![Rebecca Thomas](https://profiles-cardiff.imgix.net/attachments/4294?w=200&h=200&auto=format&crop=faces&fit=crop&q=90")
Dr Rebecca Thomas
Senior Lecturer in Medieval History
School of History, Archaeology and Religion
- Welsh speaking
Overview
I specialize in the history, culture, and literature of medieval Wales. The process of creating Welsh identities in medieval texts is my main research interest, and my book on this subject, History and Identity in Early Medieval Wales, was published by Boydell & Brewer in April 2022. This volume examines the features used as signs of identity in ninth and tenth century Latin and Welsh textuaries, including names, territory, language, and legends of origin. Intertextuality is a crucial theme, and I explore the influence of texts from other parts of Britain and Europe on Welsh strategies of creating identities. This volume was awarded the Francis Jones Prize for Welsh History 2022. In 2023, I was awarded the Learned Society of Wales's Dillwyn Medal for contribution to the humanities and creative arts.
I'm also interested in political and cultural links between Wales and the wider world in the Middle Ages. My research in this area includes a discussion of Welsh royal pilgrimages to Rome in the ninth and tenth centuries, and a study of the Irish Sea connections of the Welsh king Gruffudd ap Cynan (m. 1137). I am currently working on the evidence of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles of welsh-english relations in the eleventh century.
My interest in Welsh identities extends to other periods and I am working on a study of medievalism, identity, and language in twentieth-century Welsh nationalist writing.
Projects
2023-present: 'Dindschenchas y Cymry' [The Welsh Dindschenchas'] (funded by the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol)
2019-22: British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship ('Writing the World of Medieval Wales')
2019: Research Assistant, Vitae Sanctorum Cambriae Project (AHRC project, University of Cambridge and Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies)
Creative Writing
I also write creatively and have published two medieval historical novel for young adults: Dan Gysgod y Frenhines, (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2022); Y Castell ar y Dŵr, (Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2023).
In 2022, I was appointed the Welsh Writer in Residence for Bannau Brycheiniog National Park to work on a creative project responding to the nature and climate crises. My novel written as part of this project, Anturiaethau'r Brenin Arthur, was published by Gwasg Carreg Gwalch in 2024.
My essay on landscape and place names in south Wales, 'Cribo'r Dragon's Back', won the inaugural O'r Pedwar Gwynt essay prize in 2021.
Publication
2023
- Thomas, R. 2023. Kaerarthur, Cathedra Arthuri: Enwau Hanesyddol Pen y Fan. Studia Celtica 57(1), pp. 1-14. (10.16922/SC.57.1)
2022
- Thomas, R. 2022. History and identity in Early Medieval Wales. Studies in Celtic History. Boydell & Brewer.
- Thomas, R. 2022. An Irish sea king?: Ethnicity and legitimacy in the Vita Griffini filii Conani and Historia Gruffud vab Kenan. In: Raffensperger, C. A. ed. Authorship, Worldview, and Identity in Medieval Europe. Routledge, pp. 238-255.
- Thomas, R. 2022. The Context of the Hywel Dda Penny. In: Allen, M., Naismith, R. and Pagan, H. eds. Interpreting Early Medieval Coinage: Essays in Memory of Stewart Lyon. The British Numismatics Society, pp. 87-98.
2021
- Callander, D. and Thomas, R. 2021. Amser yn Armes Prydein Vawr. Studia Celtica 55(1), pp. 1-28. (10.16922/SC.55.1)
- Thomas, R. 2021. Ystyr anghyfiaith mewn testunau Cymraeg Canol. Studia Celtica 55, pp. 75-96. (10.16922/SC.55.4)
- Thomas, R. 2021. Cribo'r Dragon's Back. O'r Pedwar Gwynt 17, pp. 13-15.
2020
- Thomas, R. 2020. Three Welsh Kings and Rome: royal pilgrimage, overlordship, and Anglo-Welsh relations in the early Middle Ages. Early Medieval Europe 28(4), pp. 560-591. (10.1111/emed.12430)
- Thomas, R. 2020. Geoffrey of Monmouth and the English past. In: Byron Smith, J. and Henley, G. eds. A Companion to Geoffrey of Monmouth. Brill, pp. 105-128.
- Thomas, R. 2020. The view from Wales: Anglo-Welsh relations in the time of England's Conquests. In: Ashe, L. and Winkler, E. J. eds. Conquests in Eleventh-Century England: 1016, 1066. The Boydell Press, pp. 287-306.
- Guy, B. et al. eds. 2020. The chronicles of Medieval Wales and the March: New contexts, studies, and texts. Brepols.
2019
- Thomas, R. 2019. The Vita Alcuini, Asser and scholarly service at the court of Alfred the Great. English Historical Review 134, pp. 1-24. (10.1093/ehr/cez005)
2018
- Thomas, R. 2018. Remembering the 'Old North' in Ninth- and Tenth-Century Wales. Peritia 29, pp. 181-201. (10.1484/J.PERIT.5.118491)
2017
- Thomas, R. and Callander, D. 2017. Reading Asser in early medieval Wales: the evidence of Armes Prydein Vawr. Anglo-Saxon England 46, pp. 115-145. (10.1017/S0263675118000066)
0
- Thomas, R. . Chronicling Gruffudd ap Llywelyn in the eleventh century. Welsh History Review
Articles
- Thomas, R. 2023. Kaerarthur, Cathedra Arthuri: Enwau Hanesyddol Pen y Fan. Studia Celtica 57(1), pp. 1-14. (10.16922/SC.57.1)
- Callander, D. and Thomas, R. 2021. Amser yn Armes Prydein Vawr. Studia Celtica 55(1), pp. 1-28. (10.16922/SC.55.1)
- Thomas, R. 2021. Ystyr anghyfiaith mewn testunau Cymraeg Canol. Studia Celtica 55, pp. 75-96. (10.16922/SC.55.4)
- Thomas, R. 2021. Cribo'r Dragon's Back. O'r Pedwar Gwynt 17, pp. 13-15.
- Thomas, R. 2020. Three Welsh Kings and Rome: royal pilgrimage, overlordship, and Anglo-Welsh relations in the early Middle Ages. Early Medieval Europe 28(4), pp. 560-591. (10.1111/emed.12430)
- Thomas, R. 2019. The Vita Alcuini, Asser and scholarly service at the court of Alfred the Great. English Historical Review 134, pp. 1-24. (10.1093/ehr/cez005)
- Thomas, R. 2018. Remembering the 'Old North' in Ninth- and Tenth-Century Wales. Peritia 29, pp. 181-201. (10.1484/J.PERIT.5.118491)
- Thomas, R. and Callander, D. 2017. Reading Asser in early medieval Wales: the evidence of Armes Prydein Vawr. Anglo-Saxon England 46, pp. 115-145. (10.1017/S0263675118000066)
- Thomas, R. . Chronicling Gruffudd ap Llywelyn in the eleventh century. Welsh History Review
Book sections
- Thomas, R. 2022. An Irish sea king?: Ethnicity and legitimacy in the Vita Griffini filii Conani and Historia Gruffud vab Kenan. In: Raffensperger, C. A. ed. Authorship, Worldview, and Identity in Medieval Europe. Routledge, pp. 238-255.
- Thomas, R. 2022. The Context of the Hywel Dda Penny. In: Allen, M., Naismith, R. and Pagan, H. eds. Interpreting Early Medieval Coinage: Essays in Memory of Stewart Lyon. The British Numismatics Society, pp. 87-98.
- Thomas, R. 2020. Geoffrey of Monmouth and the English past. In: Byron Smith, J. and Henley, G. eds. A Companion to Geoffrey of Monmouth. Brill, pp. 105-128.
- Thomas, R. 2020. The view from Wales: Anglo-Welsh relations in the time of England's Conquests. In: Ashe, L. and Winkler, E. J. eds. Conquests in Eleventh-Century England: 1016, 1066. The Boydell Press, pp. 287-306.
Books
- Thomas, R. 2022. History and identity in Early Medieval Wales. Studies in Celtic History. Boydell & Brewer.
- Guy, B. et al. eds. 2020. The chronicles of Medieval Wales and the March: New contexts, studies, and texts. Brepols.
Research
My research interests in the field of medieval history include:
- Connections between Wales and the wider world
- Identity construction
- Historical writing and origin legends
- Language, multilingualism and the translation of Latin texts into the vernacular
- Intertextuality and scholarly networks
- Nations and nationalisms
I am also interested in the reception of the medieval past in modern Wales.
Teaching
I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
I have taught extensively at Cardiff, Bangor, KCL, and Cambridge in the following fields: medieval history (especially Britain and Wales); History in Practice; Welsh identity and culture (medieval and modern); Welsh Language and Literature. I have supervised undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations on topics relating to medieval and modern Wales.
Biography
Academic Positions
2024: Senior Lecturer in Medieval History, Cardiff University
2023-2024: Lecturer in Medieval History, Cardiff University
2019-23: British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow, Bangor/Cardiff University
2019: Research Assistant, Vitae Sanctorum Cambriae Project (University of Cambridge; University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies)
Education and Qualifications
2019: PhD, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, University of Cambridge (funded by an AHRC Full Doctoral Training Partnership Award; honorary Vice-Chancellor awrad (University of Cambridge); St John's College Cambridge scholarship)
2015: MPhil, Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, University of Cambridge (funded by a St John's College Cambridge scholarship)
2014: BA History, University of Cambridge
Other positions
2014-19: Research Assistant, Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles
2017-18: Teaching Assistant, King's College London
Honours and awards
Learned Society of Wales's Dillwyn Medal for contribution to the Humanities and Creative Arts 2023
Francis Jones Prize for Welsh History 2022 (awarded for History and Identity in Early Medieval Wales)
Professional memberships
Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Associate Lecturer, Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol (cross-university Welsh-medium organisation)
Committees and reviewing
Executive Committee Member, International Society for the Study of Medieval Languages and Literature
British Academy Publishing and Conferences Committee (Humanities, Early Career Representative)
Editor for History, Studia Celtica
Editorial Board Member, Medieval Documentary Cultures (Boydell)
Contact Details
+44 29225 12385
John Percival Building, Room Room 2.64, Colum Drive, Cardiff, CF10 3EU
