Gwerddon Fach publishes short academic articles to give a wide audience a taste of the latest research by leading academics from Wales and beyond As well as publishing popular versions of longer articles that are published in Gwerddon's own e-journal, people are welcome to contribute short articles of around 600 - 1,000 words about any research that interests a wider audience - whether it's a report on their own and their colleagues' latest research, a response to major discoveries, public policy and current affairs or discussions, a report on the proceedings of an academic conference, or a simple introduction to complex research topics. If you are interested in contributing an article, please download the guide (see below) and contact Dr Hywel Griffiths, Assistant Editor Gwerddon: hmg@aber.ac.uk. Website: https://golwg.360.cymru/gwerddon
Gwerddon Fach on Golwg 360 - contribute an article
Gwerddon - contribute an article
Gwerddon is a Welsh-medium academic e-journal which publishes research in the Arts, the Humanities and the Sciences twice a year and which conforms to the academic guidelines of the Research Excellence Framework 2014. The journal has two main aims, which are to stimulate and encourage first-class academic discussion across as wide a range of subjects as possible through the medium of Welsh and thereby to create a store of scholarly material for the use of research students and academics. Gwerddon is funded by the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol. Website: http://gwerddon.cymru
Huw L. Williams, 'Y Llwybr tuag at Heddwch Parhaol: John Rawls a’r Athrawiaeth Rhyfel Cyfiawn'
John Rawls’s just war doctrine is primarily interpreted as an elaboration of Walzer’s theory. However, when considered in light of Rawls’s Kantian commitments and the utopian nature of his reflections on international relations in The Law of Peoples, his perspective on just war is distinctive and challenging. This Kantian influence leads to a nuanced doctrine with a commitment to peace as the regulative principle of war, characterised as principles of transitional justice that are never fully just. A sceptical perspective emerges that rejects extending the just war doctrine to humanitarian warfare. The Rawlsian statesman would be a dove, rather than a hawk, committed to the belief that war is an evil to be avoided and overcome, and that universal peace should be aspired to.
Gwerddon Fach on Golwg 360
Winner of the Welsh-medium resource award in the Coleg Cymraeg's annual Associate Lecturers Awards. Gwerddon Fach publishes short academic articles to give a wide audience a taste of the latest research by leading academics from Wales and beyond As well as publishing popular versions of longer articles that are published in Gwerddon's own e-journal, people are welcome to contribute short articles of around 600 - 1,000 words about any research that interests a wider audience - whether it's a report on their own and their colleagues' latest research, a response to major discoveries, public policy and current affairs or discussions, a report on the proceedings of an academic conference, or a simple introduction to complex research topics. If you are interested in contributing an article, please contact Dr Hywel Griffiths, Assistant Editor Gwerddon: hmg@aber.ac.uk.
Physical Education teachers’ perceptions of high-quality Physical Education in Welsh-medium schools across sou...
In a report in 2013, the Welsh Government suggested that raising the status of Physical Education (PE) to become a core subject, similar to Welsh and Mathematics, is an essential element in tackling the current obesity epidemic. However, PE lessons must be of a high quality in order to have a positive effect on pupils. PE teachers play a crucial role in delivering high-quality PE lessons; therefore, gaining an understanding of their perceptions about high-quality PE is essential. Interviews were held with ten PE teachers (seven males and three females) from Welsh-medium schools across south Wales. Similarities between the theory and teachers’ perceptions were evident, for example the importance of creating a positive learning environment. However, there were differences between the theory and practice, including lack of clarity about the term physical literacy. One implication of the study is the need to consult with PE teachers to design policies for high-quality PE. In the future, action research should be undertaken to promote the term physical literacy.
The invasive plant Rhododendron ponticum L.: Its introduction and establishment in Wales, the threat to biodiv...
Rhododendron ponticum L. is an evergreen, woody shrub, belonging to the Ericaceae family. Native to parts of Spain, the Caucasus Mountains and the Black Sea coast, it was introduced to Britain in the eighteenth century. It has since developed into one of Britain’s most problematic invasive species, causing ecological and economic damage. This article discusses the history of R. ponticumin Wales, considering the environmental and social factors which have contributed towards its success here. The current situation in Wales is explained, including the damage it causes and the efforts undertaken to manage its spread. To conclude, the paper will evaluate how future environmental challenges will affect R. ponticum’s spread in Wales.
'Ar wasgar hyd y fro': An experiment in inter-disciplinary reading
During the summer of 2010, as part of a project by Dr T. Robin Chapman and Dr Dafydd Sills-Jones, Welsh speakers of all generations and backgrounds were questioned about the poems of T. H. Parry-Williams, at the National Library and on the Eisteddfod field. The format was that of asking everyone to select a poem, to read it aloud, and then to explain why they had chosen it in an open-ended interview. The aim was to investigate the current status of the poetry of T.H. Parry-Williams, by analysing different readings on the basis of rhetoric and performance. Although no effort was made to secure a scientifically representative sample, both male and female readers were attracted, from different parts of Wales, and of all ages from early twenties to retirement age. It was expected that the project would raise questions about the reception given to the poems of T. H. Parry-Williams amongst the members of the public who took part in the experiment. Who would choose which poem? How would different performances of the same poem reveal geographical or generational differences? What would be the relationship between the performances and the reasons and stories that appeared during the interviews? There were also methodological questions to be resolved across an interdisciplinary gulf. How would audiovisual and literary techniques inter-relate? How would it be possible to analyse the readings, without following the usual interpretative trails? An exhibition of the interviews was staged in December of the same year in the form of a series of video screens showing the interviews in parallel and concurrent format. Although the project belongs to two similar analytical traditions, namely literary analysis and the analysis of film, the exhibition brought them together through a third tradition, exemplified in video artworks such as the audiovisual installations ‘Forty Part Motet’ and ‘Videos Transamericas’. Thus, this demonstrative/analytical mode posed a challenge to both researchers, and was an inventive journey into a new methodological domain. Although the researchers are agreed on the fundamental research question posed by the project, which is to seek to assess the position occupied by T.H. in Welsh culture thirty five years after his death, it became apparent during their collaboration that this was on the basis of markedly different ideas of the significance of the methods used and the findings obtained. Robin Chapman’s background is in recent Welsh literature. Dafydd Sills-Jones has experience of working in the field of documentary production, and is interested in the performing aspects of such productions. What follows is an epilogue where both use the project’s common ground to explain their methods to each other – and to themselves. The hope is that it will be a means not only for them to say something about our two disciplines, but that it will be an opportunity also to investigate in more general terms the (creative) tension that manifests itself in interdisciplinary collaboration.
The early response to Williams Pantycelyn by Saunders Lewis
Saunders Lewis’ Williams Pantycelyn (1927) was the most exciting and controversial work of literary criticism to appear in twentieth century Welsh letters. In ten memorable and often brilliant chapters, Lewis analysed the work of the eighteenth century hymnist not according to the usual Protestant norms but in terms of medieval Catholic mysticism on the one hand and the then novel Freudian and Jungian psychology on the other. The book caused a literary and critical storm. Among those who affirmed its counterintuitive nature was the poet T. Gwynn Jones; its thesis was rejected by the philosopher E. Keri Evans while the preacher-poet Moelwyn Hughes found the volume objectionable in the extreme. Such was the power of Lewis’ analysis, however, that for more than a generation it came to embody a new orthodoxy in the scholarly understanding of William Williams. It was not until the 1960s that this orthodoxy began to be overturned. The accompanying essay describes how this process evolved.
The unique ecology of Ophelia bicornis, Savigny (Polychaeta)
The geographical distribution of Ophelia bicornis is restricted to the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea, the Black Sea and the western coast of Europe as far as Brittany and southern parts of Great Britain. Within this wide reach, the worm is restricted to very narrow areas (in the context of the rise and fall of the tide) of sand which are generally unsuitable for sustaining populations of animals and plants. Despite this, Ophelia is shown to succeed and flourish there, depending, to a large extent, on physical and physiological adaptation.
Y Gors [The Bog]: examining the boundary between authorship and contribution in documentary film
In answer to a call by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, and with the support of the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol, Anne Marie Carty, Nick Jones and Dafydd Sills-Jones made a poetic/experimental documentary film in 2016, on the subject of Cors Fochno, near Borth. Cors Fochno is one of Western Europe’s major peat bogs, is home to a unique ecology, and also home to important scientific study, not least into climate change. The bog was therefore a useful filmic metaphor for a number of issues and perspectives, including the feelings of the local community towards wilderness, the sustainability of local farming, and more broadly the history and future of human relationship with the environment. The article traces the approaches and concepts behind the film, and by doing so places it in the tradition of ‘practice-as-research’.
Historicising production studies: Teliesyn’s second stage through the lenses of Cottle, Bourdieu and Berne
Dros y deng mlynedd diwethaf, mae ‘astudiaethau cynhyrchu cyfryngau’ wedi tyfu’n sylweddol fel is-ddisgyblaeth. Yn sgil hyn, mae’r drafodaeth arferol ar y ddynameg rhwng technoleg, economi, ffurfiau diwylliannol, creadigrwydd a gyrfaoedd proffesiynol wedi eu trawsnewid, gan herio hen begynau disgyrsiol economi gwleidyddol ac astudiaethau diwylliannol. Er hynny, mae gogwydd cyfoes i’r datblygiadau hyn, sy’n aml yn anwybyddu hanes y cyfryngau. Mae’r erthygl hon yn ceisio defnyddio agwedd ‘astudiaethau cynhyrchu cyfryngau’ (wrth ddefnyddio fframweithiau cysyniadol Simon Cottle, Pierre Bourdieu ac Eric Berne) er mwyn olrhain hanes un o brif gwmnïau teledu Cymru, Teliesyn.
Design of a ‘Dual Wavelength Laser’
This article is based upon the idea of designing a laser that can emit light at two different wavelengths, at the same time. This kind of laser has already been produced in the past; however, the difference between the two wavelengths was much larger. We intend to reduce this difference, while still being able to emit at two different wavelengths. This article will also address the effects of linewidth broadening where it is important to know how close the two wavelengths can be before we only see one broad peak in the spectrum, rather than two individual narrow peaks. Doing this will allow us to generate terahertz radiation from just one laser source.