Theme: Taking lessons from history forward

Diverse range of interesting speakers all with a connection to mid Wales.

Arts Centre
Penglais Compus
Aberystwyth University
Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, SY23 3DE
United Kingdom

Ayla Gol

Reading in Internation Politics

Dr Ayla Gol is a Reader at the Department of International Politics, Aberystwyth University. She serves on the editorial boards of Critical Studies on Terrorism, Mediterranean Politics and Center for the Strategic and Research Analysis. Dr Göl is also the co-convener of British International Studies Association (BISA) Working Group on ‘International Studies of the Mediterranean, Middle East and Asia’. She is the author of Turkey Facing East: Islam, Modernity and Foreign Policy. Dr Göl is the holder of CEFTUS Award for her academic contributions in 2015.

Catrin Fflur Huws

Playwright and Law Lecturer

Catrin Fflur Huws combines being a senior lecturer in law at Aberystwyth University with being a playwright. Her law work focuses on forensic linguistics and shifts in the meaning of language across time and space. In particular, she has studied the interpretation of bilingual legislation, and some of her work on this topic was included in the Law Commission's recommendations to the Government on the Form and Accessibility of the Law Available in Wales. As a playwright, her play, To Kill A Machine, about the work of Alan Turing, was nominated for 4 Wales Theatre Awards and was a finalist in the Arch and Bruce Birch Competition. We are delighted to welcome Catrin to talk about robot lawyers and the usefulness of fallible machines.

Damian Hall

Outdoor Journalist

Damian is a widely published, freelance journalist specialising in outdoor adventure. Contributor to Outdoor Fitness, The Telegraph, Theguardian.com, Runner’s World, Trail Running, Women’s Running, Men’s Health, T3, Country Walking and others. Author of the official Pennine Way guide, Walking In The Cotswolds and A Year On The Run and Long Distance Walking in Britain been published. Damian was the 1st Vet. to complete this years Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc, he has completed the Dragon’s Back and Bob Graham Round. He is talking at TEDxAberystwyth about his mid-life crisis, paying attention to details and the power of a good cry.

Joanne Hamilton

Professor & Parasitologists

Prof. Joanne Hamilton is a Parasitologists in IBERS at Aberystwyth University. Jo's research interests are focused around parasites, particulary the use of proteomic and molecular technologies to explore host-parasite interactions. Unravelling the complexities of innate immunity in a range of invertebrates and in exploring the mechanisms used by parasites to overcome the host immune system. Including drug resistance mechanisms in model and parasitic nematodes; liver fluke biology; tsetse fly-trypanosome interactions; immunity in Giant African land snails; immunity in Biomphalaria sp. (an intermediate host involved in the transmission of schistosomiasis) and the role of the arthropod gut in the transmission of human pathogens. Jo is very active in outreach to schools to promote STEM subjects and has a major role in ensuring that university research becomes part of the school curriculum as Principal Investigator on the RCUK funded Schools University Partnership Initiative: SusNet Wales

John Gilbey

Writer + photographer

John Gilbey is a science - and science fiction - writer and photographer living in west Wales. An environmental scientist and computer science lecturer by training, his stories and images have appeared in a range of publications including Nature, The Guardian (where he is a contributor to the Country Diary column), International New York Times, New Scientist, Times Higher Education, BBC Sky at Night Magazine, Chemistry World – as well as more unusual titles such as the Journal of Unlikely Science and the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, a local paper in Alaska. The title of John's talk is "Why Silicon Valley? Why not here?"

Kerry Lewis

Lecturer in Law

Kerry Lewis is a lecturer in the Law department at Aberystwyth University with a special interest in nature conservation and environmental law. She has been diving in the waters around Pembrokeshire for many years and we look forward to her stunning photography of the life around the Welsh coast. Supported with amazing underwater shots taken from her involvement with a citizen science project documenting the life in the waters arond Pembrokeshire, Kerry’s inspiring talk sets out the case that Wales urgently needs to start setting up Marine No-Take Zones.

Martin Robbins

Journalist

Martin Robbins is a writer and talker at the messy border of science and culture. He is a columnist at VICE, and blogs for The Guardian and the New Statesman. @mjrobbins

Richard Marggraf Turley

Professor of Engagement with the Public Imagination : What we can learn about food security from English poetry

Richard Marggraf Turley is an award-winning Welsh writer, author of Wan-Hu's Flying Chair and The Cunning House, as well as books on the Romantic poets. He was born in the Forest of Dean and lives in West Wales, where he teaches Romanticism and Creative Writing at Aberystwyth University. He is the University’s Professor of Engagement with the Public Imagination.

Roger Scully

Professor of Political Science

Roger Scully is Professor of Political Science at Cardiff University. His research interests align with political representation in the European Union and, increasingly, on devolution in the UK. He is the Principal Investigator for the ESRC-funded 2016 Welsh Election Study and Acting Director of the Wales Governance Centre. Roger, a resident of Aberystwyth until 2012, is the chap the BBC wheel in when they need serious and informed input on electoral matters. Roger runs the Elections in Wales Blog. Along with colleagues at ITV Cymru-Wales and YouGov he is responsible for the Welsh Political Barometer – the only regular public opinion polling conducted in Wales. We look forward to welcoming him back to Aberystwyth to chew over his idea that we are seeing the end of British party politics and that this will have profound consequences for voters, for parties, for Wales and for the UK.

Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch

Poet and Writer : Poetry telling a story

Samantha Wynne-Rhydderch's first book, Rockclimbing in Silk was published by Seren in 2001 and described by Patrick McGuinness in Poetry Wales as “one of the finest collections (first or otherwise) to appear this year”. Her publications have been shortlisted for Wales Book of the Year (Not in These Shoes, Picador 2008), the Roland Mathias Prize (Banjo, Picador 2012) and the Michael Marks Award (Lime & Winter, Rack 2014). In 2012 Samantha was Leverhulme writer in residence at the National Wool Museum and in 2014 she held a residency at the Dylan Thomas Boathouse to mark the centenary of the poet's birth. She is the recipient of a Hawthornden Fellowship. Samantha teaches on both the Oxford University Master of Studies in Creative Writing and at Trinity Saint David University.