MA Medieval Studies
Handbook
College of Arts and
Humanities
2012/13
Bangor University
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The Graduate School of the College of Arts and Humanities
Research into the Arts and Humanities at this institution dates back to the birth of Bangor as a
University College in 1884. The College of Arts and Humanities was founded in 2006 in
order to bring together under one structure the wide-ranging scholarships, diverse
collaborative projects and the programmes of graduate training offered by academics at
Bangor. The Graduate School is a lively, interdisciplinary community through which
postgraduate students can access these resources. Masters and doctoral students in the Arts
and Humanities form an integral part of the University’s student population which now
numbers over 10,000. Coming to Bangor means having the opportunity to experience expert
supervision in the Schools of English; Creative Studies and Media; History, Welsh History
and Archaeology; Linguistics and English Language; Modern Languages; Music; Philosophy
and Religious Studies; and Welsh. We have a proven international record of research
achievement with the regular publication of books and articles by staff throughout the
College – this means that you will be sharing a learning environment with academics at the
cutting edge of their chosen field. There are also varied possibilities for research hosted in the
College’s research centres, such as the Bilingualism Centre, the Centre for Research in Early
Music, the Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Studies (IMEMS) and Bangor’s Centre
for Medieval Studies (CMS), so do consult the Schools’ webpages for more information.
Our attention to career development and research training is unusual in the modern university
sector. In recent years Bangor’s academic staff have gained substantial support from the
UK’s main humanities research councils (e.g. AHRC and ESRC) to supply research training
for postgraduates at Bangor and elsewhere. Bangor also runs an annual training event for the
region (the UKGRAD programme). The Graduate School works closely with the University’s
Academic Development Unit (ADU) to oversee the skills training of its postgraduate
researchers. The Early Researcher Development programme (ERDP) provides Induction
courses, Professional Development seminars, and opportunities to present research at College
forums in the ‘My Research’ seminar series. The ERDP can also offer you training in areas
ranging from Effective Researcher, Preparing for your Viva, Thesis Writing, Public
Engagement, Public Speaking and IT Skills. If you are seeking to follow an academic career,
we strongly encourage you to join Bangor’s HEA accredited Postgraduate Certificate in
Higher Education (PGCertHE), also delivered by the ADU, which will help you develop your
lecturing skills and knowledge.
As well as being able to tap into the academic expertise of our staff, you will also benefit
from the University-wide Post-Graduate Students' Forum (PGSF), offering you the
opportunity to participate in a programme of social events, to engage in the activities of the
Students’ Union, and to voice your opinions on University committees. Student support and
welfare are key priorities at Bangor, reflected in our Times Higher Educational Supplement
rating of ‘top university in the UK for the help and support provided to students’. And in
order for you to make the very most of your time at Bangor, there is a whole network of
University support should you need to draw upon it: Student Housing Office, Disability
Service, Dyslexia Unit, Student Counselling Service, Money Support Unit, Centre for
Careers and Opportunities, International Student Welfare Adviser and Nightline.
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Medieval Studies (MA /Dip)
Course co-directors: Dr Raluca Radulescu (English) and Dr Christian Leitmeir (Music)
Medieval Studies is a well-known and internationally recognised area of expertise at Bangor.
Over the decades particular strengths in Arthurian literature, Welsh History and Archaeology
and Cymraeg, as well as Music have attracted postgraduates to Bangor to work with experts
in each of these areas. Additional strengths include gender and devotional literature (in the
School of English), Anglo-Norman studies, and early sacred music, among others.
Interdisciplinary approaches form the core of medieval studies, and the current expertise at
Bangor guarantees this approach both through the core module and through the option
modules. In addition to this, Bangor can boast a unique combination of modules students can
choose from, such as do not normally feature together: Welsh, Arthurian studies and Music
form the distinctive core of the provision, alongside our widely recognised expertise in
teaching palaeography and codicology.
Course structure
In Part 1 of the MA, students develop skills and acquire subject knowledge by way of
preparation for Part Two, a 20,000 word dissertation. The Diploma, which consists of Part
One of the MA programme, aims to develop learner autonomy to the point where the student
is capable of beginning a scholarly dissertation at MA level.
Part 1: At the beginning of this course, all students must register for the following modules:

Understanding the Middle Ages KAH4401 (semesters 1 and 2) (20 credits)
Students who enter the MA programme will have obtained familiarity with the Middle Ages
from the perspective of one particular discipline. The course is designed to introduce them to
the breadth of subject areas and methodologies to be subsumed under the umbrella of
medieval studies broadly understood.
Scholars from Bangor will lead thematic sessions on individual aspects (archaeology, history,
literature, liturgy, music) and advanced skills which are pivotal to medievalist research
(specialised reference sources and databases).
Additionally, students will encounter cutting-edge research presented by visiting scholars
from Bangor and beyond in the seminar series (organised by the Centre for Medieval Studies
and the Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Studies). These sessions will primarily focus
on areas not represented in Bangor (e.g. art history, philosophy, theology, history of science)
and will vary year on year, depending on the availability of staff and the students’ core
interests. The practice of critical discourse will be trained by through occasional discussion
sessions on seminal and controversial methodological approaches, in which students take the
lead. (co-conveners: Dr Christian Leitmeir and Dr Raluca Radulescu)

Manuscripts and Printed Books QXE4025 (semester 2) (30 credits)
This module will explore a range of manuscripts and incunabula from the medieval and early
modern periods, with a view to engaging with the complex notions of medieval written
artefact and composite books, the circulation and the dissemination of manuscripts and
printed books. This module will offer the postgraduate the opportunity to pursue highly
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innovative lines of research in often neglected fields of study, including editing from digital
resources and dealing with complex issues in transcription. There will be ample time during
the semester for the postgraduate to shape and develop their own enquiries (co-conveners: Dr
Raluca Radulescu and Dr Sue Niebrzydowski)
In addition to these modules, students may choose from a wide range of modules in this part
of the course which may include:
School of Welsh
CXC4012: Astudiaeth Unigol: 1 (40 credits) (sem. 1 or 2): In this module you will be
provided with an overview (in English translation) of Wales’s medieval literary inheritance.
You will have the opportunity to study the prose tales of the Mabinogion side by side with
the heroic poetry of the Gododdin and the love and nature poetry of Dafydd ap Gwilym,
Wales’s foremost medieval poet.
School of English
QXE4030: Medieval Arthur (30 credits) (sem. 1): This module explores the Arthurian
myth from the earliest archaeological evidence to the end of the fifteenth century, with a view
to exploring its evolution in a variety of the socio-political contexts, as well as material
culture (manuscript and printed editions, artefacts). Focusing on a number of texts in different
genres and languages (read in English translation when necessary), the module will offer
postgraduates an insight into the origins and development of Arthurian themes in medieval
literature (Convener: Dr Raluca Radulescu.)
QXE4029: Medieval and Early Modern Women’s Devotional Writing (30 credits) (sem.
1): This module will explore a wide selection of published and manuscript texts that
demonstrate the breadth, continuities and dissimilarities of late medieval and early modern
women’s devotional writing practises. The module will introduce students to the writing of
anchorites, mystics, translators and instructors from across the social spectrum and who
express their spirituality in a wide variety of genres and for different audiences. This module
will offer the postgraduate the opportunity to pursue highly innovative lines of research by
analytical comparison of devotional writing from pre- and post Reformation England. There
will be ample time during the semester for the postgraduate to shape and develop his or her
own enquiries. (Conveners: Prof. Helen Wilcox and Dr Sue Niebrzydowski)
QXE4016: Pre-Modern Travel (30 credits) (semester 1 or semester 2): This module will
explore a wide selection of published and manuscript texts which deal with the highly
complex and fluid concept of travel in terms of migration, displacement, exploration,
colonisation, religious practices, alternative geographies (utopianism) and adventure. This
module will offer the postgraduate the opportunity to pursue highly innovative lines of
research in often neglected fields of study. (Conveners: Prof. Andrew Hiscock and Dr Raluca
Radulescu)
School of History, Welsh History and Archaeology
HPH4000: The Age of Llywelyn ap Iorwerth (40 credits) (sem. 2) (English: HPW-4000;
Welsh: HPC-4000): This module will allow students to analyse a range of evidence for the
history of Wales during the age of Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (c. 1170-1240), focusing not only on
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Llywelyn himself but also on broader political, ecclesiastical, social and cultural
developments in Wales during his lifetime. A variety of sources will be used in order to
investigate Llywelyn’s career as a prince of Gwynedd, in both a Welsh and a European
context. Students will be shown how documentary and narrative sources can be used
alongside literary work and legal texts produced by the native learned classes and encouraged
critically to evaluate the ways in which different genres of evidence offer different
perspectives. (Convener: Professor Huw Pryce)
HPH4002: The Archaeology of the Early Medieval Celtic Churches (40 credits) (sem. 1
and 2): This module investigates the early medieval churches in Wales, Ireland, Scotland, the
Isle of Man and south-west Britain c. AD400-1100. Although concentrating on the
archaeological evidence, primary documentary sources will be used where appropriate. The
rich archaeological remains, including cemeteries, churches, monasteries, sculpture,
ecclesiastical metalwork and relics will be analysed with reference to what they reveal about
the development of Christianity in these islands; burial rites and commemoration; the
evolution of a hierarchy of Christian sites; the development of ecclesiastical landscapes;
secular and ecclesiastical patronage; and the rise of saints’ cults. (Convener: Prof. Nancy
Edwards)
HPH4017: Women and Power in the High Middle Ages (40 credits) (sem. 2): This
module aims to introduce students to the history of women and power in Britain and NorthWestern Europe during the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. It will focus on the ways
that women were portrayed in the sources as compared to men and will take account of
broader political developments within twelfth-century Britain, including social, political,
political and cultural changes. A variety of sources will be used including charters, narratives,
chronicles, poetry and legal texts to facilitate a close analysis of the differing perspectives
offered by differing sources. It will consider these themes in a European perspective by
giving attention to Anglo-Norman, Angevin and French evidence and historiographies of
women, gender and power. This will be set into a critical assessment of the historiography
Britain of the period. The course will challenge students to critically engage with theories
and debates about the interpretation of evidence to facilitate a critical comparative approach.
It will consider the role of women in twelfth-century society, contemporary political
developments, and the image of women in the sources in order to facilitate a discussion of the
ways that sources were constructed to produce a particular view of women and power.
(Convener: Dr Sue Johns)
HPH4018: Medieval Latin (20 credits) (sem. 1 and 2): The majority of primary sources
encountered in British and European medieval history were originally written in medieval
Latin. Many primary sources of early modern history were also composed in medieval Latin.
The purpose and aims of this module are to equip the student to read edited primary historical
sources. The module would also aim to provide the student with the necessary guidance in
finding and using to maximum effect relevant reference works in order to exploit the primary
historical sources in Latin to the full. (Convener: Professor G. Rex Smith)
School of Music
General explanation: Modules in Early Music place a thematic focus on music of the Middle
Ages and Renaissance. They are intended to broaden the student’s knowledge of different
types of music composed during these periods as well as the various contexts within which
they were placed. This will include consideration of analytical, repertorial, palaeographic,
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biographical, institutional, social and cultural aspects. A number of case studies,
complemented by directed reading and assignments, will explore the depth of historical and
musicological study and understanding and enable a student to address specific, focused
periods, topics and/or issues in which they have an interest.
Major (40 credits) and Minor (20 credits) Submissions are different in scope.
The choice of Early Music as Principal Subject entails that students make their Part II
submission in the area of Early Music as well.
WMM4044: Principal Subject: Early Music (40 credits): The Principal Subject module
represents the main area of specialisation chosen by the student for his/her MA studies and
also guides the selection of further areas of study (Open Submission). Normally, it lays the
foundation of a Part II project in the same area. Further details on course content are provided
in the individual module description for each Principal Subject area, given below.
WMM4046: Major Open Submission: Early Music (40 credits): The Open Submission is
chosen in a different area from a student’s Principal Subject module, but should complement
it in some manner. In particular, it is designed to enable someone with strengths in two very
different areas (e.g. Composition and Performance) to pursue both areas concurrently during
MA Part I. A student taking the ‘Open Submission’ module will follow a broadly similar
course of study to a student taking that same area as their Principal Subject, although there
will be no expectation of development beyond Part I.
WMM4047 and WMM4048: Minor Open Submission: Early Music (20 credits):
The Open Submission is chosen in a different area from a student’s Principal Subject module,
but should complement it in some manner. In particular, it is designed to enable someone
with strengths in two very different areas (e.g. Composition and Performance) to pursue both
areas concurrently during MA Part I. A student taking the ‘Open Submission’ module will
follow a broadly similar course of study to a student taking that same area as their Principal
Subject, although there will be no expectation of development beyond Part I.
Graduate School of the College of Arts and Humanities
QXE4032: Advanced Latin for Postgraduates (20 credits): This module is primarily for
postgraduate students following a medieval or early modern programme with a basic
grounding of Latin knowledge as is provided on the successful completion of HPH4018, for
example. This module is taught through eleven two-hour seminars and offers the opportunity
for postgraduates to enhance their linguistic competence in Latin and to learn about the
markets and readership for which a given number of Latin texts were produced. Particular
emphasis will be paid to the systematic development of advanced language skills and it is
envisaged that only those postgraduates who have completed a successful initial training in
Latin will be accepted onto this module.
Various module codes, including QXE4033 or QXE4034: Postgraduate Portfolio (10
credits): This module is designed to enable postgraduate students to pursue advanced level of
research through sustained pieces of writing on a research area to be determined by student
and tutor. This module offers the opportunity for the postgraduate to submit a portfolio of
work of independent research (guided by tutorial supervision) addressing an enquiry which
might not be on offer within the existing range of core and optional postgraduate modules
within the existing menu in the home CAH School. The intellectual format of the portfolio
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will be agreed by tutor and student and will present an ideal outlet in which to demonstrate
the student’s scholarly practices: the ability to construct carefully researched and organised
piece(s) of writing; the ability to abide by scholarly practices of notation and referencing; the
ability to engage at an advanced level with critical approaches to the chosen field of enquiry;
the ability to formulate argumentation at an advanced level.
Further information about the above modules is available directly from the Directors of
Graduate Studies in each contributing schools. Module availability depends on yearly internal
arrangements in each contributing school. For further details, contact the Directors of
Graduate Studies in each school: Dr Raluca Radulescu (r.radulescu@bangor.ac.uk in the
School of English), Professor Huw Pryce (a.h.pryce@bangor.ac.uk in the School of History,
Welsh History and Archaeology), Dr Christian Leitmeir (c.leitmeir@bangor.ac.uk in the
School of Music) and Prof. Peredur Lynch (p.lynch@bangor.ac.uk in the School of Welsh).
Part 2: Preparation of a 20,000 word dissertation on a subject related to medieval studies
agreed by your chosen supervisor. This preparation will involve a series of one-to-one
supervisory meetings during the summer, once Part 1 has been completed successfully.
Curriculum Map for MA in Medieval Studies
Part I
Semesters I and II: Core Module: KAH4401Understanding the Middle Ages (20 credits)
This module combines contributions from individual Schools from Bangor with guest
lectures and the Medieval Seminar Series, organised by the Centre for Medieval Studies
Semester II: Core Module: QXE4025 Manuscripts and Printed Books (30 credits)
Semesters I and II: Students may choose from one of the following optional modules:
Optional Modules
Welsh
CXC4012: Astudiaeth Unigol: 1 (40 credits)
English
QXE4030: Medieval Arthur (30 credits)
QXE4029: Medieval and Early Women’s Devotional Writing (30 credits)
QXE4016: Pre-Modern Travel (30 credits)
QXE4025: Manuscript and Printed Books (30 credits)
History, Welsh History and Archaeology
HPH4000: The Age of Llywelyn ap Iorwerth (40 credits)
HPH4002: The Archaeology of the Early Medieval Celtic Churches (40 credits)
HPH4017: Women and Power in the High Middle Ages (40 credits)
HPH4018: Medieval Latin (20 credits)
Music
WMM4044: Principal Subject: Early Music (40 credits)
WMM4046: Major Open Submission: Early Music (40 credits)
WMM4047 and WMM4048: Minor Open Submission: Early Music (20 credits)
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CAH Graduate School
QXE4032: Advanced Latin for Postgraduates (20 credits)
QXE4033 (or other module codes): Postgraduate Portfolio (10 credits)
Part II: The Dissertation (from any of the above Schools)
Administrative issues
Withdrawal and temporary suspension from course
Any postgraduate student who wishes to withdraw from their course or in exceptional
circumstances, wish to temporarily suspend their registration should complete the form
obtainable from the Academic Registry website and return it to the Student Records Office,
Academic Registry. Tuition Fees will be chargeable up to the date on which the form is
received by the Student Records Office.
MA Essay Submission Requirements
Part One essays and portfolios
At Part One, students should submit two copies of each piece of work, accompanied by a
plagiarism declaration form and a cover sheet to the Graduate School Administrator; the
stylesheet will follow the one required in the main discipline (and hence school) chosen by
the student.
Submission deadlines are distributed to students at the start of the academic year.
Extensions are granted at the discretion of the course co-ordinators. You may also wish to
speak to your supervisor.
New Penalties for Work Submitted Late:
Work submitted up to one week after the stated deadline will be marked but the mark will be
capped at 40%. A mark of 0% will be awarded for any work submitted 1 week after the
deadline.
The Dissertation
Students should submit two copies of the dissertation. The Grad School will provide further
information in August.
MA Assessment Procedures
All work at MA level is double marked. A sample of essays is sent to the external examiner
for moderation. The markers for work supervised predominantly on a one-to-one basis will
not normally include the tutor.
Unfair practice
The University takes very seriously any acts of ‘unfair practice’ by students and it is
important that all postgraduate students familiarise themselves with the University Code of
Practice on Plagiarism and with the Unfair Practice Procedure which can be found on the
Academic Registry website – www/bangor.ac.uk/regulations
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The student’s responsibility
(i) The research project is the student’s own work; the supervisor provides guidance.
(ii) To take the initiative in raising problems or difficulties, however elementary they may
seem.
(iii) The student should be open and explicit about needs and difficulties, and should be
considerate in demand of the supervisor’s time.
(iv) Each student is expected to make her/himself available at agreed times for supervisory
meetings.
(v) It is the student’s responsibility, where needed, to maintain contact with the supervisor
after the expiry of the period of registration.
(vi) In the event of inadequate progress or a breakdown in relationship with the supervisor, or
the necessity of changing topic which requires a change of supervision, it is the responsibility
of the student to alert the course organiser to the problem at an early stage and before the
situation becomes irretrievable
For further details, please refer to the “Postgraduate Diploma/Masters courses: A Student
Guide”.
Staff
School of English
Andrew Hiscock, BA, MA, PhD (Room 225, second floor, New Arts Building, Ext. 2563;
Professor. Email: els408@bangor.ac.uk). Educated at the Universities of Lancaster and
Bristol, he is a specialist in early modern literature, drama, and comparative literature. He has
published the following monographs: Authority and Desire: Crises of Interpretation in
Shakespeare and Racine (1996), The Uses of this World: Thinking Space in Shakespeare,
Marlowe, Cary and Jonson (2004); Reading Memory in Early Modern Literature (2011). He
has published widely in academic journals upon subjects in early modern literature and in his
other research interest, Canadian literature. Forthcoming edited books include (co-edited with
Helen Wilcox) Oxford Handbook of Early Modern Literature and Religion.
Sue Niebrzydowski, BA, MA, PhD, FHEA (Room 211, second floor, New Arts Building,
Ext 2111; Lecturer. Email: s.niebrzydowski@bangor.ac.uk). Educated at the Universities of
Birmingham, London and Warwick. A specialist in Medieval English Literature, her research
interests centre on women and the way in which late medieval texts attempted to construct
paradigms of womanhood. She has written Bonoure and Buxum: A Study of Wives in Late
Medieval English Literature (Peter Lang, 2006) and edited Middlle-Aged Women in the
Middle Ages (D. S. Brewer, 2011). She is currently engaged on research on medieval
presentations of Mary and how these are determined by contemporary constructions of
women. Her other publications include articles on Margery Kempe and other medieval
women’s writing, Chaucer, and medieval drama.
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Raluca Radulescu, BA, MPhil, PhD (Room 213, second floor, New Arts Building, Ext.
2110; Senior Lecturer. Email: els201@bangor.ac.uk). Educated at Bucharest and Manchester,
she is a specialist in Arthurian literature (especially Malory) and its late medieval cultural
context, popular romance, chronicles and their reception in their manuscript and cultural
contexts. Her major publications include a monograph, The Gentry Context for Malory’s
Morte Darthur (D. S. Brewer, 2003); and five edited collections of essays: Reviewing Le
Morte Darthur: Texts and Contexts, Characters and Themes (D. S. Brewer, 2005); co-ed.
Gentry Culture in Late Medieval England (MUP, 2005); Readers and Writers of the Brut
Chronicle (Trivium, 26, 2006); A Companion to Medieval Popular Romance (Cambridge,
2009) and Broken Lines: Genealogical Literature in Medieval Britain and France (Brepols,
2008). She is currently completing a monograph on the reception of romance in fifteenthcentury England.
School of History, Welsh History and Archaeology
Dr Kristján Ahronson Hon BA (Toronto) PhD (Edinburgh) FSA Scot (Room T13, Main
Arts Building, Ext. 3251/2144; Lecturer in Archaeology. Email: k.ahronson@bangor.ac.uk).
Dr Ahronson joined the School in 2006 from the University of Oxford. He gained his PhD
from the University of Edinburgh, having previously studied at the Universities of Toronto
and Iceland. Dr Ahronson is a specialist in the later prehistoric and early historic archaeology
of Atlantic Europe and North America, and is interested in how people interact with their
physical environments. He teaches archaeological theory and method, Atlantic archaeology,
palaeoecology, the history of archaeology, New World archaeology and Celtic studies.
Recently, he was Visiting Professor in Celtic Archaeology at the University of Toronto; and
his books include Viking-Age Communities: Pap-names and Papar in the Hebridean Islands
(BAR, 2007) and Into the Ocean (University of Toronto Press, forthcoming).
Professor Nancy Edwards BA (Liv) PhD (Dunelm) FSA (Room T5, Main Arts Building,
Ext. 2154; Professor. Email: n.edwards@bangor.ac.uk). Professor Nancy Edwards is
primarily interested in Early Medieval Wales, with a secondary interest in the work of Welsh
antiquarians from the 17th century onwards and how their research relates to changing
perceptions of Welsh identity. She is currently in the process of finalising a major monograph
on early mediaeval stone sculpture in North Wales, the third in a highly acclaimed,
groundbreaking series of studies of the subject for all of Wales.
Dr Sue Johns, B.A.(Hons), Ph.D, FRHS, FHEA (Room 222.4, ground floor, Main Arts
Building, Ext. 2149; Lecturer. Email: s.m.johns@bangor.ac.uk). Sue Johns researches the
high middle ages, specifically in relating perspectives on gender to historiographies of
lordship, power & authority, and to those of conquest and imperialism. Her work is
concerned with the nature of lordship and landed society in the High Middle Ages. Her book
on Noblewomen, Aristocracy and Power in the Twelfth-Century Anglo-Norman Realm
contributes to the history of medieval women in general and to the influence of gender on
lordship in particular. Her research therefore offers a reinterpretation of the factors at play in
the development of events in the period from the Conquest to the early thirteenth century.
Her current research on Nest of Deheubarth discusses gendered perspectives on power and
politics, imperialism and nationalism. She continues to research charter material to elaborate
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new approaches to the reading of charters and seals from a gendered perspective. Other areas
of interest include the importance of charter evidence and the Norman influence in the
Channel Islands, as well as cruelty and ethnicity in the twelfth century.
She is also co-investigator on a major AHRC-funded research project in collaboration with
Aberystwyth University. The Seals in Medieval Wales project began in 2009 and will digitise
the seals held in the National Library of Wales. There will be a major exhibition of seals at
the National Library in 2012 and a conference at Aberystwyth which has international
speakers from around the world.
Professor Huw Pryce MA DPhil (Oxon) FRHistS FLSW (Room 222.3, ground floor, Main
Arts Building, Ext. 2151; Professor. Email: a.h.pryce@bangor.ac.uk). Huw Pryce has
extensive interests in the history of Wales. He is co-editor of the Welsh History Review and
one of the editors of Boydell’s monograph series Studies in Celtic History. In 2011 he was
elected a Fellow of the Learned Society of Wales. Professor Pryce has published widely on
medieval Wales, including an edition of the documents issued by native Welsh rulers, and
organized biannual colloquia on medieval Wales at Bangor since 2004. In addition he is
interested in the historiography of Wales, the subject of his most recent book: a study of the
historian John Edward Lloyd (1861–1947), who was Professor of History at Bangor and the
author of the pioneering work A History of Wales from the Earliest Times to the Edwardian
Conquest (1911). He is also co-organizing a conference to mark the centenary of the
publication of Lloyd’s History: Writing Welsh History 1850–1950: Conference (20–22 July
2011).
Professor Rex Smith BA (London), MA, PhD (Cantab), MA (Wales) (Lecturer. Email:
grexsmith@yahoo.co.uk). Professor Smith is an emeritus professor of the University of
Manchester and honorary professor in the School of History, Welsh History and
Archaeology, Bangor University. He teaches an ab initio course in medieval Latin in the
School and directs and advanced medieval Latin reading group. He has taught Islamic
history in the universities of Cambridge, Durham and Manchester and has published widely
on Islamic, in particular, Arabian history, including several monographs. He is now working
in the field of medieval Welsh history, specializing in the extents of the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries and has published several articles on these. He is currently working on
the 1391-93 extents of the lordship of Chirk, producing a critical edition and annotated
translation of the Latin texts of the extents which are to be published next year as a
monograph.
School of Music
Professor John Harper (Research Professor. Email: jharper@icsmus.org). John Harper is
RSCM Research Professor of Music and Liturgy, and Director of the new International
Centre for Sacred Music Studies (ICSMuS) at Bangor. He is also Emeritus Director of The
Royal School of Church Music and a Visiting Scholar at Sarum College, Salisbury.
He was previously Director General, The Royal School of Music (1998-2007); Professor of
Music and Head of the Music Department at Bangor (1991-8); Lecturer in the Faculty of
Music at Oxford University and Organist, Informator Choristarum, Tutor and Fellow of
Magdalen College, Oxford (1981-90); and Lecturer in Music at Birmingham University
(1976-81).
His teaching has been wide ranging (from the 10th to the 20th centuries), and has included
historical, applied and practical courses, including opera studies at both Birmingham and
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Bangor. His earlier research was in early 17th-century ensemble music. However, music in
the liturgy has always been a central concern. This has manifested itself in choral direction,
choral composition, liturgical innovation, and historical research. His guide to Western
liturgy (1991) is used worldwide.
While Professor of Music at Bangor he founded the Centre for Advanced Welsh Music
Studies and the bilingual musicological journal, Hanes Cerddoriaeth Cymru/Welsh Music
History, and he has a strong commitment to Welsh culture.
Dr Sally Harper (Music Annexe, Ext. 2126; Senior Lecturer. Email:
s.e.harper@bangor.ac.uk). Born near Dudley in the West Midlands, Sally Harper is a
graduate of Birmingham University and completed her doctorate in 1989 at Oxford
(Magdalen and Brasenose colleges). Following a brief period in academic administration at
the University of Warwick, she began teaching at Bangor in 1991 and subsequently
discovered a passion for Wales, its culture, and its language. She became Director of the
Centre of Advanced Welsh Music Studies (CAWMS) in 2002 and also edits the bilingual
journal Welsh Music History/Hanes Cerddoriaeth Cymru. She was elected a Fellow of the
Royal Historical Society in 2006.
The main focus of Sally's research is shaped by her dual role as Director of CAWMS and
editor of its journal. She works to promote the study of Welsh music and music in Wales in
the widest sense, to raise its profile, and to seek dialogue with those working in other areas of
regional musicology and in Welsh and Celtic studies at a general level. Her specific area of
expertise within this broad framework is one that has previously attracted little serious
scholarly attention – the music of Wales before 1650, with particular emphasis on its wider
cultural context.
This area is also complemented by a long-standing interest in music and Christian liturgy,
and its articulation in various institutions. Her doctoral thesis (published in 1993) was an
examination of special liturgical observance in English Benedictine houses before the
Reformation, with particular reference to the formation of the Office of the Dead and the
Office of All Saints, and to specific devotions honouring the Virgin Mary or local saints. She
has also explored features of the pre-Reformation liturgies of the Scottish and Irish churches,
and (at the opposite end of the spectrum) music for the contemporary church, with particular
reference to inclusive worship.
Sally Harper is co-director of the Bangor Pontifical Project, and part of the core research
team for the AHRC/ESRC Religion and Society project, ‘The experience of worship in late
medieval cathedral and parish church’. She has also contributed to the web-based AHRC
dafyddapgwilym.net project, and led a related AHRC research project on the performance of
medieval vernacular verse in Wales, Ireland and Scotland.
Dr
Christian
Leitmeir
(Music
Annexe,
Ext.
3258;
Lecturer.
Email:
c.leitmeir@bangor.ac.uk). Christian Thomas Leitmeir (born 1974 in Donauwörth, Germany)
joined the School of Music at Bangor as Lecturer in February 2007. Having read
Musicology, Comparative Literature, Philosophy and Theology at the University of Munich,
he completed his his MMus degree in Musicology at King’s College London (1999) and in
2003 obtained his doctorate from the Karl-Eberhards-Universität Tübingen. His thesis, a
monograph on the Flemish composer Jacobus de Kerle, won the Dissertation Award of the
University. Between 2003 and 2006 he held a Long-Term Frances A. Yates Research
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Fellowship at the Warburg Institute (School of Advanced Studies, University of London) and
taught as external tutor at several colleges in Oxford.
A specialist in medieval music theory, 16th-century sacred music and musical palaeography,
he has wide-ranging interests in other periods of music history as well as other subject areas,
which feeds into interdisciplinary research with colleagues from Theology and Art History.
He is serving as Editor of Musik in Bayern, yearbook of Gesellschaft für Bayerische
Musikgeschichte, and Treasurer to the Plainsong and Medieval Music Society and is on the
editorial board of the Journal of the Alamire Foundation.
School of Welsh
Professor Jerry Hunter BA MPhil PhD (Room 5, Professor’s Corridor, Main Arts, Ext.
2244; Professor. Email: j.hunter@bangor.ac.uk). Professor Jerry Hunter is a Celtic scholar
who possesses an international perspective. He is also an enthusiastic advocate for the Welsh
language and literature. Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, where he studied for his initial
degree, he later learned Welsh with the aid of the WLPAN course at Lampeter. He went on
to earn a MPhil for his research into the lore in the Middle Welsh prose tales at University of
Wales, Aberystwyth before returning to his homeland to study for a PhD at Harvard
University. His research project formed the basis of his first book-length study, Soffestri’r
Saeson (2000), an investigation into histriography and identity during the Tudor Age which
was placed on the short list for the Book of the Year Award by the Arts Council of Wales in
2001. Following his period at the Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures, Harvard
University he returned to Wales, this time as a Lecturer in the Department of Welsh, Cardiff
University. He joined the academic staff of the School of Welsh at Bangor University in
2003.
His research interests are rich and varied, ranging from Welsh medieval prose to the
twentieth-century fiction of Kate Roberts and from the sixteenth-century chronicle of Elis
Gruffydd to Welsh literature in America during the nineteenth century. This particular field –
American-Welsh writing – has proven to be highly successful: the television documentary
series Y Cymry a Rhyfel Cartref America (‘The Welsh and the American Civil War’) gained
a BAFTA Cymru award and the research for the series led to Llwch Cenhedloedd: Y Cymry a
Rhyfel Cartref America (2003) which was named Book of the Year in 2004.
In 2006, the AHRC awarded Professor Jerry Hunter a major research grant to fund an
investigation into Language, Religion and Print Culture in the Welsh Diaspora. This has
resulted in the formation of a cross-disciplanary research network focusing on the Welsh
migration to North and South America. Organised by the Welsh Institute for Social and
Cultural Affairs (WISCA), during 2006/2007 international experts will be meeting at Bangor
University to discuss a number of related issues. Using ideas on identity from outside the
humanities, and drawing on comparisons with other migrant groups, the aim is to reconsider
the ways in which Welsh identity was preserved and adapted in both North and South
America. A secondary aim is to appreciate the role of myth, symbol and subjective
understandings of the past in that process, and to study the imaginary connections between
migrants and the homeland and the homeland and migrants.
Professor Jerry Hunter collaborated again with Cwmni Da, the Caernarfon-based media
company, and the documentary series on Wales and slavery, America Gaeth: Y Cymry a
Chaethwasanaeth yn America, which was transmitted on S4C in 2006. His eagerly awaited
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study of Welsh writing from the American Civil War, Sons of Arthur, Children of Lincoln,
was published by University of Wales Press in 2006/2007.
Professor Peredur Lynch BA PhD (Room 4, Professor’s Corridor, Main Arts, Ext. 2245;
Professor. Email: p.i.lynch@bangor.ac.uk). Professor Peredur I. Lynch is a native of Carrog
in the old county of Merionethshire. After graduating in Welsh at Bangor, he was employed
between 1985 and 1990 as a Research Fellow at the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic
Studies, Aberystwyth. He was then appointed to a lectureship in the Department of Welsh at
the University of Wales, Swansea and returned to Bangor as a lecturer in 1995. He was
awarded a Chair in 2005 and served as Head of the Welsh Department between 2003 and
2006.
He is an expert on the Poets of the Welsh Princes and made a major contribution to Cyfres
Beirdd y Tywysogion (‘The Poets of the Princes series’) (Cardiff: University of Wales Press,
1991-96), the groundbreaking critical edition of their poetry. He is also a renowned authority
on the development of cynghanedd (an intricate feature of traditional Welsh strict-metre
poetry): his survey of Dafydd ap Gwilym’s cynganeddion – the most exhaustive analysis to
date – was published in 2003 in Cyfoeth y Testun, eds Daniel et al. (Cardiff: University of
Wales), 109–47. Between 2002 and 2005 he led a research project on prophetic Welsh poetry
of the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. The project was supported by the AHRC,
and its findings will he published in October 2007.
During 2004–5 he also co-directed a research project, with Dr E. Wyn James of the School of
Welsh, Cardiff University, to prepare an online index of eighteenth-century Welsh ballads.
The project was supported by the Language and Literature Committee of the University of
Wales’s Board of Celtic Studies.
At the 1997 National Eisteddfod he was invited to deliver the University of Wales Eisteddfod
Lecture entitled “Problemau Prifysgol” : Saunders Lewis a Phrifysgol Cymru’ (‘“University
problems”: Saunders Lewis and the University of Wales’).
In 2004 he delivered the J. E. Caerwyn and Gwen Williams Memorial Lecture:
'Proffwydoliaeth a Chenedligrwydd yng Nghymru'r Oesoedd Canol' (‘Prophecy and
natioality in medieval Wales’). He has also adjudicated in the Chair competition of the
National Eisteddfod of Wales on two occassions (2002 and 2005), and is a regular
broadcaster.
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