What is Wales Studies?

In ‘Reflections on Wales Studies’, written in  2026, Prof Ambreena Manji and Prof Rhys Jones outlined some of the major themes that characterise Wales Studies:

• a variety of disciplines and subjects: subjects ranging across HASS and STEMM;
• avowedly inter-disciplinary;
• not confined to academic researchers and institutions in Wales;
• not subject to a ‘methodological nationalism’: recognising Wales’ internal variations and global networks;
• celebration of diversity;
• concerned with the past, present and future;
• recognition of how research in and on Wales has shaped disciplinary trajectories and scientific knowledge.

‘Reflections on Wales Studies’ emerged from the work we have carried out since 2024 to revive interest in Wales Studies, in particular ‘Where next for Wales Studies’, an event held in Aberystwyth in 2025 which also marked the launch of our Wales Studies Network.

The idea of this distinct concept – Wales Studies – was initially given voice by Professor M. Wynn Thomas FLSW in ‘Studying Wales Today: A Micro-cosmopolitan Approach’, the 2016 annual lecture of the Learned Society of Wales and the Honourable Society of Cymmrodorion.

In his lecture, Professor Thomas talked of a surge of multi-disciplinary research over the previous twenty years about Wales past and present but warned that such a surge risked losing much of its potential energy.

He outlined the early steps the LSW was taking to give Wales Studies a defined status:

• gathering information about current research on Wales Studies;
• encouraging the development of a Wales Studies Alliance;
• the development of a Strategy to support the development of Wales Studies.

This culminated in the Wales Studies Research Snapshot, launched at the end of January 2020. The booklet brought together over forty examples of Wales Studies research, projects and initiatives across many institutions and academic disciplines. It highlighted work that was forward-looking, not stuck in cliched representations of Wales.

Two months later, the pandemic struck and, with it, some of the gathering momentum behind Wales Studies stalled.

Now, however, there is considerable activity:

• our Wales Studies Network is up and running;
• Wales Studies has been given physical presence through a partnership with the Wales Arts and Humanities Alliance, events at the 2025 Eisteddfod in Wrexham, and a Wales Studies panel at the 2025 Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies Conference;
• our Early Career Research Network grant scheme has a dedicated Wales Studies stream.

There is therefore an opportunity to give Wales Studies a more established presence and aim to meet some of the ambitions that Rhys Jones and Ambreena Manji outlined in ‘Reflections on Wales Studies’:

• raising the profile of research on Wales among UK academic audiences;
• raising the profile of research on Wales among policy audiences;
• nation-building: contribute to normative debates about the kind of nation Wales should be;
• raising Wales’ profile internationally;
• institutionalising Wales Studies: providing the infrastructure needed to raise the profile of Wales Studies and increase its impact;
• educating Wales: supporting the Curriculum for Wales, such as an emphasis on cynefin.