Archived news - The Welsh language and the Welsh overseas

A new initiative by Dr Jerry Hunter of the Welsh Department at the University of Wales, Bangor will open up the study of the Welsh overseas to expert scrutiny of an unprecedented kind.

Academics from a range of disciplines - and from across the world - will meet at Bangor to pool their expertise, drawing ideas from the study of other migrant groups and from the experiences and knowledge of various Welsh organisations.

Four meetings to be held across the next two years will focus discussion on the role of the Welsh language, religion and of print culture in maintaining a sense of Welsh identity, both in the USA and in Patagonia. They will also look at the inter-action between Welsh migrants' language and culture and that of the host nation. A further session will look at the way emigration from Wales has been depicted and appreciated within Wales, and become part of the Welsh sense of identity.

University academics with specific areas of expertise will lead individual sessions, notably; Professor Densil Morgan (Theology), Professor Margaret Deuchar (Linguistics) and Professor Duncan Tanner (History) with support from Dr Bill Jones of The Cardiff Centre for Welsh American Studies.

The funding for this programme comes from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, one of the bodies which funds research in the UK. This project forms part of a larger programme of research on 'Diasporas, migration and identities'. The programme is organized by the Welsh Institute for Social and Cultural Affairs at Bangor, which will host the sessions.

Dr Jerry Hunter was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is Senior Lecturer in Welsh at the University of Wales, Bangor. He previously taught at Harvard University and the University of Cardiff. His book on the Welsh in the American Civil War won the Welsh Arts Council 'Book of the year' award in 2004. A three hour television series based on that book, 'Cymry y Rhyfel Cartref America', won the prestigious BAFTA Cymru 'Gwyn Alf Williams Award' in 2005.