Summer 20158 www.wales.ac.uk/alumni CampusThe Magazine for University of Wales Alumni nn Alumna wins Wales Drama Award nn Graduation Celebration 2015 nn Expansion in Swansea nn The speeches of HRH the Prince of Wales nn Bhawana Ghimire: Batting for Nepal nn Alumni Association Branch and Section News Welcome from your Alumni Officer Welcome to the Summer 2015 edition of Campus. Welcome Encompassing such a broad range from the Vice-Chancellor of people, the University of Wales Alumni Association includes members s the University continues through the process who have held a University of Wales (UW) award for many years, as well as of its on-going transformation through merger students who have only just graduated A with the University of Wales Trinity Saint and were in attendance at the recent David, there are many opportunities for exciting Graduation Celebrations in Cardiff. developments and joint initiatives. Some will have studied at an institution in Wales, and others will have studied for Working in partnership with the University of Wales their UW award at one of our UK and Trinity Saint David, the Government of Wales and international Collaborative Centres. with other academic and civil institutions in Wales, the transformed University will continue the long historic Whenever you graduated, or whatever tradition of developing and delivering educational services which will celebrate institution you attended, we hope you the distinctiveness of Wales and support the aspirations of a dynamic country feel proud of your connection with the which plays its part on an international stage. University and we are keen to ensure that the Association continues to One such partnership is the creation of a vibrant new multi-million pound grow, supporting our members and university campus in Swansea on the SA1 Swansea Waterfront. This prime facilitating better two-way liaison and waterfront location in the heart of the city will transform the educational communication. experience for staff and students, connecting academia with innovation, enterprise, businesses and the community. Phase one is already underway with This magazine aims to keep members up plans to create a vibrant Waterfront Innovation Quarter, which will encompass to date and informed about University the Dylan Thomas Centre and business incubation buildings in Technium Square. news and the achievements of fellow Alumni, and I very much hope you enjoy More information about the development can be found within this magazine. reading this latest edition of Campus. Within a period of strategic change, and as we look to the future, we should Jocelyn Keedwell not forget our past. The University supports, and is responsible for, a range of Communications Officer (Alumni) academic and cultural initiatives which reflect the very best of the history and [email protected] legacy of the University of Wales. The creation of Adduned Cymru – The Wales Pledge ensures that these services are safeguarded, and further information about how the various charitable trusts and strategic initiatives will work will be On the Cover available later on in the year. Situated in the Maritime Quarter of Wales’ second city Swansea, the Dylan Thomas Centre is one of the city’s most iconic Alongside these developments, it has been another busy year for the University, buildings. Opened in 1825, the University and I hope you enjoy reading about some of the other activities which have took over the lease of the building in 2011 taken place during the past couple of months, and the achievements of our significantly investing in renovations at the Alumni members. Centre. Professor Medwin Hughes DL DPhil DPS FRSA Contents Vice-Chancellor John V. Kelleher Lecture 2015 Graduation Bhawana Ghimire: New University Website Celebration Batting for Nepal Celebrating our 3 Honorary Graduates 6 10 Bravo Aberystwyth The University in Swansea Further Study Opportunities Alumna wins The speeches of Alumni Association Branch Wales Drama Award 4 HRH the Prince of Wales 8 and Section News 12 2 Campus: The Magazine for University of Wales Alumni 3 CAWCS Reader University delivers prestigious launches new John V. Kelleher Lecture merger website Organised and hosted by the Department of Celtic Languages and Literatures of Harvard University, the Annual Harvard Celtic Colloquium has been attracting students and scholars from around the world since 1981. Continuing with the process of merger with its sister institution in Wales, the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, in March the University launched a new merger website using the newly created .Cymru/.Wales Dr Ann Parry Owen domain name. Welcoming papers dealing with any meaning at the expense of fulfilling the Designed to sit alongside our existing aspect of the Celtic languages, their technical requirements of the metre. website, the new website has been literatures and their cultures in any created specifically to keep interested period, the Colloquium is held each year Speaking about her subject matter, parties and stakeholders up to date in October, and opens with the John V. Dr Parry Owen explained: with the latest developments and news Kelleher Memorial Lecture. “Whereas the mainstay of the about the merger, as well as to provide professional poet’s output was traditional information about joint initiatives This year, Dr Ann Parry Owen, Reader at praise poetry and elegies composed under and projects. The website is still in the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic commission, an amateur gentleman-poet, development, and will continue to grow Studies (CAWCS) and project leader of such as Ieuan Gethin, had more freedom and evolve. The Poetry of Guto’r Glyn project, was to sing on topics that appealed to him. invited to deliver the 11th Kelleher lecture Only ten of his poems have survived, but Our main website (www.wales.ac.uk) on her work on medieval Welsh poetry. each one is a gem, giving us a unique will remain an important source of insight to many aspects of life in fifteenth- information for those who wish to keep The John V. Kelleher Lecture century Wales.” up to date with University news, as well as commemorates Harvard’s first professor hosting invaluable Alumni resources and of Irish Studies. John Kelleher was a CAWCS’ links to the Department of Celtic information. distinguished scholar and legendary Languages and Literatures of Harvard teacher in many areas, and in inviting the University goes back to the early days of The University is keen to hear views from Kelleher Lecturers, the organisers seek out the Centre. Professor Catherine McKenna, as many people as possible on both the the finest scholars in the world of Celtic the Harvard Chair of Celtic Studies, new website and the strategic direction studies, and speakers whose range and collaborated on the Centre’s first research of the University, taking them into depth is worthy of John Kelleher’s legacy. project, The Poets of the Princes. consideration as it consults on a range of proposed strategic initiatives. Entitled “An audacious man of beautiful Speaking about her time in Cambridge, words” Ieuan Gethin (c.1390–c.1470), Massachusetts, Dr Parry Owen said: The Stakeholders’ Voice section on the Dr Parry Owen’s lecture discussed the new website provides an opportunity little-known fifteenth-century gentleman- “The audience appreciated the wide for people who have an interest in the poet of Baglan, near Swansea. Ieuan scope of the topics covered in the poetry, University to offer their comments, Gethin was described by a contemporary as well as their entertainment value. I feel as a prifardd (chief poet), and was really grateful to the Department of Celtic Please visit www.university.wales very accomplished at composing in Languages and Literatures at Harvard cynghanedd, the downfall of many a for inviting me, and for their extremely lesser poet who often sacrificed sense and generous hospitality.” Photo: Trevor Martin Photography Photo: Trevor Bravo Aberystwyth In October 2014, as part of a season of programmes commemorating the First World War on BBC Radio Cymru, Dr Marion Löffler, University of Wales Research Fellow, co-researched and presented a programme which took on the thorny subject of racism and jingoism at the outbreak of war, recounting the October 1914 expulsion of German residents from her adopted home town of Aberystwyth. Produced by independent company and waiters in sea-side hotels who were Brittany, Ireland, Scotland and Wales, the ‘Unigryw’ for BBC Radio Cymru, Bravo driven away, were not recorded. Festival’s aim is to promote the languages Aberystwyth tells the story of Hermann and cultures of the Celtic countries on Ethé, a German Professor of Eastern Speaking about the programme, screen and in broadcasting. The Festival Languages at Aberystwyth, who was Dr Löffler explained: was held in late April where attendees hounded out of the town by a jingoistic came together for three days of seminars, mob in October 1914. “We made the programme to screenings of new productions and commemorate a darker and therefore awards ceremonies at Inverness in the Hermann Ethé was 70 and had worked neglected side of the First World War Highlands of Scotland. and lived Aberystwyth since 1876, one of in Britain. Foreign nationals, especially the first members of staff at the ‘College Germans, of all classes and religions Speaking about being selected for the by the Sea’. He was forced to leave were persecuted in the towns and cities prize’s shortlist, she said: overnight, never to return to his chosen of England and Wales during the ‘Great home town, and died two years later. He War’. Even the royal family was affected “Being short-listed for the prize was an was not the only German to receive such by this, changing their name to Windsor. honour and a great achievement for a treatment, but the names of the cooks For those less elevated than them, Welsh-language radio programme.