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This year’s O’Donnell Lecture will be delivered by Dr Alex Woolf.

The annual lecture is organised by the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies. The O’Donnell Lectures in Celtic Studies were founded in 1954 and are delivered annually at the Universities of Edinburgh, Oxford and Wales. This year the lecture will be entitled ‘Comparisons, Continuities, and Contacts in Early Insular History’.

Dr Alex Woolf grew up in East Sussex and was educated at the University of Sheffield. He has lectured in Archaeology at Lampeter, in Celtic and Early Scottish History at Edinburgh, and since 2001 in Scottish and Medieval History at the University of St Andrews. He has published widely on topics ranging from Roman Britain to the Kingdom of the Isles.

Dr Alex Woolf said, ‘The study of early medieval Britain and Ireland has, for a variety of reasons, tended to be broken down into relatively isolated sub-disciplines, each focusing on one of the modern nations or upon the speakers of the principal vernacular language of each. This was exactly the kind of approach that Charles James O’Donnell intended to break down when he endowed these lectures. In this lecture, I shall look at a series of cross-cultural comparisons across these islands, asking whether the similarities we observe in institutions and literary motifs are the product of shared inheritance from an earlier substratum, the results of borrowing, or simply similar responses to similar ecological conditions, both natural and cultural’.

Professor Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones, Director of the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, said ‘We very much look forward to this year’s O’Donnell lecture which will be delivered by Dr Alex Wolf. The lecture will be an excellent opportunity to hear a renowned specialist’s insights into cross-cultural comparisons in the early medieval period across these islands.’

The lecture will be held live in the Drwm, National Library of Wales, and online via Zoom on Thursday, 23 May at 17:00.

Email cawcs@wales.ac.uk to register for the live event or to receive the Zoom link. 

This is a free event. Tea will be served at 16:30. 

A warm welcome to all!

Notes for Editors 

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, which is celebrated its centenary in 2021:   

Further Information

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