in Wales, the media and national identity; film, broadcasting and arts policy in Wales.
Members of staff with a particular interest in Welsh Theatre and Media Research are:
- Professor Tom O’Malley
- Professor Elan Closs Stephens
- Dr Jamie Medhurst
- Dr Merris Griffiths
- Dr Roger Owen
- Dr. Kate Woodward
- Elin Haf Jones
- Anwen Jones
- Margaret Ames
- Dafydd Sills-Jones
Departmental staff contribute to research and scholarship in Welsh and about Wales through the publication of monographs, editing the peer-reviewed e-journal Gwerddon and co-editing the journal Media History (Routledge), which acts as a forum for scholarship on all aspects of the history of media, including the media in Wales. Staff also undertake practice-based research concerned with the specificities of the Welsh language context. This work is enhanced by close association with theatre, film and television organisations in Wales such as Theatr Felinfach, Theatr Genedlaethol Cymru, Film Agency for Wales, Boomerang, S4C and the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales.
The Department organises a range of conferences and research events within this area of work, such as ‘S4C: The First Twenty-Five Years’ (2007) , ‘Saunders Lewis a Cymru Fydd’ (2007) and Communications in Wales after the Communications Act’(2004). These events have been supported by distinguished lectures and research seminars held in association with Y Ffwrwm (a network dedicated to stimulating local creative and intellectual endeavour in Welsh), Gŵyl y Cyfarwydd (which explores traditions of performative practice in local communities), Canol, Cyfrwng and Traws (Welsh media, media studies, and performance studies networks, respectively).
Recent doctoral students have completed or are working on the development of Welsh cinema; Cinematic representation of Wales; the history of ITV in Wales; post-dramatic theatre in Wales; aesthetic frameworks for Welsh theatre; theatre, society and ‘Welshness’ in Wales; the history of stage design in Welsh-language theatre after 1945; and the representation of teenagers in cinema through language.