Welsh and Celtic Studies

You may have an interest in the social history of minority languages and the manner of their survival in the modern world. How did Welsh survive the industrial revolution? What was the fate of the Welsh diaspora in north America and its own Welsh-language literature? What of the Welsh communities in Patagonia, Argentina? What is the connection between Welsh and the growth of nationalism in modern Wales? How does the Welsh literary tradition develop in recent times of multiculturalism and devolution? If you are intrigued by such questions, please get in touch with us.

Bangor University’s School of Welsh and Celtic Studies runs an exchange programme with Harvard University’s Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures, enabling students from each institution to spend a semester studying at the other. Harvard is recognised as one of the leading educational establishments in the world, and in addition to world-leading research facilities in most areas of the Humanities, its libraries contain outstanding collections of Welsh and Welsh-language materials.

It’s a very exciting time for graduates leaving University with a qualification in Welsh. With the statutory demand for pupils to study Welsh at school until the age of 16, there is a growing demand for teachers, both primary and secondary, with good qualifications in the subject. Traditionally many of our students, who go on to do research for a postgraduate course, often end up lecturing at colleges and Universities.

The School of Welsh and Celtic Studies has research expertise in all major areas of Welsh literature and its staff also includes some of the most prominent writers and poets in contemporary Wales, such as Professor Angharad Price, Professor Jason Walford Davies, Professor Jerry Hunter and Professor Gerwyn Wiliams. We also work closely with other academic Schools in the University, e.g. with History and Welsh History in the field of Celtic Studies and with Modern Languages in the fields of translation studies and comparative literature.

The main aim of our research is to place Welsh literature in new intellectual contexts. At Bangor, the objective remains to study Welsh literature not as remnants of a 'Celtic' past but as a manifestation of a viable literature that belongs to the modern world.