Wednesday 9 April 2008

Tragic Lost of Beloved Welsh Women's History Scholar Dr. Ursula Masson: Glamorgan Colleagues in Mourning




Dear Colleagues,

I know that some colleagues will have already been told the tragic news which we got yesterday, that our dear colleague Ursula Masson (History) had passed away.


[Pictured above -- In memoriam: Our Beloved Dr. Ursula Masson -- a dear friend, a wise teacher, and a kind spirit to us all. How much we will miss you.]

Ursula was a tremendous colleague and friend to many, particularly in History and Humanities & Languages and more widely, I know, across the Faculty and University.

Our sadness is immense as we remember how much we cherished Ursula and her contribution and love for her subject and for education.

Many thanks,
Rod

Professor Rod Dubrow-Marshall PhD,

Dean of Humanities & Social Sciences,

University of Glamorgan,

Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, CF37 1DL


[Pictured above: From the Womens Archive Wales site -- AMC / WAW AGM 2006 l-r: Avril Rolph (Sec), Ursula Masson (Chair), Deirdre Beddoe (President) (standing), Gail Allen (Treasurer)]

From the UWE/HLSS Research Bulletin June 2007:

Women and Liberal Politics in Wales 1888 -1914

Ursula Masson‘s thesis, ‘For Women, for Wales and for Liberalism’: Women and Liberal politics 1888-1914’ was completed in 2006.

In her study Ursula argued that there was a distinctive Welsh women’s liberalism at the end of the nineteenth century.

It was distinguished from Welsh Liberalism more generally through its commitment to feminism and to the vote, while also differing from its English counterpart through its relationship with the national movement - Cymru Fydd.

Ursula’s thesis explores the complex relationship between party politics, nationalism and feminism at a national level and also provides two in depth local case studies of the Women’s Liberal Associations of Cardiff and Aberdare.

Dr. Ursula Masson studied for her PhD on a part-time basis.

She has been a member of the History staff at the University of Glamorgan since 1994, and had a long and varied employment history before that, in journalism, the civil service, adult education, trade union education editor, to name the most respectable.

She did her first degree in English and Philosophy at Cardiff, and a Masters degree at Keele in the mid-1970s.

She is chair of the Women’s Archive of Wales, which works to ensure the retrieval and survival of records relating to the history of women in Wales, which has recently received a large Heritage Lottery Fund Grant to expand its work.

In recognition of her writing, and her work in promoting women’s history and education in Wales, Ursula was selected as a ‘woman of achievement for 2006’ by the Nominating Council of the Women of the Year Lunch.

Ursula says ‘my link with UWE has been extremely rewarding, not just through the great friendships formed in the History department, but in connecting to research communities and bringing south Wales into the regional Women’s History Network, of which I am currently chair’.

She has published a number of articles arising from research for her doctoral thesis and is now co-editing a volume of Welsh women’s political writings into the early 20th century, to be published later this year.

She and her co-editor, Professor Jane Aaron, have recently established the Centre for Gender Studies in Wales at Glamorgan. Ursula is also co-editor of Llafur, the annual journal of the Welsh People’s History Society.

Ursula Masson



{Pictured above: Ursula Masson (standing) speaking at a book launch at the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff. (Baroness Glenys Kinnock in the background).]

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