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Dr Jenny Day of the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies will be a plenary speaker at the 2023 Celtic Studies Association of North America Conference.

Dr Jenny Day’s plenary paper will be entitled, ‘Continuity and identity in the Cistercian abbeys of late-medieval Wales: the poets’ view’.

This lecture explores the Welsh and Cistercian identities of these houses and their abbots, drawing upon the evidence of late-medieval Welsh poetry. Themes considered include the placing of the abbeys in the landscape, how their individual, princely founders and patrons were remembered, and references to Welsh saints such as Beuno and Dewi and to the Cistercian founder-figures St Bernard and St Benedict. Medieval Cistercian monasteries such as Strata Florida and Valle Crucis are part of the landscape and history of Wales, but before their dissolution they were also part of a powerful, international religious Order with its roots on the Continent.

This prestigious conference will take place online on 16-19 March 2023. Dr Jenny Day is a Research Fellow at the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies in Aberystwyth, with a particular interest in medieval Welsh literature and what it can reveal about the contemporary society, landscape and material culture. She began her research career working on depictions of weapons in medieval Welsh poetry and has been a team member in a series of collaborative projects. These have included AHRC-funded projects on the poetry of Guto’r Glyn, medieval Welsh saints’ Lives, and the ‘Sacred Landscapes of Medieval Monasteries’, from which this lecture derives. She is currently working with Professor Ann Parry Owen of CAWCS and colleagues from Cardiff University and Swansea University on a project to create new editions of the Welsh Merlin poetry, also funded by the AHRC.

Professor Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones, Director of CAWCS, said:

‘I’d like to congratulate Dr Jenny Day on the invitation to present a plenary session at CSANA 2023. It is testimony indeed to her international standing in the field of Celtic and Medieval studies.’

Email eska@vt.edu to register.

Note to Editor

Contact: Dr Angharad Elias (Admin Officer) a.elias@wales.ac.uk

1. The Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies (CAWCS) was established by the University of Wales in 1985 as a dedicated research centre conducting team-based projects on the languages, literatures, culture and history of Wales and the other Celtic countries. It is located in Aberystwyth, adjacent to the National Library of Wales, which is an internationally-renowned copyright library with excellent research facilities.
2. CAWCS offers unique opportunities for postgraduate students to work alongside specialists in a dynamic and supportive environment. We welcome enquiries about MPhil/PhD topics in any of our research areas. For more information about research opportunities, or for an informal chat about possible topics, contact our Head of Graduate Studies, Dr Elizabeth Edwards: e.edwards@wales.ac.uk
3. CAWCS is the home of the Dictionary of the Welsh Language.

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