Martin Wright

Publication

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Research

I have published books about the relationship between Wales and socialism in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century and, in collaboration with Professor Nick Mansfield, about the material and visual history of the British labour movement in the long-nineteenth century. I am currently working on a collection of source materials relating to Welsh politics from the 1870s to the 1920s, which will be published by Routledge later in 2025.

I see the history of the labour, socialist and radical movements as an integral part of our society, and as a fascinating window through which to view history. I am particularly interested in the relationship between universalist ideas (such as socialist) and more locally rooted political and social movements.

Teaching

I teach widely across the history curriculum.

In year one, I teach on and convene Inventing a Nation: Heritage, Culture and Politics. I also contribute seminar teaching to History in Practice.

In year two, I teach on Politics and the People in Modern Britain, and supervise students on Debating History. I have also taught Chwyldro, Diwylliant a Radicaliaeth, 1789-1914.

In year three, I teach The Making of British Socialism, and supervise Dissertation students.

At MA level, I contribute to Reading Welsh History, as well as supervising dissertations.

Biography

I studied for my first degree at the University of Wales (Lampeter), from where I graduated with a BA (Hons.) in 1987 and an M. Phil (for a thesis on late-Victorian British Socialism) in 1992. From 1994 until 2004, I worked in adult education, at Aberystwyth's Centre for Continuing Education, teaching history of all sorts in numerous locations across mid-Wales. From 1997-2004 I served as Administrator, then Manager, of the Centre, taking responsibility for the delivery of an extensive programme of adult education over half the land area of Wales. I subsequently worked as a researcher at the University of Huddersfield and a Welsh for Adults teacher in Ceredigion, before returning to a career in research at Cardiff University in 2007. I completed my PhD, on the socialist movement in late-Victorian and Edwardian Wales, in 2011, and was appointed as a Lecturer in History at Cardiff in 2011. I am currently senior lecturer in History, and have responsibility for delivering teaching in both English and Welsh.

Supervisions

I have successfully supervised PhDs in variety of fields. Recent PhDs completed under my supervision include a study of Monmouthshire politics in the early twentieth century, a study of the impact of the New Poor Law of 1834 in Wales, a study of the late-Victorian university administrator Viriamu Jones and a study of environmental change in Monmouthshire in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. I am currently supervising a PhD project on the emergence and nature of the middle class in Mountain Ash in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century.

I am open to discussions about PhD supervision in the field of modern British and Welsh history (i.e from the 1780s to the present). I am particularly interested in supervising PhDs on any aspect of the radical, socialist and working class movements. 

Current supervision

Jeremy Morgan

Past projects

Recently completed PhDs include:

James Phillips, From Culture to Tradition: The Political Landscape of Monmouthshire, 1918-1929 (2020)

William Christophides, John Viriamu Jones and Welsh Idealism (2023)

Liam Burke, The Poor Law in Wales (2023)

Phillip Allsopp, Searching for the Metabolic Rift in NIneteenth Century Monmouthsire (2024)