Celebrating Our Centenary: A Community University on the World Stage Swansea 2020 Public Lecture Series

Registration is required

Register at: http://bit.ly/2uFJwWL


This event is part of the Centenary series

Speaker

Launch of the Centenary Essays Website / Lansio Gwefan Traethodau’r Canmlwyddiant
Prof Hywel Francis, Lecture Series Co-ordinator
Prof Paul Boyle, VC
Sian Williams, Head of Special Collections

Lecture / Darlith:
Dr Sam Blaxland

Refreshments available from 1pm / Lluniaeth ar gael o 1yh

Speaker's Biography

Dr Sam Blaxland was born and raised in Pembrokeshire. He attended Tasker Milward comprehensive school before reading history at Cardiff University. He graduated with a first class honours in 2012, and gained a Masters degree in 2013. From 2013 - 2016 he studied for a PhD at Swansea University, which was fully funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. Sam's thesis was on the Conservative Party in Wales, 1945-1997, and the research for this took him all around the country, including long stints in the Bodleian Library in Oxford. Since the end of 2016, Sam has been a Post-doctoral Fellow in History at Swansea University, where he has been researching and writing his book on the history of the University to mark its centenary this year. Alongside this, he is also a Tutor in Modern History and lectures on various aspects of twentieth century British and European politics and society. Since 2017, Sam has been a regular contributor to the Welsh and British broadcast media as a television and radio political pundit, including stints on BBC Breakfast, BBC News at 6, and the BBC's 2019 overnight general election results coverage.

From: 21 Jan 2020, 1 p.m.
To: 21 Jan 2020, 3 p.m.
Location: Taliesin Arts Centre, Swansea University, Singleton Park, SA2 8PZ, Swansea

We are pleased to invite you to attend the launch of the Centenary Essays Website, followed by a lecture by Dr Sam Blaxland - 'Campus and Community: Writing the History of Swansea University'

The primary purpose of this talk is to kick-start the centenary lecture series by providing a very brief overview of Swansea University's rich and fascinating history. It will also cover how Sam Blaxland approached writing a centenary history volume to mark this occasion. His forthcoming book Swansea University: Campus and Community in a Post-War World, 1945-2020 is a deliberate break from most 'top-heavy' narrative institutional accounts. He will discuss how he approached the topic in this way and why he focused on themes like the evolving nature of academia, changes in youth culture, the shifting nature of the relationships forged between staff and students, and the way in which the University - or 'the College' as it was known for most of its existence - interacted with its wider communities. He will also cover why he chose to begin the study in 1945. The book is also different to most other institutional histories in that research for it involved a large and wide-ranging oral history project. This lecture will demonstrate how the testimonies of past students, academic, and non-academic staff have added depth and colour to the book's analysis.

This event is free.

All welcome!


Contact: South Wales Miners' Library (Email: miners@swansea.ac.uk) - Telephone: 01792 518603


Event created by: m.orford