PhD Studentship: Modern Languages, History: Maintaining Difficult Conversations Whilst Caring for the Nation's Memory: How to Relate to the Story of Y Wladfa in the Context of Anti-racist Wales

The year 2025 marks the 160th anniversary of the landing of the Mimosa on the shores of Porth Madryn, an occasion that offers an opportunity to re-examine this history from a fresh perspective. Although institutional attitudes in contemporary Wales have changed significantly since the Welsh Government published the Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan in 2022, and despite the profound shifts in public discourse prompted by the ‘Black Lives Matter’ movement since 2020, it remains evident that the narrative surrounding the ‘little Wales beyond the sea’ on the other side of the Atlantic is far from straightforward. 

As part of the anti-racist actions expected of public institutions, efforts have been made to increase genuine diversity by reflecting Wales’s varied population and seeking a range of expertise, experiences, and viewpoints. The Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan (2024) prioritises key areas relating to Culture, Heritage, and Sport – namely, “celebrating diversity, the historical narrative, and learning about our cultural diversity” (p.31), alongside a “focus on decolonising museum collections” (p.31). Furthermore, it emphasises “ensuring that the study of Welsh history in all its diversity and complexity takes place” (p.19). The Curriculum for Wales similarly aims to provide a broad spectrum of perspectives in educational resources available to schools, with the goal of creating “ethical, informed citizens of Wales and the world,” one of the curriculum’s core purposes. 

Despite numerous changes in approaches to challenging aspects of Welsh history – such as Wales’s role within the British Empire or the legacies of slavery – the story of the Welsh settlement in Patagonia is still too often told in much the same way as when Saunders Lewis drew attention to it in his 1962 lecture Tynged yr Iaith, describing Michael D. Jones’s venture as a “heroic experiment in Welsh settlement in Patagonia”. The focus remains on the role of Welsh pioneers in preserving the language while cultivating the land and sowing the seeds of progress and civilisation, overlooking the experiences of the indigenous Tehuelche and Mapuche communities who inhabited these territories prior to the settlers’ arrival. 

In addition to supporting the objectives set out in the National Library of Wales Strategic Plan 2025–30, this project seeks to contribute to the Welsh Government’s efforts to create an anti-racist Wales and to align with the framework and vision of the new Curriculum by promoting a fairer and more inclusive approach to history. This will be achieved by exploring questions such as: 

1. In what ways can revisiting and reinterpreting historical collections relating to the Welsh settlement in Patagonia support the key areas prioritised in the Anti-Racist Wales Action Plan (2024) concerning Culture, Heritage, and Sport?
2. How can updating and adding a critical dimension to the traditional narrative of the settlement – presented in educational resources – and incorporating a broader range of experiences and perspectives help advance the framework and vision of the new Curriculum and current efforts to approach history in a fairer and more inclusive manner?
3. How can engagement with the National Library’s significant collections on Patagonia contribute to the institution’s Strategic Objectives to “preserve and develop the nation’s memory” (Objective 1) and “connect communities,” while “prioritising voices and lived experiences that have been underrepresented in the Library’s collections and activities and committing to an anti-racist Wales” (Objective 3) (National Library of Wales Strategy 2025–2030)?

Funding Comment: Covers full tuition, £20,780 stipend (2025/26), plus up to £1,000 yearly for research costs.

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