Department of History and Classics College of Arts and Humanities Research Specialisms and Supervisory Interests 1
The Department of History and Classics research expertise extends from the ancient cultures and languages of Greece, Rome and Egypt to the history of late twentieth-century Europe. Our staff are not only leading scholars in their field but also committed to teaching and public engagement. We work with museums, heritage bodies and the media to promote the public knowledge of history and classics. Our staff have published a wide range of books and articles and the last Research Assessment Exercise placed Swansea as the highest-rated research unit for history in Wales. We are part of the Research Institute for the Arts and Humanities (RIAH) and also a number of research groups which act as focal points for staff and postgraduates. These are: The Callaghan Centre for the Study of Conflict, Power and Empire; The Richard Burton Centre for the Study of Wales; The Centre for Ancient Narrative Literature (KYKNOS); The Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Research (MEMO); The Centre for the Comparative Study of the Americas; The Centre for Research into Gender in Culture and Society (GENCAS) and Research Group for Health, History and Culture (RGHHC). The research of our staff and postgraduates is integral to the life of the department and it means that Swansea is a vibrant, exciting and stimulating place to study. We offer three distinct research degrees, each of which requires you to conduct original research on a specific topic: A PhD (100,000 word thesis; three years full-time - five years part-time) An MPhil (60,000 word thesis; two years full-time - four years part-time) An MA by Research (30,000 word thesis; one year full-time - two years part-time) Entry Requirements PhD entry requirements are an upper second degree plus a Master s degree in a relevant subject. M.Phil and Master s by Research applicants must have a minimum of 2.1 at undergraduate level or relevant Professional qualifications. International applicants should have a minimum IELTS of 6.5 or equivalent. Students may enrol in September, January, April or July. How to Apply Applications can be made to either the University s Admissions Office or look at the website - www. swansea.ac.uk/postgraduate, where you will find the on-line application form and details of current fees. Contact Potential applicants are most welcome to contact the Arts and Humanities Graduate Centre admissions team for more details and advice on designing a research proposal, email: COAHGradCentrePGRAdmissions@swansea.ac.uk. For further information on staff research specialisms, please contact: Dr. Martina Minas-Nerpel email: m.minas-nerpel@swansea.ac.uk Dr. Fritz-Gregor Herrmann email: f.g.herrmann@swansea.ac.uk Visit our staff pages for full information on staff research expertise and supervisory interests: www.swansea.ac.uk/artsandhumanities/aboutus/ 2
Professor Huw Bowen Specialist Subjects: The economic, imperial, and maritime history of Britain during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries - with particular research interests in the history of the East India Company and British interactions with Asia. Dr. Evelien Bracke Specialist Subjects: Greek and Roman myth and language; literacy in modern Wales; Latin teaching methods in the 21st century. Dr. Rebecca Clifford Specialist Subjects: Post-1945 French and Italian history; oral history; memory studies; the Holocaust and gender studies. Dr. Jonathan Dunnage Specialist Subjects: 20th century European policing and police culture; 20th century European dictatorships; allied occupation of Europe -1943-1947. Dr. Stefan Halikowski-Smith Specialist Subjects: History of Portugal; Portuguese empire; Spice Trade; Economic History; Maritime and Imperial History; Early Modern History; Counter-Reformation overseas missions; history of piracy; comparative histories of European expansion. Dr. Fritz-Gregor Herrmann Specialist Subjects: Ancient philosophy; Greek language and literature; Roman literature; Latin language; Comparative Philology; Ancient History. Professor Mark Humphries Specialist Subjects: Late Antiquity (especially political and religious history); Early Christianity in the Roman World; Roman Cities (especially Late Antique Rome and Aquileia); Political and Cultural Interactions between Rome and Persia in Late Antiquity; Modern Historiography of Classical Antiquity and Early Christianity. Dr. Leighton James Specialist Subjects: Modern History; European History; Napoleonic Wars; Military History; Central Europe; Labour History. Dr. Martin Johnes Specialist Subjects: Modern Wales; Leisure and Sports History (especially Boxing, Football and Rugby), Local Government; Contemporary History, post-1945 Britain. Dr. Christoph Laucht Specialist Subjects: Modern Britain, Germany and the United States, especially 20th century social, cultural, political and transnational history; the history of the Cold War and the nuclear age; the history of science, technology and medicine; film and history. Dr. John Law Specialist Subjects: Late-medieval and Renaissance Italy, Venice; History of art; Medieval Studies. Dr. Gethin Matthews Specialist Subjects: Wales and the First World War; Welsh communities overseas; Welsh society and culture from the Victorian era to the early twentieth century. 3
Dr. Louise Miskell Specialist Subjects: Urban and industrial history in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain. Dr. Chris Millington Specialist subjects: Twentieth-century France, political violence, fascism, veterans and aftermaths of conflict, the First World War, policing and police culture. Professor John Morgan Specialist Subjects: Ancient fiction, narrative literature, reception, and literary theory. Dr. Adam Mosley Specialist Subjects: History of Science; Astronomy; Cosmology; Cosmography; History of the Book; Epistolography and Correspondence Networks; Scientific Instruments; History of Intellectual Property; History of Collecting; Museology; Early Modern History. Dr Eddie J. Owens Specialist Subjects: Roman History; Graeco-Roman archaeology; Graeco-Roman city and urban life; water supply, drainage and civic amenities; sport and games; Roman Britain. Dr. Nigel Pollard Specialist Subjects: Cultural property protection in conflict zones, both modern and historic, particularly the work of the Allied Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Sub-Commission (the Monuments Men ) in the Second World War; Roman history and archaeology, especially the relationship between the ruling elites of the empire and its subjects; the Roman army; Roman Syria, Egypt, Africa and Italy. Dr. Regina Pörtner Specialist Subjects: Early Modern History (1450-1800): Reformation, eighteenth-century British and international history, legal history, political thought. Professor Daniel Power Specialist Subjects: Europe in the Central Middle Ages (11th 14th centuries), especially the Anglo- Norman realm, Angevin Empire, and Capetian France; the Albigensian Crusade; medieval frontier societies. Dr. Maria Pretzler Specialist Subjects: Ancient Greek geography and travel writing, Greek literature in the Roman imperial period (Second Sophistic), especially Pausanias; Greek history, particularly of the Peloponnese, small Greek city states, Peloponnesian league. Dr. Ian Repath Specialist Subjects: Ancient prose fiction, especially the Greek and Roman novels; names, allusions, and intertextuality in Greek and Latin literature; literary aspects of Plato. Dr. Tracey Rihll Specialist Subjects: History of science; history of technology; science and technology studies; ancient history; military history; slavery; invention and innovation; technical education in antiquity. Dr. Troy Sagrillo Specialist Subjects: Ancient Egyptian history with an emphasis on the Third Intermediate and Late Periods; ancient Egyptian foreign relations with north Africa and the Levant; Afro-Asiatic comparative linguistics; archaeological illustration and epigraphy. 4
Professor John Spurr Specialist Subjects: British History; Seventeenth-Century England; Religious History; Early Modern History. Dr. Matthew Stevens Specialist Subjects: Later medieval social, economic and legal history, e.g the urban history of Wales; immigration and ethnic integration (especially English/Welsh-Irish and German/Slavic); women s history; and the evolution of Common Law. Dr. Kasia Szpakowska Specialist Subjects: Egyptology (Middle Kingdom-New Kingdom-early Third Intermediate Period); private ritual; religion, magic, demonology; archaeology of religion, clay cobra figurines and snake cults; Late Bronze Age religious interactions with the Near East and Mediterranean; gender, childhood, health, medicine, technology and daily life; dreams and nightmares. Professor David Turner Specialist Subjects: Disability History, Social and Cultural History, Medicine, Gender, Marriage, Emotions, Britain c.1650-1850. Professor Maurice Whitehead Specialist Subjects: History of Education; Jesuits; English Catholicism; The Grand Tour; Early Modern History. Professor Kevin Williams Specialist Subjects: Media history; health and communication; European media; the mass media and national identity in small nations. Dr. Deborah Youngs Specialist Subjects: Later Medieval Britain; England s Aristocracy; Literacy and Book Ownership; Aging and the Life Cycle; Medieval Studies. Dr. Katharina Zinn Specialist Subjects: Egyptology, Art and architecture of Ancient Egypt, material culture, museum, heritage, religion, ritual, gender, Bronze Age interconnections. 5
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