Taster Sessions

22/01/2025, 5pm - I'm not a cat, but who am I? Catfishing and the Law in England and Wales - Catfishing, the act of creating a false online persona to deceive others, often for personal, financial, or emotional gain, has increased exponentially in recent years due to the popularity of social media and dating apps. This lecture gives an overview of the current law relating to this issue in England & Wales, the ethical and social implications of catfishing, and how social media platforms and dating apps can increase their capacity to prevent such acts and better protect people from becoming potential victims. Secure your spot—register here

02/02/2025, 11am - The British Empire – how the world fought back - As the old saying goes, the sun never set on the British Empire. At its height on the eve of the First World War in 1914, it occupied a quarter of the world’s surface and population, emerging as the world’s largest empire. But Britain’s later hegemony masks a much more complicated earlier history in which colonial expansion was fiercely resisted by a pre-modern world which was in many cases more culturally sophisticated, economically wealthier, and militarily powerful than Britain. From the septs of Ireland and the chiefdoms of North America, to the kingdoms of West Africa and the empires of Asia, the British Empire was encountered and resisted in surprising ways; ways which, more often than not, reshaped the course of Britain’s Empire. Secure your spot—register here

12/02/2025, 5pm - Sex, Scandal and Celebrities: Valentine’s Special - Join Dr Mari Elin Wiliam for a Valentine’s Special exploring how – way before Love Island - celebrities’ pursuit of love and desire often led to scandal, sensationalism and controversial morality debates. Taking case studies from 20th century Britain and America, the session will argue that celebrity scandals are far more than just escapist ‘gossip’. In fact, they’re deeply useful in revealing attitudes towards sex, gender and LGBTQ+ issues. Using photographs, historical newspapers and interviews we’ll be discussing scandals spanning Jazz Age flappers, Hollywood stars, royalty and, unavoidably, a few philandering politicians as well. Registration coming soon. Stay tuned for updates and be ready to sign up!

16/02/2025, 11am - Vikings: A murder mystery - Archaeologists discovered five skeletons on Anglesey all dating to the Viking age. Each skeleton showed signs of a violent death and received no proper burial. Join Dr Leona Huey to discover who are the victims; who are the murders; and what might their motives be? We will use the archaeological finds of the site, the historical record, and our understanding of the Viking Age in Wales to piece together the clues to solve this 1000-year-old murder mystery. Registration coming soon. Stay tuned for updates and be ready to sign up!

25/02/2025, 5pm - Death and the Victorians - Why were the Victorians so obsessed with death? Queen Victoria herself plunged into an intense period of grieving following the death of her husband, Prince Albert, and famously only wore black for the rest of her life. Death was a common feature of Victorian life and a frequent visitor to homes across the social classes. During this Sunday session, you’ll explore with Dr Lowri Ann Rees some of the more elaborate rituals of death and bereavement, and how the Victorians chose to remember the departed. Registration coming soon. Stay tuned for updates and be ready to sign up!

05/03/2025, 5pm - Digging up the past: Life on an Iron Age Hillfort - This talk will explore how Iron Age communities living in northwest Wales lived. We will explore the development of new hilltop enclosures – called hillforts – which were places where larger communities started to form in the first millennium BC. These monuments are still highly visible in the landscapes today and they represent the action of large groups of people. Many of the foundations of modern day life were laid down during this period, but as we shall see in this talk, groups in the Iron Age had very different ways of viewing the world than we do today! The presentation will focus in particular on recent research on our excavations of the small hillfort of Meillionydd on Pen Llŷn. Registration coming soon. Stay tuned for updates and be ready to sign up!

09/03/2025, 11am - Sadistic Saints and Unruly Rulers? - We think of saints as holy and miraculous people who spent their lives doing good- so basically nice, but a bit boring. During this session you’ll find out that Welsh saints were anything but boring, more likely to have you melted like wax than turn the other cheek. We’ll discover more about the types of aggressive behaviours they were infamous for and exploring how typical these Welsh saints were in the medieval period. The rulers that clashed with them over and over again are interesting portrayals of how archetype Welsh rulers were as far from model kings as the Welsh saints were from being saintly cherubs. Registration coming soon. Stay tuned for updates and be ready to sign up!

16/03/2025, 11am - The Good, the Bad, and the Sickly: Dictators as Political Leaders - Dictators fascinate and frighten in equal measure. Yet, how they use their power can tell us a great deal about them, or certainly how they are perceived. Some are remembered positively as founding fathers, while others are remembered negatively, being variously mad, bad, and dangerous to know. We will think of them as political figures and leaders and try to consider how they governed and how they presented themselves. Exploring examples from the familiar Hitler to the less familiar Saparmurat Niyazov. We see how, with dictators, myths, misrememberings, and propaganda often shape our understanding of these often-flawed political figures. Registration coming soon. Stay tuned for updates and be ready to sign up!