About us
The Centre is named for its founder, Dr. Stephen Colclough, a Senior Lecturer at the School of English Literature. A renowned expert in his field, Dr Colclough's research interests included the response to the expansion of print culture, looking especially at what people read and how they responded to their reading material between the years 1700-1900. Dr. Colclough's passion for the printed word led him to propose the new research centre. He successfully developed the proposal through 2015, including organising the first Shankland Lectures. Dr Colclough's untimely death in 2015 meant he would not see his work come to fruition, but the current directors are committed to continuing his vision of an international centre that facilitates collaboration and research into history, culture and future of the book.
The Centre facilitates research activity and outputs, increases postgraduate provision, and improves the visibility of the Library's collections. It conducts activities that result in published work on the history, culture, and future of the book, and of reading. Building on existing partnerships with colleagues outside of Bangor (including Sheffield Hallam University, Ghent University, the National Library of Wales, and University College London), the Centre promotes collaboration with external partners by hosting seminars and conferences, as well as the annual Stephen Colclough Lecture. The Centre encourages postgraduate study in the history and culture of the book, reading practices, and publishing, through MA fee remissions and bursaries for PhD students working on the Library's collections.
As well as looking to the history of the book, the Centre provides a platform for study of the evolving book. Further outreach work will involve a series of ESRC/IAA-funded workshops for digital writers and publishers as well as a variety of AHRC-funded digital fiction awareness-raising events at public libraries in Wales and England. The AHRC will also fund a Welsh-medium digital fiction writing competition, to be hosted by Pontio. Research outputs will be disseminated through regular seminars, conferences, and peer-reviewed publications.
Governance
The Centre includes a director, co-director, a management board and an external advisory board including a number of experts in the field
Co-Directors
Dr. Eben J. Muse
Senior Lecturer in Digital Media, School of Music and Media, FHEA
I study the disruptive innovations in the publishing industry and book trade that have come about with the growing potential of digital technologies. I am interested in the ways these technologies are redefining one of our most fundamental tools for knowledge collection, development and sharing: the book. As the son of a book dealer, I have watched the dramatic alterations in the book retail world unfold with the growth of digital and network technologies and cultures. I work with book dealers and publishers, particularly in Wales and New England, to understand of how these technologies can be used, not just to stream-line existing practices but also to develop new ways of adding value to the fundamental book. I apply my work on complexity, spatiality, virtual worlds and temporal space to understand the ways that the space of the book and bookselling evolves.
Dr Sue Niebrzydowski
Reader in Medieval English Literature, School of Languages, Literatures and Linquistics, FHEA
My research profile has always been interdisciplinary in nature, focusing most particularly upon medieval women as consumers of literature. As a member of the International, Leverhulme-funded, international network, Women's Literary Culture and the Literary Canon (http://www.surrey.ac.uk/medievalwomen/index.htm), I am currently engaged in examining the literature that medieval women produced and read about the Virgin Mary, and the kinds of books in which testimony to their Marian devotion has survived.
Shan Robinson
Academic Support Officer, (CAH) and Special Collections Co-ordinator
I have worked at the University Library for 30 years. I have a dual role in the library, as Special Collections Co-ordinator, and Academic Support Officer for the College of Arts and Humanities. I studied for my degree in Social Studies through the Department of Life Long Learning, and then went on to complete my Masters in Women’s Studies at the same department in 2013. I work closely with the collections in the Welsh Library, and have a particular interest in the history of Welsh women. My M.A. dissertation topic was on the history of Women’s education in Wales. I am one of the representatives for north Wales on the committee of The Women’s Archive of Wales, a group committed to promoting the study, and rescuing and preserving the sources, of women's history in Wales. The archive also undertakes research projects which advance public knowledge of the lives of women in Wales.
Management Board
The management board will meet once per semester and the minutes of the meeting circulated to the advisory board for comment. There will be an AGM to report on annual progress. All associated staff members (as listed below) will be part of the Management Board, as well as the Dean of College.
Associated Staff Members
- Prof. Andrew Edwards, College of Arts, Humanities and Business
- Prof Helen Wilcox, School of Languages, Literatures and Linquistics
- Jenny Greene, Bangor University Library
- Dr Aled Llion Jones, Ysgol Cymraeg
- Prof Peredur Lynch, Ysgol Cymraeg
- Dr Maureen McCue, School of Languages, Literatures and Linquistics
- Dr Eben J. Muse, School of Music and Media (Director)
- Dr Sue Niebrzydowski, School of Languages, Literatures and Linquistics (Director)
- Prof. Steven Price, School of Languages, Literatures and Linquistics
- Prof Raluca Radulescu, School of Languages, Literatures and Linquistics
- Shan Robinson, Library and Archives Service
- Elen Simpson, Library and Archives Service
- Dr Lyle Skains, School of Music and Media
- Wyn Thomas, School of Music
External Advisory Board
- Dr Alice Bell, Sheffield Hallam University Media Centre
- Prof David Finkelstein, Centre for the History of the Book, University of Edinburgh
- Prof Lorna Hughes, Humanities Advanced Technology and Information Institute (HATII), University of Glasgow
- Dr. Maredudd ap Huw, National Library of Wales
- Prof Sandro Jung, Department of Literary Studies, Ghent University
- Dr Samantha J. Rayner, Director of the Centre for Publishing, Department of Information Studies, University College London
- Dr Adam Smyth, Faculty of English, University of Oxford
- Prof John Spiers, Institute of English Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London
- Prof Bronwen Thomas, Centre for the Study of Journalism, Culture and Community, Bournemouth University
Associate Members
- Ms Rebecca Lyons, Teaching Fellow in Medieval Literature, University of Bristol
- Sue Hodges, Formerly Director of Libraries and Archives Bangor University
- Dr Hazel Pierce, Independent Genealogist and Researcher
- Mr Stephen Rees, Lecturer in Musicology, Bangor University
- Prof Carol Tully, Professor of German, Bangor University
- Dr. Shaun Evans, Institute for the Study of Welsh Estates, Bangor University