Tuesday, 1 April 2008

New English Language National Theatre for Wales Appoints Playwright and Scholar Professor Steve Blandford to Board


Pictured above: Associate Dean of Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries, University of Glamorgan Professor Steve Blandford.]

The Almond and the Seahorse - Clwyd Theatr Cymru



Prestigious Appointment for Professor Blandford
March 26, 2008

Professor Steve Blandford of the Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries has been appointed as a board member of the new English Language National Theatre for Wales.



Phil George, Chair of the organisation commented on the high calibre of applicants for the exciting and challenging positions as board members of the new Theatre company,

"I was delighted by the number and the strength of applications for board membership."

"It shows the tide of goodwill in support of the National Theatre. The new board is full of experience, energy and diverse skills".


[Pictured above: Phil George has been unveiled as the chair of new National English Language Theatre.]

Rhondda born, Phil George is the co-founder and Co-Creative Director of BAFTA award winning Television Production Company, Green Bay Media Ltd in Cardiff. Phil was educated at Porth County Grammar School before going on to read English at Oxford University. Formerly Head of Arts, Music and Features for BBC Wales, Phil co-founded Green Bay Media Limited in 2001, where he will continue with his role as Creative Director.

The new Chair for National Theatre Wales announced today

Green Bay Media Ltd.



Shrewsbury-born, Professor Steve Blandford is Associate Dean and Professor of Theatre, Film and Television based at the ATRiuM.


[Pictured above: The ATRiuM in coloured floodlights, as searchlights, limousines and and the celebrity redcarpet create a celebrity splash in sexy Cardiff city centre. The BBC Wales covered the event. Photography by Mark Leslie Woods © 2008]

He is also the Co-founder of The Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations and has over 20 years experience in working in Theatre.

Canolfan Astudio’r Cyfryngau a Diwylliant mewn Cenhedloedd Bychain / The Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations

The National English Language Theatre will introduce different styles and imaginative theatre choices as well as introducing more varied directorial voices and developing collaborative partnerships.



It will feature star talent and will also nurture new talent in Wales.



The new company, once created, will not be building-based. This will give it the freedom to commission and create productions.



The National English Language Theatre will work closely with the existing theatrical infrastructure to create high profile productions that will sometimes move outside the traditional theatre space.





Selected Publications of Professor Steve Blandford:

Film, Drama and The Break-Up of Britain, Bristol, Intellect, 2007.

‘Dramatic Fictions in a ‘Postcolonial’ Wales’ in Aaron J and Chris Williams (ed) Postcolonial Wales, Cardiff, UWP, 2005.

‘BBC drama at the margins: the contrasting fortunes of Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh television drama in the 1990’s in Bignell J. and Stephen Lacey (ed) Popular television drama: Critical perspectives, Manchester, Manchester University Press, 2005.

‘Wales at the Oscars – Heritage Film and recent Welsh Cinema’, Cfyrwng, Vol 2,
April 2005.

The Film Studies Dictionary (with Barry K. Grant and Jim Hillier), London, Edward Arnold, 2000.

Wales on Screen, Bridgend, Seren, 2000.

4 plays for theatre, Worcester, J.Garnett Miller, 1998.

Towards a National Theatre for Wales some questions and answers

For additional info please contact Dr. Mark Leslie Woods at mwoods[at]glam.ac.uk

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

© 2008 Dr. Mark Leslie Woods

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

© 2008 Dr. Mark Leslie Woods

Friday, 14 March 2008

Cardiff ATRiuM: Professor Richard Bauman Lectures on The Remediation of Storytelling: Narrative Performance on Early Commercial Sound Recording 18 Mar


[Pictured above:Professor Richard Bauman]

Cardiff ATRiuM: Storytelling Symposium in the Welsh Capital 18-19 March 2008

George Ewart Evans Lecture and Reception
Tuesday 18th March 2008

Professor Richard Bauman will present his keynote lecture on Tuesday evening, this will be followed by a reception and dinner in the newly opened Atrium building of the Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries at the University of Glamorgan.

The dinner will be followed by story and music performance by Guto Dafis.

Professor Richard Bauman The Remediation of Storytelling: Narrative Performance on Early Commercial Sound Recording

Professor Richard Bauman, Distinguished Professor and Chair in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University, has published widely on the ethnographic study of language and performance.



He has served as president of the Semiotic Society of America, the Society for Linguistic Anthropology, and the Society of Fellows of the American Folklore Society.

Among many other professional activities, he has been chair of the Folklife Advisory Council of the Smithsonian Institution, editor of the Journal of American Folklore, and a member of more than 15 editorial boards.

He has also been a Guggenheim Fellow, a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Folklore Fellow of the Finnish Academy of Sciences, and twice holder of National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships.



Professor Bauman’s keynote lecture will focus on narrative and development of sound recording.

The years between 1895 and 1920 represented a formative period in the commercial development of sound recording in the U.S. as nascent recording companies attempted to create a consumer market for phonograph records and the machines on which to play them.

As recording companies sought to discover what might attract consumers to purchase records, they drew heavily upon traditional performance forms, such as storytelling, oratory, and religious sermons, and upon popular entertainments, such as minstrel shows, early vaudeville, medicine shows, tent shows, and Chautauqua, all of which had proven themselves attractive to popular audiences.

The adaptation of these traditional and popular performance forms to phonograph records involves the process of remediation, specifically, the rendering of embodied, face-to-face performance forms through the mediation of another communicative technology, sound recording.



In this paper, I explore what happens when we render oral storytelling, formerly experienced live, in situations of copresence, when the immediacy of copresence is transformed into a mediated experience.

Chair: Professor Mike Wilson


[Pictured above: George Ewart Evans (1909–88) was a pioneering oral historian. He published a series of books examining the disappearing customs and way of life of rural Suffolk, the best know of these is Ask the Fellows who Cut the Hay. He was also an accomplished story writer and wrote short-stories, novels and poems. George Ewart Evans was born and raised in the mining community of Abercynon, a stone’s throw from the University of Glamorgan where the George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling is based.]

George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling Annual Lecture and Symposium 2008 - Storytelling and Authenticity

Event Date March 18, 2008 10 a.m. – March 19, 2008
Location – Atrium

The George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling annual lecture and symposium takes place on Tuesday 18th and Wednesday 19th March. This year we are holding the event in our new ATRiuM building in the centre of Cardiff.

Final details are still to be confirmed but so far we are pleased to be able to announce the following sessions

George Ewart Evans Lecture and Reception Tuesday 18th March 2008

Professor Richard Bauman will present his keynote lecture on Tuesday evening, this will be followed by a reception and dinner in the newly opened Atrium building of the Cardiff School of Creative and Cultural Industries at the University of Glamorgan.

The dinner will be followed by story and music performance by Guto Dafis.

Professor Richard Bauman The Remediation of Storytelling: Narrative Performance on Early Commercial Sound Recording
Professor Richard Bauman, Distinguished Professor and Chair in the Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University, has published widely on the ethnographic study of language and performance.



He has served as president of the Semiotic Society of America, the Society for Linguistic Anthropology, and the Society of Fellows of the American Folklore Society. Among many other professional activities, he has been chair of the Folklife Advisory Council of the Smithsonian Institution, editor of the Journal of American Folklore, and a member of more than 15 editorial boards.

He has also been a Guggenheim Fellow, a Fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Folklore Fellow of the Finnish Academy of Sciences, and twice holder of National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowships.

Professor Bauman’s keynote lecture will focus on narrative and development of sound recording. The years between 1895 and 1920 represented a formative period in the commercial development of sound recording in the U.S. as nascent recording companies attempted to create a consumer market for phonograph records and the machines on which to play them.



As recording companies sought to discover what might attract consumers to purchase records, they drew heavily upon traditional performance forms, such as storytelling, oratory, and religious sermons, and upon popular entertainments, such as minstrel shows, early vaudeville, medicine shows, tent shows, and Chautauqua, all of which had proven themselves attractive to popular audiences.

The adaptation of these traditional and popular performance forms to phonograph records involves the process of remediation, specifically, the rendering of embodied, face-to-face performance forms through the mediation of another communicative technology, sound recording.



In this paper, I explore what happens when we render oral storytelling, formerly experienced live, in situations of copresence, when the immediacy of copresence is transformed into a mediated experience.

Chair: Professor Mike Wilson

Symposium Tuesday 18th and Wednesday 19th March 2008

This two day symposium will examine issues raised in the keynote lecture and the implications for storytelling and authenticity. The symposium is structured around a series of keynote ‘provocations’, with maximum time allocated for debate and discussion on the issues raised.

Tuesday 18th March 2008

Tale-Enders: Gathering the Narrative Heritage of Welsh Cricket Launch

We are proud to be able to launch this project which brings together the George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling and Glamorgan Cricket to explore the use of storytelling and technology to populate the new Museum of Welsh Cricket at Sophia Gardens as part of the current £9.6 million redevelopment in advance of hosting an Ashes Tests in 2009.

The launch will be followed by a free buffet lunch.

Susie Pratt and Lisa Heledd Digital Storytelling

Susie Pratt (Research Fellow, George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling) and Lisa Heledd (Capture Wales, BBC Wales and Postgraduate Researcher in Digital Storytelling, George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling) will run a digital storytelling workshop.

This session will explore the latest developments in digital storytelling and present some of the current research being carried out by members of the George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling team.

Joseph Sobol The Razor’s Edge: The American Storytelling Movement in 2008

Joseph Sobol (Associate Professor, East Tennessee State University), author of The House Between Earth and Sky: Harvesting New American Folktales and The Storytellers' Journey: An American Revival, will present a lecture and workshop exploring issues raised in the American Storytelling movement and the resonances they might have for people working in Wales and the UK.



The American Storytelling movement has matured in certain unmistakable ways—and not in others.

This mixed development has placed major stresses on the organizational base and on those working in the field.

This talk will identify some of the stresses—organizational, artistic, and economic--and suggest some avenues of potential evolution and relief.

Wednesday 19th March 2008

Dick Leith “Authenticity” and “Ownership”: How to Shut People Up

Academic and storyteller Dick Leith will explore his own recollections of the 1950s and 60s folk revival in Britain and how issues raised during that period are resurfacing today.



He will examine notions of the authentic voice and questions regarding how this concept has been used both to silence and to empower. Chair: Susie Pratt (Research Fellow, George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling)

Professor Hande Birkalan Gedik Uses of Authenticity: Responsibility, Re-presentation and Re-contextualization of Folklore Performances

Professor Hande Birkalan Gedik (Associate Professor, Yeditepe University, Istanbul) will aim to bring light to the concepts of “authenticity” and “authority” in folklore performances in selective examples from Turkey.



She will be discussing these concepts primarily as a “native” woman and as a folklorist with an educational up-bringing in the American folkloristics. Chair: Joseph Sobol (Associate Professor, East Tennessee State University)

Neil Lanham 'Who is the truly educated man: The one who can grown onions or the man who can spell them?' - (George Ewart-Evans P.17 'The Horse in the Furrow 1960). A view from the onion grower's perspective

Neil Lanham was born in 1938 into a rudimentary small farm way of life. He observed early in his life that culture came from the spoken word of the indigenous vernacular people around him.

He has recorded both mentally and physically oral idioms ever since. This paper will investigate concepts of authenticity and indigenous voice. Chair: Hamish Fyfe (Co-Director, George Ewart Evans Centre for Storytelling and Professor of Arts in the Community)

Venue: Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries, ATRiuM, University of Glamorgan, Adam Street, Cardiff Cost:

Lecture is FREE but booking is essential. Dinner and story and music performance: £30/€40 Symposium: £60 /€80 organisation, £40/€55 individual waged, £25/€35 individual unwaged

To book your place at this event call 01443 3668631 or email storytelling@glam.ac.uk

For additional info please contact Dr. Mark Leslie Woods at mwoods[at]glam.ac.uk

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

© 2008 Dr. Mark Leslie Woods

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

© 2008 Dr. Mark Leslie Woods

Tuesday, 11 March 2008

Wales Futures Network / WCVA Conference - Futures and The 3rd Sector Cardiff 17 April 2008

[Please scroll down for English version]

CYNHADLEDD DYFODOLION Y DRYDEDD SECTOR
Holiday Inn, Caerdydd
17 Ebrill 2008

Bydd cynhadledd Dyfodolion y Drydedd Sector yn ystyried sut y caiff y sector ei siapio a sut bethau fydd mudiadau gwirfoddol yn y tymor byr, canolig a hir.



Trefnir y Gynhadledd ar y cyd rhwng Cyngor Gweithredu Gwirfoddol Cymru a Rhwydwaith Dyfodolion Cymru.

Bydd Geoff Mulgan, Cadeirydd Ymchwiliad Ymddiriedolaeth Carnegie yn y DUar ddyfodol Cymdeithas Sifil, yn amlinellu prif ganfyddiadau ac argymhellion yr adroddiad.

Trefnir Gweithdai Goblygiadau’r Dyfodol dan ofal Rhwydwaith Dyfodolion Cymru fel rhan o’r gynhadledd er ystyried “4 Senarios ar gyfer Y Gymdeithas Sifil” Ymchwiliad Carnegie sef,

1.Rhyfeloedd Amrywiaeth
2. Cyfamod Byd-Eang
3. Bywyd Lleol
4. Lleisiau o Athen

Adroddir canlyniadau’r gweithdai yn ôl i sesiwn lawn i’w trafod.

Bydd sesiwn arall yn edrych ar dirwedd wleidyddol Cymru yn y dyfodol, a fydd yn ystyried sut mae helpu cymdeithas sifil i hyrwyddo dealltwriaeth gyhoeddus o’r materion sy’n ymwneud â Chonfensiwn Cymru Gyfan.

Cyflwynir y sesiwn gan Syr Emyr Jones Parry, Cadeirydd y Confensiwn sydd newydd ymddeol o fod yn Llysgennad Prydain yn y Cenhedloedd Unedig.

Am raglen a ffurflen gofrestru cliciwch ar www.futures.cf.ac.uk Gweinyddir cofrestru ar gyfer y gynhadledd gan y WCVA yn unig.



==================================================================

THE THIRD SECTOR FUTURES CONFERENCE
Holiday Inn, Cardiff
Thursday 17 April 2008

The Third Sector Futures Conference will consider how the sector is set to take shape and what voluntary organizations will look like in the short, medium and long term.

The conference is co-organised by the Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA) and the Wales Futures Network.

The conference will hear from Geoff Mulgan, Chair of the Carnegie UK Trust’s Inquiry into the future of Civil Society, who will outline the report’s key findings and recommendations.

Futures Implications Workshops will be held by the Wales Futures Network as part of the conference addressing the “4 Scenarios for Civil Society” of the Carnegie Enquiry i.e.

1. Diversity Wars
2. Global Compact
3. Local Life
4. Athenian Voices

Feedback from the workshops will be presented and discussed in plenary.

A further session will look at the future political landscape in Wales and consider how to engage civil society in promoting public understanding of the issues surrounding the All Wales Convention, which was established by the Labor - Plaid Cymru One Wales coalition.

The session will be introduced by Sir Emyr Jones Parry, Chair of the Convention and recently retired British Ambassador to the United Nations.

For a full programme and registration form please go to www.futures.cf.ac.uk Registration is being handled solely by the WCVA.



AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media


Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

© 2008 Dr. Mark Leslie Woods

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

© 2008 Dr. Mark Leslie Woods

Thursday, 6 March 2008

"Queer Wales" Call for Papers at the International Conference on Welsh Studies at the University of Toronto, July 31-August 2, 2008




Subject: Papers are invited for a panel on "Queer Wales" for Toronto University

Papers are invited for a panel on "Queer Wales" at the International Conference on Welsh Studies at the University of Toronto, July 31-August 2, 2008.

Masculinity has long been integral to the national identity of “The Land of My Fathers.”



In particular, the recent industrial past has depended upon or upheld what gay author Rhys Davies described as an “oppressive masculinity.”



However, in recent years, we have become more aware of the complexity of Welsh identities (national, European, racial, colonial, economic, etc).



This panel of the International Conference on Welsh Studies examines the role of Queer identities in Welsh culture in the past present and future:

How have traditional definitions of “welshness” been revised and resisted; what is the current face of Queer Wales; what will the ongoing queering of Wales be like? This panel invites contributions from all areas of interest. Possible topics include:

The history of gay activism in Wales
Gay Wales and the law
Writing gay Wales
Queer working-class masculinities
Welsh queers on stage and screen



Please submit by email paper titles, 250-300 word abstracts (for 15-20 minute papers), and 150 word bio-sketches to Huw Osborne (osborne_at_rmc.ca) by APRIL 1, 2008.



Huw Osborne
Department of English
Royal Military College of Canada
PO Box 17000, Station Forces
Kingston, Ontario, CANADA
K7K 7B4
osborne_at_rmc.ca


North American Association for the Study of Welsh Culture and History (NAASWCH)

International Conference on Welsh Studies

July 31-August 2, 2008 The Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Toronto



The NAASWCH Program Committee seeks diverse perspectives on Wales and Welsh culture

-- as well as proposals focused on the Welsh in North America



-- from many disciplines including: history, literature, languages, art, sociology, anthropology, economics, political science, philosophy, music, and religion.



NAASWCH invites participation from faculty, postgraduate/graduate students and independent scholars from North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere.

Click here to go directly to Queer Cymru on Facebook



NAASWCH works to promote scholarship on all aspects of Welsh culture and history;

to develop connections between teachers and scholars in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom who are committed to the study of Welsh culture, history, language, and literature;



to provide an intellectual forum in which scholars and teachers of Welsh culture may share their research and teaching experience, and to provide support for the study of Welsh-North American history and culture.



See the NAASWCH website for additional information:

NAASWCH



Those who are not submitting proposals but would like to receive conference information should contact: Dr. Melinda Gray, NAASWCH Secretary, 15 Woodbridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02140, USA; mgrayk@comcast.net.


The Iris Prize Festival 2 - 4 October 2008

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase

© 2008 Dr. Mark Leslie Woods

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

© 2008 Dr. Mark Leslie Woods

Saturday, 1 March 2008

AHRC Ireland-Wales Research Network First Symposium May 16-17 2008


[Pictured above: Welsh poet Gwyneth Lewis]

This week's not-to-be missed Cardiff event!

Don't miss the inaugural symposium of the AHRC Ireland-Wales Research Network, entitled Ireland and Wales: Comparisons and Contexts.

The symposium will take place on Friday 16th and Saturday 17th May in Room .31, Humanities Building, Cardiff University.

As well as academic papers, responses and panels, the event features a public lecture by Gwyneth Lewis on the topic of 'Criss-crossings: Literary adventures on Irish and Welsh shores’. (Friday evening, the 16th, at 6pm in the Optometry lecture theatre, Maindy Road).

Both symposium and lecture are free and open to all. Lunches, teas and coffees will be provided.

Registration is essential: irelandwales[at]cardiff[dot]ac[dot]uk


AHRC Ireland-Wales Research Network

Dr Claire Connolly, Dr Katie Gramich (Cardiff School of English, Communication and Philosophy) and Dr Paul O'Leary (Department of History and Welsh History, University of Wales, Aberystwyth) have been awarded funding by the Arts and Humanities Council of Great Britain to establish a two year international and interdisciplinary Ireland- Wales Research Network.





The Network was launched by Colm McGrady, Consul General of Ireland in Wales on November 22nd, 2007, at a reception held in the Consulate General of Ireland in Wales. For press coverage of the launch, see Cardiff University News, BBC News and the Western Mail.


[Pictured above: Dr Claire Connolly BA, MA (NUI), PhD (Wales)]

The first symposium, on the theme of Comparisons and Contexts, will be held on Friday and Saturday May 16th and 17th, 2008.


[Pictured above: Dr Katie Gramich BA (Wales) MA (London) PhD (Alberta)]

Ireland and Wales: Comparisons and Contexts

Friday 16 May

10.30 a.m. Coffee and registration

11.30 a.m. Rhys Jones (Aberystwyth) – ‘Where are Wales and Ireland?’
John Ellis (Michigan) – ‘Twentieth-century Welsh and Irish Political Identities’

12.45 p.m. Lunch

2.00 p.m. Conchúr Ó Giollagáin (Galway) - ‘Language Profiles of the Contemporary Gaeltacht: Addressing Issues of Sociolinguistic Fragility’
Colin Williams (Cardiff): Response.

3.00 p.m. Tea

4.00pm Richard Ireland (Aberystwyth) – ‘The Discourse of Ireland in Welsh Debates About Crime.’
Katie Gramich (Cardiff) – ‘Inventing and Garrotting 'The Man who does not Exist': Peasantry and Modernity in Welsh and Irish writing’

6.00 p.m. Public lecture: Gwyneth Lewis - ‘Criss-crossings: Literary adventures on Irish and Welsh shores.’

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS LECTURE WILL TAKE PLACE IN THE OPTOMETRY LECTURE THEATRE

Cardiff University Map



7.30 p.m. Dinner

Saturday 17 May

9.30 a.m. Andrew Holmes (Queens University Belfast). - ‘The transatlantic identity of Irish Presbyterians, c.1800 to 1914’
David Ceri Jones (Aberystwyth): Response

11.00 a.m. Coffee

11.30 a.m. Pol Ó Muirí (Irish Times) – ‘"I did my best": Seosamh Mac
Grianna, Wales and Ireland’
James Loughlin (Ulster) - ‘Royal agency and national integration: Ireland and Wales in the context of Monarchy, 1860s-1914’

12.45 p.m. Lunch

2.00 p.m. Interview/ Round Table Discussion with four Irish/Welsh writers: Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Robin Llywelyn, Catherine Fisher and Patrick McGuinness

3.00 p.m. Tea

3.30 p.m. Round Table Discussion led by Paul O’Leary (Aberystwyth) –
‘Cultures, Disciplines and the Modalities of Comparison’

4.30 p.m. End of conference

Welsh with English to follow:

Cymru ac Iwerddon: Cymhariaeth a Chyd-destun

Ystafell 0.31, Adeilad y Dyniaethau, Prifysgol Caerdydd

Cardiff University Map


Dydd Gwener 16 Mai

10.30 a.m. Coffi a chofrestru

11.30 a.m. Rhys Jones (Aberystwyth) – ‘Ble mae Cymru ac Iwerddon?’
John Ellis (Michigan) – ‘Hunaniaeth wleidyddol yng Nghymru ac Iwerddon yn yr ugeinfed ganrif’

12.45 p.m. Cinio

2.00 p.m. Conchúr Ó Giollagáin (Galway) - ‘Proffilau iaith y Gaeltacht gyfoes: ymdopi â breuder ieithyddol yn y gymuned’
Colin Williams (Caerdydd): Ymateb.

3.00 p.m. Tea

4.00pm Richard Ireland (Aberystwyth) – ‘Disgẃrs Iwerddon mewn dadleuon Cymreig am drosedd.’
Katie Gramich (Caerdydd) – ‘Dyfeisio a dinistrio ‘Y dyn nad yw yn bod': Y werin a Modernedd yn llên Cymru ac Iwerddon’

6.00 p.m. Darlith gyhoeddus (yn Saesneg): Gwyneth Lewis - ‘Igam-ogamu: anturiaethau llenyddol ar draethellau Gwyddelig a Chymreig.’
NODER OS GWELWCH YN DDA: BYDD Y DDARLITH HON YN CAEL EI TRADDODI YN YSTAFELL DARLITH OPTOMETREG

Cardiff University Map

7.30 p.m. Swper
Dydd Sadwrn 17 Mai

9.30 a.m. Andrew Holmes (Prifysgol Queens, Belffast). - ‘Hunaniaeth drawsiwerydd Henaduriaid Gwyddelig, c. 1800 tan 1914’
David Ceri Jones (Aberystwyth): Ymateb

11.00 a.m. Coffi

11.30 a.m. Pol Ó Muirí (Irish Times) – ‘"Gwnes i fy ngorau": Seosamh Mac
Grianna, Cymru ac Iwerddon’
James Loughlin (Ulster) - ‘Goruchwyliaeth frenhinol ac integreiddiad cenedlaethol: Iwerddon a Chymru yng nghyd-destun brenhiniaeth, 1860au-1914’

12.45 p.m. Cinio

2.00 p.m. Cyfweliad/Cylch trafod gyda phedwar awdur Gwyddelig/Cymreig: Éilís Ní Dhuibhne, Robin Llywelyn, Catherine Fisher and Patrick McGuinness

3.00 p.m. Te

3.30 p.m. Trafodaeth gyffredinol i’w harwain gan Paul O’Leary (Aberystwyth) –
‘Diwylliannau, Disgyblaethau a Dulliau Cymharu’

4.30 p.m. Diwedd y gynhadledd

Cardiff University Map


The second symposium, on the theme of Romantic Nations, will be held on on Friday and Saturday October 24th and 25th, 2008 (More details available soon).



AHRC Ireland-Wales Research Network








Wales - Ireland Seminar Series 2007 - 8
Cyfres seminar Cymru - Iwerddon 2007 - 8

Seminars take place on Mondays at 5.15pm in room 2.47, Humanities Building, Cardiff University.



Spring

11 February, 2008
Dr John Goodby, (University of Wales, Swansea)
"' So why in this moment of well-being should we want to see England again”: Irish-Welsh thoughts on re-thinking the twentieth century poetic canon'



March 10, 2008
Dr Darryl Jones (Trinity College Dublin)
'The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire (and other horrid stories)'



April 21, 2008
Dr Claire Connolly (Cardiff School of English, Communication and Philosophy)
Celtic Criticism



Yng Nghymraeg hefyd:

11 Chwefror, 2008
Dr John Goodby, (Prifysgol Abertawe)
‘Doedd hi ddim fel 1916 ym 1916 ychwaith’: Iwerddon ym marddoniaeth Gymreig, Cymru ym marddoniaeth Wyddelig



10 Mawrth, 2008
Dr Darryl Jones (Coleg y Drindod, Dulyn)
‘Yr Iguana â thafod o dân (a storïau iasoer eraill)’



21 Ebrill, 2008
Dr Claire Connolly (Ysgol Saesneg, Cyfathrebu ac Athroniaeth, Caerdydd)
Beirniadaeth Geltaidd



Related news:

Dr. Mark Leslie Woods's recommended Irish and Celtic Studies reading for March 2008:

Film, Media and Popular Culture in Ireland
Cityscapes, Landscapes, Soundscapes
by Martin McLoone



This collection of essays from Martin McLoone takes a new look at
contemporary culture in Ireland through the filter of three main
developments – the ‘Celtic Tiger’ economy in the South, the peace
process in the North and the general rise in Ireland of ‘diasporan
awareness’.



The book considers the impact of these three factors on
the film, television, and music produced in Ireland, mostly since the
1990s, and speculates on how this popular culture reflects both what
has been gained in the new Ireland but also what has been lost.



Specific concerns of the book are the secularisation of Ireland and
popular culture’s assault on the Church generally (and the priest in
particular); the changing cityscapes and landscapes of the new Ireland;

the ‘death’ of politics; sexual freedom and personal liberation; the problem of representing unionist culture in the North; Van Morrison’s Belfast and the rise of ‘possessive individualism’ in Ireland.



The book celebrates the new Ireland but also raises issues about the loss of aspects of Irish identity that were valuable and suggests the need for a new ‘collective imaginary’ that might reinvigorate Irish identity in the new millennium.

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase





© 2008 Dr. Mark Leslie Woods

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

© 2008 Dr. Mark Leslie Woods

Wednesday, 27 February 2008

Audiences Get Free Admission at 'Stranger Than Fiction' Documentary Film Festival in Newport, Wales March 13-14 2008


STRANGER THAN FICTION WALES

The Skillset Screen Academy Wales is co-ordinating a new FREE documentary festival in March (13th and 14th) at the Riverfront Arts Centre, Newport.



To book tickets call the Riverfront on (01633) 656757

Stranger than Fiction Wales Programme
Thursday - 13/3/2008
The Studio
Riverfront Arts Centre

18.30 - 20.00
Jennings Finest Hour
(A BFI Presentation)

20.00 - 22.00
Bardsey, Senghennydd, Tiger Bay and Pill
(A National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales Presentation)



Friday - 14/3/2008
The Studio
Riverfront Arts Centre

13.00 - 15.00
Black Film Festival Wales Docs
Q&A with guests to follow screening



15.00 - 16.00
Screening of award-winning graduate and student productions

16.00 - 17.30
FourDocs Screening and discussion



18.00 - 19.15
Jennings and Rotha
(A BFI Presentation)

19.30 - 21.00
Anstey, Clarke and Grierson on film
(A BFI Presentation)



21.00 - 22.30
Closing Reception sponsored by the Film Agency for Wales
RSVP here to request a ticket for the reception which is open to anyone who has attended a screening over the two days.



Staff at Stranger than Fiction Wales:

Festival Manager: Hannah Raybould
Festival Coordinator: Matthew Evans
Festival Programmers: Humphry Trevelyan & Matthew Evans
Guest Liaison: Matthew Evans
Design: Sian Crandon, University of Wales, Newport
Marketing/PR: Hannah Raybould & Rebecca Froggatt
Translations: Owen Martell
Volunteers: SSAW students and students of BA Documentary at IFSW

Hill of Dreams -- Best Documentary at the International Film School Awards 2005





Thanks to:

Dan Thomas at the Film Agency for Wales; Clare Harwood at the BFI; Undeg Griffiths and Iestyn Hughes at the National Screen and Sound Archive of Wales; Yvonne Connickie at the Black Welsh Film Festival; Rebecca Franckel at FourDocs; Lisa Nesbitt at BAFTA Cymru; Chris Morris at the International Film School Wales.



Read more about the Skillset Wales Screen Academy Documentary Film Festical Here





AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase





© 2008 Dr. Mark Leslie Woods

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

© 2008 Dr. Mark Leslie Woods

Monday, 18 February 2008

Celtic Youth Film 'Hip Hedonism' and Justin Kerrigan According to Martin McLoone and Steve Blandford

Justin Kerrigan is shooting a new Welsh film in South Wales, and he's best known worldwide for his 'global youth party culture' film Human Traffic, set in Cardiff, Wales.


[Pictured above: Emmy nominee Robert Carlyle stars in Justin Kerrigan's newest film currently being shoot in South Wales.]

Emmy nominee Robert Carlyle, who found fame in 'The Full Monty' and 'Trainspotting' and whose credits have since included 'Carla's Song', 'The World is Not Enough' and '28 weeks later' is currently filming Cardiff born, Justin Kerrigan's new feature film 'I Know you Know' in Bridgend, and Port Talbot.

Kerrigan is often lumped together with similar directors who seem to be exploiting this transnational popular culture craze, making films that are loaded with codes and signifiers that 'only the kids' can understand.

Kerrigan is best known for his 1999 hit 'Human Traffic' for which, amidst several other awards, he won a BAFTA Cymru Award for Best Director and was nominated for a Carl Foreman Award for the Most Promising Newcomer at the BAFTA 2000 awards in London.

Human Traffic Trailer -- Miramax Films



How does Kerrigan fit into the pantheon of Welsh filmmakers who have overcome the odds to make a film and get it out of Wales?

How does Kerrigan fit into the array of recent 'Celtic Periphery' filmmakers, i.e., coming out of Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, England and Wales?

The Twang - Two Lovers -- Also directed by Justin Kerrigan




I've written about this elsewhere, and I include this excerpt of my new book on the National Cinema of Wales (not yet published) called, 'A Welsh New Wave?'

A Welsh ‘new wave’?

Blandford notes that the quartet he is describing created rumours of the beginnings of a new Welsh film ‘wave’ of production and freer expression, while they managed to offend the government, the tourist boards, the local communities where the films were shot, the Welsh religious establishment, and just about everyone else inclined to be offended.



Blandford alludes to a general weariness in Welsh society, surrounding the cultural controversy, and longs for a respite from the ‘dead-end arguments’

"During the next decade it will be interesting to see whether a film culture develops with the confidence to make films without even the ironic reference to traditional Welsh iconography that this latest wave has made" (Blandford 2000: 20)



Blandford seems to perceive that this ‘wave’ is related to a larger cultural malaise within a post-modern British and trans-national milieu, as he compares the quartet of Welsh films to similar films set in Scotland, Trainspotting (1996) and Wickerman (1973).



Martin McLoone identifies the same type of films becoming popular in the emerging economic and cultural ‘Celtic Tiger’ ascendancy of Ireland, and coins the name ‘hip hedonism’ to describe and explain the film waves’ meaning and impetus

"This might well explain the preponderance, in recent years, of another kind of urban-based film — what might be called a cinema of ‘hip hedonism’. This is a cinema that celebrates, even glorifies, an urban lifestyle dressed in the signifiers of contemporary global youth culture and populated by the beautiful people of Celtic Tiger Ireland" (McLoone 2006: 97)



Ruth Barton frames the films of post World War II Ireland in a chapter entitled ‘Negotiating Modernism’ (Barton 2004: 65), and one has to wonder if in some way, McLoone and Blandford are not describing Irish and Welsh cinemas, respectively, which are representing a new generation’s negotiation with the problems of trans-national post-modernism, including the paradox of rapidly rising incomes of younger professionals in Cardiff and Dublin paralleling the fatalism and political detachment implicit in the music and lifestyles of the nightclub, pub and ‘Rave Culture’, and its various cultural cousins.



Either way, the films of Scotland, Ireland and Wales in this period seem to be tapping the same vein of ‘I can’t be bothered’ attitudes endemic to the Celtic up-and-coming

"They are Irish, certainly, but they epitomize a kind of trans-global ‘cool’. Drugs and crime still form part of the background, but they are presented as lifestyle choices or get-rich schemes removed from any social consequences."



"Most importantly, these films are lighter in tone than the more political films, as well as being driven by a deliberately irreverent humour" (McLoone 2006: 97).



In the quartet of Welsh films that Blandford describes, which we will assert form the backbone of a Welsh version of McLoone’s designated Irish cinema of ‘hip hedonism,’ we need to ask what values are being challenged, and what social and cultural tensions are being transgressed or offended, and what possible meaning this might have.

Barton, R. (2004). Irish National Cinema. London, Routledge.

Berry, D. (1994). Wales and Cinema, The First Hundred Years. Cardiff, University of Wales Press.



Blandford, S., Ed. (2000). Wales on Screen. Bridgend, Wales, Seren, Poetry Wales Press Ltd.

Blandford, S. (2003). “Old Wales is Dead”, Film, Theatre and TV Drama in Contemporary Wales.” New Welsh Review, Theatre in Wales Supplement Autumn.

Blandford, S. (2003a). “Film, Theatre, and TV Drama in Contemporary Wales.” Culture+the State James Gifford & Gabrielle Zezulka-Mailloux, Editors (Culture+State Conference, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada).



Blandford, S. (2005). Film, Drama and the Break-Up of Britain. Inaugural Professorial Lecture, University of Glamorgan, Pontypridd, Wales, University of Glamorgan.

Blandford, S. (2005a). “Wales at the Oscars: ‘heritage’ cinema and Welshness in the 1990s.” Cyfrwng: Wales Media Journal 2.



Blandford, S. (2005b). Dramatic Fictions in a Postcolonial Wales. Postcolonial Wales. J. Aaron and C. Williams. Cardiff, University of Wales Press.

Blandford, S. (2007). Film, Drama and the Break Up of Britain. Bristol, England, Intellect Books.

Blandford, S., B. K. Grant, et al. (2001). The Film Studies Dictionary. London and New York, Arnold Publishers and Oxford University Press.



Hannan, P. (1999). The Welsh Illusion. Bridgend, Wales, Seren, Poetry Wales Press Ltd.

Hannan, P. (2002). 2001, A Year in Wales. Bridgend, Wales, Seren, Poetry Wales Press Ltd.



McLoone, M. (2001). ‘Internal Decolonisation? British Cinema in the Celtic Fringe.’ The British Cinema Book. R. Murphy.

McLoone, M. (2006). National Cinema in Ireland. Theorising National Cinema. V. Vitali and P. Willemen. London, British Film Institute: 88-99.



The Phrase Hip Hedonism was coined by Martin McLoone. Read more about his newest work here:


Film, Media and Popular Culture in Ireland
Cityscapes, Landscapes, Soundscapes
by Martin McLoone



This collection of essays from Martin McLoone takes a new look at
contemporary culture in Ireland through the filter of three main
developments – the ‘Celtic Tiger’ economy in the South, the peace
process in the North and the general rise in Ireland of ‘diasporan
awareness’.



The book considers the impact of these three factors on
the film, television, and music produced in Ireland, mostly since the
1990s, and speculates on how this popular culture reflects both what
has been gained in the new Ireland but also what has been lost.



Specific concerns of the book are the secularisation of Ireland and
popular culture’s assault on the Church generally (and the priest in
particular); the changing cityscapes and landscapes of the new Ireland;

the ‘death’ of politics; sexual freedom and personal liberation; the problem of representing unionist culture in the North; Van Morrison’s Belfast and the rise of ‘possessive individualism’ in Ireland.



The book celebrates the new Ireland but also raises issues about the loss of aspects of Irish identity that were valuable and suggests the need for a new ‘collective imaginary’ that might reinvigorate Irish identity in the new millennium.

AIM: ATRiuM Intelligent Media

Chapter Arts Centre Cardiff

Cardiff School of Creative & Cultural Industries

mwoods[at]glam[dot]ac[dot]uk

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh-American Family Genealogy, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Welsh Music, Film, and Books Symposium, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Celtic Cult Cinema on the World Wide Web.

Visit the UK Film Studies and World Cinema and Music Import Showcase





© 2008 Dr. Mark Leslie Woods

Smart & Sexy? Your Queer Advantage is waiting!

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Queer Advantage, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai Razing Ziggurats, on the World Wide Web.

Click here to go directly to my personal blog page called Mordechai's Post-Evangelical-Granola on the World Wide Web.

© 2008 Dr. Mark Leslie Woods