Biography

I joined the Department in 1996 and was the first degree scheme co-ordinator for the (then) new degree scheme in Film and Television Studies. Prior to my arrival, I was a pupil at Ysgol Gyfun Rhydfelen (1979-86) and then studied History at Aberystwyth (1986-89), followed by a Masters degree in Information Studies (my dissertation looked at the history of broadcasting and broadcasting archives in Wales). I spent three months as a librarian at BBC Wales in Cardiff and three months working for a national information service for schools. Following another short stint as a research assistant, I became a tutor in Information Studies, teaching various aspects of media. Since 1996, I've been a Lecturer (and Senior Lecturer since October 2010) in the Department and was Acting Head of Department in 2011. I was appointed Head of Department from 1 January 2012. I'm married to Ceris, the Department's Research Administrator, and we have two daughters - Alice and Lucie – and a son, Henry.

Research

Broadcasting history (especially early television in the 1920s and 1930s and television developments in the 1950s and 1960s); media history and historiography; television archives. I am on the board of the University's Centre for Media History and am a member of the European Television History Network.

Additional Interests

I am a member of the University Senate, Faculty of Arts Executive Committee, Staff Development User Group and Staffing Committee. I was also Deputy Dean of Arts between 2005 and 2007. I am a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and of the Higher Education Academy and am an external examiner at Bradford and Lincoln Universities.



I have reviewed papers for Contemporary Wales, Critical Studies in Television, Media History and Twentieth Century British History together with book proposals for Routledge, Sage Publications and Palgrave-Macmillan. I am also a member of the Editorial Board of Media History.

Research
Grants/Awards:

• Sir David Hughes Parry Award (£1000), 2006/07, to support work on a book (A History of Independent Television in Wales, 1956-1968).
• Arts and Humanities Research Council (£23,230), September 2008-January 2009 - research leave to complete a book (A History of Independent Television in Wales, 1956-1968).
• British Academy Small Research Grant (£3117), November 2008-August 2009 – ‘The Early Years of Television and the BBC, 1923-1939’.
• Aberystwyth University Research Fund (£3000), November 2008-August 2009 – ‘The Early Years of Television and the BBC, 1923-1939’
• British Academy Overseas Conference Grant (£200), 'Television: the experimental moment 1935-1955', University of Paris 8, 27-29 May 2009.
• Arts and Humanities Research Council (£33,000), February 2010-January 2012 – international research network on broadcasting history

MPhil/PhD
supervision and examining

I have recently supervised to completion an MPhil student who was researching the 1967 ITV franchise battle in Wales and the West and a PhD student who studied the growth of historical documentary programmes in the 1980s and 1990s. I have examined a number of PhD theses in areas including public service broadcasting, Chinese television, local radio in England, representations of Wales in documentary and interactive television drama. I would be interested to hear from any potential research students wishing to explore any aspect of broadcasting history or issues surrounding broadcasting and national identity.

Teaching

Television history and policy; Documentary film history; Media in Wales; Broadcasting and National Identity

Publications

Books :

A History of Independent Television in Wales (University of Wales Press, 2010.

The Early Years of Television and the BBC 1923-1939 (Edinburgh University Press, 2013) [forthcoming]

Transatlantic Interactions: Broadcasting in the US and UK in the 1950s (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013) [forthcoming]

Chapters in
books :

‘Comment definer le media: la préhistoire de la television au Royaume-Uni' (1923-1936), in Delavaud and Maréchal (eds,), Télévision: le moment expérimental (Éditions Apogée, 2011), pp. 151-161.

‘Television in Wales’, in Bignell and Fickers (eds.), A European Television History (Blackwell, 2008), pp. 253-257.

‘Television in Wales, 1950-70’ in Bailey (ed.), Narrating Media History (Routledge, 2008), pp. 143-154.

‘History of Public Service Broadcasting’ in Donsbach (ed.), The International Encyclopedia of Communication. Volume IX (Blackwell, 2008), pp. 3947-3951.

‘Piecing Together Mammon’s Television: a case study in historical television research’ in Wheatley (ed.), Re-Viewing Television History: critical issues in television historiography (I.B.
Tauris, 2007), pp. 127-141.

‘A (Very) Brief History of Television’ in Creeber (ed.), Tele-Visions: methods and concepts in television studies (British Film Institute, 2006), pp.115-123.

‘Celtic Film and Television Festival, ‘Mass media in the Celtic languages, ‘Wales’ and ‘S4C’ in Koch (ed.), Celtic Culture: a historical encyclopedia (ABC-Clio, 2006), pp. 371, 1265-1267, 1547-1548.

'Mammon’s Television? ITV in Wales 1959-63' in Johnson and Turnock (eds.), ITV Cultures: Independent Television over Fifty Years (Open University Press, 2005), pp. 88-107.

'Regions and Nations: Wales' in McGown (ed.), The BFI Television Handbook 2005 (British Film Institute, 2004), pp. 68-9.

‘Competition and Change in British Television’ and ‘Television in Wales, 1960-80’ in Hilmes and Jacobs (eds.), The Television History Book (British Film Institute/University of California Press, 2003), pp.40-44.

‘Teledu Cymru: Menter Gyffrous neu Freuddwyd Ffôl?’ in Jenkins (ed.), Cof Cenedl XVII (Gomer, 2002), pp. 167-193.

‘The mass media in twentieth century Wales’ in Rees & Jones (eds.), A Nation and its Books (National Library of Wales, 1998), pp. 329-340.

‘Broadcasting and other visual archives in Wales’ in Ballantyne (ed.), Researcher’s Guide to British Film and Television Collections (British Universities Film and Video Council, 1993), pp.15-19.

Articles in academic journals :

‘Speaking your kind of language: ITV in Wales’, Cyfrwng: Media Wales Journal Vol. 7 (2010), 7-20.

‘Minorities with a Message: the Beveridge Report on Broadcasting (1949-51) and Wales’, Twentieth Century British History 19, 2 (2008), 217-233.

'Wales Television – Mammon’s Television? ITV in Wales in the 1960s’, Media History 10, 2 (2004), 119-131.

‘“You say a minority, Sir; we say a nation”: The Pilkington Committee on Broadcasting (1960-62) and Wales’, Welsh History Review, 22, 2 (2004), 109-136.

‘Servant of Two Tongues: the demise of TWW’, Llafur: Journal of Welsh Labour History 8, 3 (2002), 79-87.

Articles in other journals :

‘Esblygiad neu Chwyldro? Ffenomenon teledu realiti’, Tu Chwith 14, Winter 2000, pp. 109-112.

Seminar and conference papers :

‘Early television as a symbol of national prestige in Europe’, ECREA 2010 Conference, University of Hamburg, October 2010.

‘‘Delivering a fatal blow to British industry’: the BBC and television in the 1930s’, Broadcasting in the 1930s symposium, University of Wisconsin-Madison, July 2010.

‘‘The One-Eyed Devil’: television in Wales in the 1950s and 1960s’, IAMHIST 2009 conference: Social Fears and Moral Panics, Aberystwyth University, July 2009.

‘Defining the Medium: the pre-history of television in the UK, 1923-1936’, Television: the experimental moment - from invention to institution (1935-1955) conference, University of Paris 8, May 2009

‘Using Media Archives’, AHRC Research Training for doctoral students, UCL, May 2009 [invited speaker]

‘ITV in Wales: broadcasting’s poor relation?’, AHRC Ireland-Wales Symposium, Aberystwyth University, April 2009 [invited speaker]'Narrating Broadcasting History in Wales', MeCCSA Conference, Bradford University, 14-16 January 2009.

'"A Very Tiresome Invention": some preliminary thoughts on the early years of television and the BBC', Southern Broadcasting History Group, Bournemouth University, 4-5 December 2008.

‘Defining the Medium: the pre-history of television in the UK, 1923-1936’, Television: the experimental moment - from invention to institution (1935-1955) , University of Paris 8, May 2009.

‘Servant of Two Tongues: ITV and national identity in Wales’, Wales Institute of Social and Cultural Affairs seminar, Bangor University, December 2008.

‘The Regional, the National and ITV in Wales’, Anglia Television and the History of ITV conference, University of East Anglia, November 2008.

‘An excess of impetuous zeal, or, why Teledu Cymru was doomed to fail from the start’, S4C at 25 conference, National Library of Wales, November 2007.

‘Narrating the Stateless Nation: a case study of Welsh television’, Narrating the Nation: television narratives and national identities conference, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Reus, Catalonia, October 2007.

‘A Love-Hate Relationship: television and the Welsh nation’, Revisiting Television Histories conference, King’s College London, April 2007.

‘Teledu Cymru: Mammon vs Mamwlad’, International Conference on Welsh Studies, University of Wales Swansea, July 2006.

‘Teledu Cymru – the only ITV regional company to fail on financial grounds’, Association for Research in Popular Fiction: ITV at 50 conference, National Museum of Photography, Film and Television, Bradford, October 2005.

‘Teledu Cymru – Teledu Mamon?’, Milestones conference, University of Wales Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies Centre, July 2005.

‘Piecing together ‘Mammon’s television’: a case study in historical television research’, Breaking Boundaries in Television Historiography: Historical Research and the Television Archive conference, University of Reading, January 2004.

‘The BBC's reaction to ITV in Wales in the 1960s’ , BBC History Seminar, University of Westminster, September 2003.

‘Commercial television in Wales in the 1960s’, Broadcasting Histories conference, University of Central Lancashire, June 2002.

‘Cultural Imperialism? The BBC and the early years of radio in Wales’, Radiodyssey Conference 2001, University of Brighton, July 2001.

‘The role of commercial television in the creation of a Welsh identity in the 1960s’ , Seventh Conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas (ISSEI), University of Bergen, Norway, August 2000.

‘Wales in the early days of commercial television’ , International Media History Conference, University of Westminster, July 1998.

 

Links

AHRC Early Broadcasting History Research Network

Media History

Centre for Media History

European Television History Network

Baird Television