RESEARCH
The work of Swansea historians covers a wide range of periods and places: from the early Middle Ages to the present day, and from Britain and Europe to Asia and the Americas. We study the past and its enduring significance through a variety of approaches - cultural and intellectual, social and economic, legal and medical, political and military – and apply our insights to contemporary issues such as medical care, heritage preservation and interpretation, history education in schools, national identities, disability, and mental health. RESEARCH PROJECTS AND PARTNERSHIPS Swansea historians work with external partners and funders to generate nationally and internationally significant academic research, and research with internationally significant impact. Our external partners include museums and other kinds of heritage organisations, local government, the private sector, and academic societies and educational institutions. Examples of current projects in which we are partners include Envisioning Margam Castle, which will use virtual reality to interpret one of Wales’ foremost heritage assets, and Beyond Borders: The Second World War, National Identities and Empire in the UK, which considers concepts of ‘Britishness’ across the four nations of the United Kingdom and will generate new resources for schools in conjunction with the Imperial War Museum. Students have opportunities to participate in research through our History Work Placement module and paid internships.
RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS Dr Michael Bresalier recently published Modern Flu: British Medical Science and the Viralisation of Influenza, 1890-1950 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2023), which traces the history of the discovery of the human influenza virus and the ways in which this triggered a series of transformations in medicine and public health. He is part of a team that has been awarded £2.8 million by the Wellcome Trust to study injustices in healthcare provision over the next six years. Dr. Imogen Dobie has just joined the Swansea history team from Oxford University, where she completed her doctorate in December 2023. Her area of expertise is a highly topical one: the work of humanitarian organisations in relation to refugee and migrant sea-crossings. Her article ‘Rocking the Boat: Maritime Rescue and the Professionalization of Relief, 1978-82’, was published in European Review of History in 2022. Dr Tomás Irish ’s most recent book, Feeding the Mind: Humanitarianism and the Reconstruction of European Intellectual Life, 1919-1939 (Cambridge University Press, 2023), examines how European intellectual life was rebuilt after the cataclysm of the First World War. It considers why, faced with millions threatened by starvation and disease, many organisations chose to focus on assisting intellectuals, giving them food, medicine, and books in order to stabilise European democracies and build a peaceful international order.
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