Our research spans a number of different interests, from textual exegesis to critical theory, and crosses time, from ancient Egypt and early Greek narrative to modern performance, passing though the literatures of the Roman Empire, the Chinese world, the Middle Ages, and the Early Modern period.
Our primary focus is the spoken and written word. Creative writing publications in prose, poetry and drama sit alongside and are informed by, research on contemporary texts. Interests lie through as well as within time periods: for instance, in the reception of the epic tradition or the portrayal of the nightingale.
Stimulus is given through cross-over with interests in science (as shown by the study of texts in the context of anatomy) and material culture (as evidenced by a project on the literary depiction of Roman textiles).
Narratological literature continues to be a focus of study for the Classicists since the founding in 2004 of KYKNOS, the Swansea and Lampeter Centre for research on the narrative literatures of the ancient world.
Research Activities
The Cult of Saints in Wales (Prof. Jane Cartwright)
AHRC-funded research project- transcriptions, editions and translations of hagiographical texts, along with images of the manuscripts and public lectures will be made available throughout 2017 on the project website.
Middle English Texts (Dr William Marx, FLSW, FEA, FRHS)
William Marx is one of three general editors for the series Middle English Texts; the other general editors are Dr Margaret Connolly from the University of St Andrews and Professor Hans Sauer of the University of Munich. This is a long-term international project to make available critical editions of previously unpublished texts composed in or translated into Middle English. The series is published by Universitätsverlag Winter, Heidelberg. It was established in 1975 and to date has published 54 volumes, with a number of editions in preparation. Volume editors are from the UK, Germany, Spain, Italy, South Africa, US, Canada, and Japan.
William is a Member of the Council of the Early English Text Society.
In press or in preparation
Bunt, Gary. ‘The Qur’an and the Internet’, chapter in Maria Dakake and Dan Madigan, Eds. Routledge Companion to the Qur’an (in press)
2021
Hudis, Rosalind. Restorations. Bridgend: Seren Books, 2021. https://www.serenbooks.com/productdisplay/restorations
Parkes, Ruth. 'Finding the tragic in the epics of Statius', in Elements of tragedy in Roman imperial epic edd. A. Marinis and S. Papaioannou (Trends in Classics, Supp. Volume 103) (2021, De Gruyter)
Slater, Angus M. “Relationality and the Gadamerian ‘Horizontverschmelzung’: Khaled Abou El Fadl.” ReOrient, vol. 6, no. 1, 2020, pp. 47–64. https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.13169/reorient.6.1.0047
Williams, Dominic (with Mel Perry). "A critical account of the development of Spoken Word events and settings in Wales in collaboration with partners in Sweden and Ireland", in Spoken Word in the UK edd. L. English and J. McGowan. London: Routledge, 2021.
2020
Jansen, Thomas. “The Sacralization of Landscape as Memory Space in Early Medieval China.” In: R. Haeussler, E.M. Betts, G. F. Chiai (eds.). Sacred Landscapes: Creation, Manipulation & Transformation. Oxford: Oxbow, 2020, pp. 277-283.
Öhrman, Magdalena (2020) The Soundscape of Textile Work in the Roman World: Old Sources & New Methods. In: Cooper K (ed.) New Approaches to Ancient Material Culture in the Greek and Roman World. Monumenta Graeca et Romana 27. Leiden, p 183–200.
Öhrman, Magdalena (2020) Work Gendering Space? Roman Gender, Textile Work and Time in Shared Domestic Space. In: Harlow M et al (eds) Textiles and gender in antiquity. From the Orient to the Mediterranean. Bloomsbury, London, p 135-152.
Zinn, Katharina. Creation and conservation of Sacred Landscapes: Amarna and Abydos – keeping the spirit alive? In: R. Haeussler, E.M. Betts, G. F. Chiai (eds.). Sacred Landscapes: Creation, Manipulation & Transformation. Oxford: Oxbow, 2020, pp. 297-310.
Zinn, Katharina. Literacy in Pharaonic Egypt: Orality and Literacy between Agency and Memory. In: A. Kolb (ed.). Literacy in Ancient Everyday Life - Schriftlichkeit im antiken Alltag. Berlin, Boston: De Guyter, 2018, 67-98.
Zinn, Katharina. The Museum of Lies: Incorrect facts or advancing knowledge of ancient Egypt? Journal of History and Cultures (2019) – Special Issue 10: Myth and Magic: Interdisciplinary Readings of the Reception of Ancient Egypt. 165-190. Available online https://historyandcultures.files.wordpress.com/2019/11/journal-of-history-and-cultures-issue-10-nov-2019.pdf
2016
Bunt, Gary. ‘Social Media and the Internet’, in Macmillan Encyclopaedia of Islam and the Muslim World, Richard C. Martin (editor), (New York: Macmillan Reference, 2016)
Cartwright, Jane (ed.). The Cult of St Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2016).
Jansen, Thomas. “Embodied spirituality and self-divinization: A re-reading of the Legend of Princess Miaoshan.” In Exploring the Materiality of Food “Stuffs”: Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives. Ed. by Louise Steel and Katharina Zinn. London: Routledge, 2016, pp. 103-117.
Marx, William, ‘St Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins: the Middle English Legenda aurea Tradition’, in The Cult of St Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins, ed. by Jane Cartwright (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2016), pp. 143–62.
Marx, William, ‘Peculiar Versions of the Middle English Prose Brut and Textual Archaeology’, in The Prose Brut and Other Late Medieval Chronicles: Books Have Their Histories, Essays in Honour of Lister M. Matheson, ed. by Jaclyn Rajsic, Erik Kooper, and Dominique Hoche (Woodbridge: York Medieval Press, 2016), pp. 94–104.
Parkes, Ruth. 'Claudian (Claudius Claudianus)''. In Oxford Bibliographies in Classics. Ed. Dee Clayman. New York: Oxford University Press. 2016.
Williams, Catrin H. “Text and Experience: Reflections on ‘Seeing’ in the Gospel of John”, in B. Schmidt (ed.), The Study of Religious Experience (London: Equinox, 2016), 135-50.
Williams, Jeni. “Place, Space and Self: Site-Responsive Art in a Globalised World”, Journal of Writing and Creative Practice special edition: Place-based Arts (January 2016)
2015
Parkes, Ruth. ‘Reading Statius Through a Biographical Lens', in C. Newlands, W. Dominik, and K. Gervais (edd.), Brill's Companion to Statius (Brill, 2015), 463-78.
Parkes, Ruth. 'Love or War? Erotic and martial poetics in Claudian's De Raptu Proserpinae', Classical Journal 110.4 (2015), 471-92.
Marx, William, ‘Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales, MS Peniarth 12: The Development of a Bilingual Miscellany – Welsh and English’, in Insular Books: Vernacular Manuscript Miscellanies in Late Medieval Britain, ed. by Margaret Connolly and Raluca Radulescu, Proceedings of the British Academy, 201 (Oxford: Oxford University Press for the British Academy, 2015), pp. 247–62.
A selection of recent events
March 2017: Dr Maria Fleischhack, Leipzig University “Narrating Ancient Egypt: Egypt in the 19th and early 20th century Victorian Literature”
February 2017: Dr William Marx, ‘John Warrin’s Great Book: National Library of Wales MS 5006’, Aberystwyth Bibliographical Group, Methodist Centre, Aberystwyth.
November 2016: Dr Amy Maitland, UCL “Hands in Context: Gesture, Communication and Meaning in Maya Art”
January 2016: BANEA Conference Sacred Nature & Structuring the Sacred: Constructing and Re-Writing Sacred Landscapes in the Ancient Near East. Convenors: Dr Ralph Haeussler (UWTSD), Gian Franco Chiai (BBAW, Berlin)
November 2015: Dr Peter Mitchell, ‘Pilgrimage “into the maine”: Anatomical and Colonial Encounter in Works by John Donne and Samuel Purchas’, The Marcher Metaphysicals, Gregynog Hall, Powys: conference of the George Herbert Society and the Vaughan Association, organised by Bangor University and Aarhus Universitet.
September 2015: Dr William Marx, ‘Middle English Texts: Past, Present, and Future’, conference ‘Editing and Interpretation: Literatures of Medieval England’, University of Hull.
July 2015: Dr William Marx, ‘Refashioning the Life of St Ursula: Chronicle and Legend’, conference ‘Telling Tales: Manuscripts, Books and the Making of Narrative’, Early Book Society Conference, Saint Anne’s College, Oxford.
Academic year 2016-17: Extracurricular interactive workshops with Dr Maria Fleischhack (Leipzig University) on narrating history and cultures, covering Creative Writing, English, History and Egyptology:
- The many faces of Sherlock Holmes
- The Return of the Mummy – Ancient Egypt and the British Empire
The Faculty publishes its own student-led journal of undergraduate research, The Student Researcher.
