The 2025 J. E. Caerwyn and Gwen Williams Memorial Lecture

The Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies will host the J. E. Caerwyn and Gwen Williams Memorial Lecture on Tuesday, 9 December. This Memorial Lecture was established in 2001 in memory of the late Professor J. E. Caerwyn Williams and the late Mrs Gwen Williams. This year’s guest speaker is Professor Jerry Hunter.

Professor Jerry Hunter lectures in the Department of Welsh, Bangor University, and lives in Pen-y-groes, Dyffryn Nantlle. He has worked on every period in the history of Welsh literature, but the early modern period is his main area of expertise, and he has published six books on his research in that field. His latest book – on the interlude – is currently in press. Being a creative writer as well, he has published six novels. His play, Ledi’r Wyrcws, will be touring across Wales during March 2026. He co-presents the award-winning podcast, Yr Hen Iaith.

The lecture is entitled ‘ “Digenhedlu yn rhy bell”:

Y Dyneiddwyr, y Beirdd a Hunaniaeth Genedlaethol Gymreig yn Oes y Tuduriaid’. The starting points are some of Professor J. E. Caerwyn Williams’s own contributions, namely the booklet Geiriadurwyr y Gymraeg yng Nghyfnod y Dadeni and two articles he published about nationalism in Wales in the Middle Ages. By scrutinizing praise poems and prose by humanists, the lecture will consider the way in which some sixteenth-century Welsh poets and writers discuss national identity.

Professor Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones, Director of the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, said, “We are delighted to welcome Professor Jerry Hunter to deliver this year’s lecture. His expertise and research interests span many centuries and he communicates his scholarly work across a range of different platforms. We very much look forward to the event.”

The lecture will be held in the Drwm, National Library of Wales, and online on Tuesday, 9 December 2025, at 5.00pm. Email cawcs@wales.ac.uk to register. This lecture will be in Welsh.