I seem to have no shortage of new projects going on at the moment - no bad thing giving my impending redundancy (though that's a story for another day)! What with end of year marking, job hunting, thesis prep (yes, the viva is still on the to-do list), our burgeoning Cyfarwydd organisation, forthcoming book chapters and an array of articles, I can't complain for want of things to do. That being said, I've recently had the pleasure of adding the Nomos Journal to that list.
The Nomos Journal is an interesting new digital publication, exploring connections between faith and popular culture. Today saw the launch of my column, which explores this relationship, perhaps unsurprisingly, through heritage. These two fields have significant overlap, and it seemed appropriate to get things started with a look at the increasingly fragile state of intangible cultural heritage in Wales. The column will be running on a quarterly basis, and I'm looking forward to the July addition. In the meantime, the theme for this month's column can be found below, and the rest of the column can be read at: http://nomosjournal.org/columns/2014/04/heritage-songs-the-decline-of-a-cultural-tradition/ Wales is a nation defined by a number of cultural stereotypes. Of these, singing and the choral tradition is one of the most heavily exported visions of Wales. The cultural origins for this intangible form of heritage are rooted in a faith-based non-conformist background, but as Wales becomes increasingly secular, what future does the singing tradition of Wales have?
0 Comments
The Chartists Live twitter feed continues to grow on a daily basis. In the last week, the second Devizes riot has just occurred, leaving some of the more prominent Chartists physically battered, and literally chased out of the town. Meanwhile, a new article has just gone live on the Journal of Victorian Culture Online, which introduces the Chartists Live project, and provides some historical contextualization for the live historical tweets that are being posted on a daily basis. The paragraph below contains the introduction to the article, with the rest of the text available at the Journal of Victorian Culture Online: 'Politics is boring, we are often told. Every party, apart from the colour of their rosettes, seems to offer pretty much the same thing when it comes to policy and personality. So disconnected are voters with the modern breed of candidates, that in recent decades, some 30 percent of the electorate have seemingly disenfranchised themselves by just not bothering to vote at all, and that’s on a good day. Yet, 175 years ago, on November 4th, people fought and died for that very opportunity. The candidates may have been disliked no less than they are today, perhaps more so, but the right to have a say was something that thousands would knowingly risk their lives for. Debate over the relative success of the Chartist movement continues, but success or failure, it retains a striking legacy that remains a potent symbol for political reformers today.' With 5 minutes to spare, it's hard to resist typing random words into the Welsh Newspapers Online collection. Today's word, for no particular reason, 'camel'. The result, the tale of Camel running amok through St Helen's, Swansea...excellent!
|
Archives
January 2018
Categories
All
|