Welsh Studies Newsletter NAASWCH

At the 2000 general meeting, plans were unveiled for the establishment of the first online academic journal dedicated to Welsh studies. Linked to the NAASWCH homepage, The North American Journal of Welsh Studies will be published twice a year in winter and summer. It will feature transcripts of addresses from prominent figures in the field and refereed articles based on research presented at a NAASWCH conference or sponsored event. It is hoped that this venture will provide a new and important venue for scholars of Welsh studies to communicate and share their work. In addition to the online version, NAASWCH intends to publish hard copy editions of the journal for distribution to selected librarys, such as the National Library of Wales and the Library of Congress.

2002 CONFERENCE VENUE ANNOUNCED

The next NAASWCH conference will be held in June of 2002 on the campus of Le Moyne College, in Syracuse, New York. As with the year 2000 NAASWCH conference at Bryn Mawr College, papers and presentations will be invited on all
aspects of Welsh culture, including (but not limited to), such topics as art, economics, folklore, history, literature, music, politics, and religion. The conference will feature North American and Welsh keynote speakers of international standing, as well as evening programs relating to the performing arts in Wales.

FORMER NAASWCH PRESIDENTS AWARDED 2000 NINNAU CITATION

Former presidents Roderic L. Owen (Mary Baldwin College) and Megan Lloyd (Kings College) were recently honored by a citation from the Welsh-American newspaper Ninnau for their work in the founding of the North American Association for the Study of Welsh Culture and History. The editorial of the January 2001 issue of Ninnau reads "We have witnessed in recent years a true renaissance in many sectors of the Welsh community in North America. One of the areas of Welsh life more favorably affected is the academic world. Among the many successful developments in academia, the North American Association for the Study of Welsh Culture and History (NAASWCH) stands out for the breadth of its objectives and for its ambitious program of activities. For their accomplishments, the two persons most responsible for the founding and success of NAASWCH have been designated Recipients of the 2000 NINNAU Citation; they are Dr. Megan Lloyd and Dr. Roderic L. Owen."

2000 NAASWCH NEWSLETTER

ROSTER OF OFFICERS AND APPOINTED POSITIONS, 2000-2002

President Ronald L. Lewis, West Virginia University

Vice President David Lloyd, Le Moyne College

Secretary/Treasurer John S. Ellis, Green Mountain College

Members at Large Melinda Gray, Harvard University
Kara Lewis, University of Rio Grande
Geoff Madoc-Jones, Simon Fraser University
Carol L. Nelson Burns, University of Toledo
Shannon Rogers, St. Joseph's University

Advisory Board Hazel Davies, University of Wales, Aberystwyth
R. Merfyn Jones, University of Wales, Bangor

Editor John S. Ellis, Green Mountain College

THE 2000 NAASWCH CONFERENCE- Megan Lloyd

The North American Association for the Study of Welsh Culture and History (NAASWCH) held its 2000 conference on the campus of Bryn Mawr College, Philadelphia, PA, June 22-24. With the theme "Welsh Culture and Language in the New Millennium," this interdisciplinary conference brought together over 110 participants from throughout the United States, Canada and Wales.

In addition to over 40 presentations, conference aprticiipants heard three keynote speakers prominent in the field of Welsh studies today. Novelist, poet and dramatist Emyr Humphreys, widely acclaimed as one of the preeminent writers of 20th century Wales shared his ideas on writing in his presentation, "Reflections on the Land of Living." Welsh language poet Menna Elfyn from Llandysul read from her work, new and old, especially from her most recent colletion, Cusan Dyn Dall [Blind Man's Kiss.] She also talked about the writing process, translation, the Welsh language and her inspiration. Dr. Aled G. Jones, Sir John Williams Professor of Welsh History and head of the Department of History at University of Wales, Aberystwyth, delivered a presentation on " Y Drych and American Welsh Identities, 1851-1951." His address provided the audience with a history of life, immigration, industry and livelihood through this important Welsh-American newspaper. Featured speaker Geraint H. Jenkins, director of the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies at the National Library of Wales, detailed the fate of the Welsh language in his presentation, "Terminal Decline? The Welsh Language in the Twentieth Century," while featured speaker Tony Brown, University of Wales, Bangor, gave the history and scope of the short story in his lecture, "The Ex-centric Voice; The English Language Short Story in Wales."

The NAASWCH program committee, co-chaired by Dr. Roderic Owen, Mary Baldwin College, and Dr. David David Lloyd, LeMoyne College, presented a diverse program witht he help of their committee, which included Dr. Marcella Barton, University of Rio Grande; Dr. Eirug Davies, Harvard University; Dr. John S. Ellis, Green Mountain College; Dr. Linda Pohly, Ball State University; Dr. Hazel Walford Davies, University of Wales, Aberystwyth; Dr. Megan Lloyd, King's College; Dr. Ronald Lewis, West Virginia University; and Dr. Eirlys Baker.

Thursday evening of the conference, June 22, Bruce Gill of Harriton House, originally the Bryn Mawr Farm, and Ann Ackerman of the Grange, formerly Maen Coch, spoke of the Welsh connections in the area. Maen Coch was built in 1682 by Welsh Quaker Henry Lewis. Bryn Mawr Farm, the home of Roland Ellis, was built in 1704. Both farms were originally part of William Penn's Welsh Tract.

Friday evening, a reception was held in the Taft Garden, sponsored by the Welsh Tourist Board. The Cymry Chamber Orchestra of Pennsylvania performed Friday evening, June 23. The orchestra is conducted by John William Jones, director of bands and associate professor of music at Gettysburg College. The orchestra played Welsh music, from Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau to a selection of folks songs to "Men of Harlech" to delight the conference participants. Sharon Davis Gratto, mezzo soprano and associate professor of music and associate director of teh Concert choir at Gettysburg College, and Wayne Hill, baritone, a native of Gettysburg, were featured soloists, with Sue Hill narrating the program.

Funding from the British Council in Washington, the Madog Center for Welsh Studies at the University of Rio Grande, the National Welsh American Foundation, the Wales Tourist Board, the Welsh American National Gymanfa Ganu Association and the University of Wales Press made the conference possible. Also, the Welsh society of Philadelphia provided publicity support. With the Welsh dragon flyuing high atop Thomas Hill, Bryn Mawr College was the perfect setting for the conference, with its Welsh name and community connections. One conference participant from Wales said of this, his first experience in the USA- "It's a place where the Welsh flag flies, where the weather is beautiful, and where everyone speaks Welsh."

1999 NAASWCH NEWSLETTER

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE, JUNE 1999

Dear NAASWCH member,

I am pleased to announce that the North American Association for the Study of Welsh Culture and History will begin its three-year cycle of meetings with a conference, Welsh Culture and Language in the New Millenium to be held on the campus of Bryn Mawr College, June 22-24, 2000.

Bryn Mawr is located 11 miles west of Philadelphia's city enter and easily accessible (internationally and domestically) by car, plane and train. A commercial limousine service stops at the College from the Philadelphia International Airport and train service will bring participants to campus via a downtown line and the Bryn Mawr local train. In addition to campus housing that will be available for approximately $25 per person per night (note: 2000 prices have not yet been determined), the Radnor Hotel will provide full service hotel accommodations 15 minutes from campus.

Bryn Mawr is thrilled to welcome such an international group of scholars to campus especially since the college and town have Welsh connections. I am delighted that NAASWCH will be heading to Bryn Mawr, and I would like to thank the executive committee and the program planning committee who worked hard to secure this location and date.

As you mark June 22-24, 2000 on your calendars for the NAASWCH conference Welsh Culture and Language in the New Millenium, I invite you to participate not only by attending the conference but also by proposing a paper, panel or session. As NAASWCH works to promote scholarship on all aspects of Welsh culture and history, we welcome work from many different perspectives, disciplines, peoples and places, not just the new millenium. Send us your own perspective on Wales as well as on the Welsh in North America. The abstract deadline is Friday, December 31, 1999. See the official Call for Papers in this issue for more information.

Thanks to Dr. John Ellis, (newly appointed to a history position at Green Mountain College – Congratulations, John!) we can all surf NAASWCH at http://www2.bc.edu/~ellisjg/links.html. Let John know what a good job he is doing, and let us know what else you would like to see on our website.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank The Welsh National Gymanfa Ganu Association, The Madog Center for Welsh Studies, through the guidance of its director Dr. Marcella Barton, and the University of Rio Grande, who helped to make our last gathering in June 1998 a success.

Special thanks go to our keynote speakers: Dr. Hazel Walford Davies, senior lecturer in theatre studies at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth, who in her address, "Wales, North America and the Dream," challenged us not only to look back at Wales but also to look ahead and form more cultural continuity between Wales and North America; Dr. John Bollard, who in "The Romance of Medieval Welsh History," examined the connections between medieval Welsh literature and anthropology; Dr. Ronald Lewis, distinguished professor of American history at West Virginia University, who in "Welsh Miners, American Coal and the Loss of Memory" adeptly analyzed the Welsh cultural identity found in the coal fields of North America, and Robin Huw Bowen, Welsh triple harpist, who gave an energetic and informative presentation/concert to end the meeting.

As we look back on past successes, I encourage you to remember the 1997 NAASWCH Conference, Visions of Wales by purchasing a Conference Proceedings. Thanks to the hard work of Micheal Thompson, who edited from his post in Japan, the 1997 Proceedings are available for $15. (See the order form enclosed.)

I thank you, the membership in NAASWCH, for continuing to support our efforts to promote scholarship on all aspects of Welsh culture and history and to provide support for the study of Welsh-North American history and culture.

I look forward to seeing you in Bryn Mawr next June!

Sincerely,
Megan Lloyd
President, NAASWCH

VICE PRESIDENT RECEIVES FULBRIGHT AWARD

Dr. Ron Lewis, Vice President of NAASWCH and Distinguished Professor of American History at West Virginia University, recently received one of seven Fulbright Awards for Research and Lecturing available for Britain. Because of the high demand for the British awards, selection is highly competitive, involving an initial screening by an American committee and a final selection by a British committee in London. The award provides for a three-month stay, and an academic home in the Department of Welsh History and Archaeology at the University of Wales, Cardiff.

At Cardiff, Dr. Lewis will engage in a program of teaching and research. He will give a series of lectures and seminars on Welsh coal miners in America in association with courses on Welsh Emigration and the British Coal Industry. His research will focus on the origin and background of Welsh coal miners who came to the U.S. between the 1840s and 1920s and the pivotal role the Welsh played in establishing the coal industry and shaping labor-capital relations in the coalfields of America. Firstly, the project will examine Welsh coal miners in Wales, and the conditions which prompted them to emigrate. Secondly, it will focus on the experience of these miners in the burgeoning coal fields of America, the culture which they brought with them, and how they coped with their experience as immigrants. Finally, the project will analyze the process by which these miners and their families became assimilated, hyphenated Americans, or simply lost the memory of what it meant to be Welsh.

WELSH HISTORY PANEL AT THE NORTH AMERICAN CONFERENCE OF BRITISH STUDIES

NAASWCH is sponsoring a panel for the national meeting of the North American Conference on British Studies (NACBS) to be held on the 19th of November 1999 at the Hotel Sonesta in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The panel will address the subject of "Wales and British History" and will feature Professor Keith Robbins as the key speaker. Professor Robbins is a distinguished scholar and the Senior Vice-Chancellor of the University of Wales. As a historian, Professor Robbins has done much to focus attention on the role of Wales and the Welsh in British history. His latest work includes the Bibliography of British History 1914-1980 and Great Britain: Identities, Institutions and the Idea of Britishness. Professor Robbins' address will be followed by two commentaries provided by Dr. Paul O'Leary, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, and Dr. Matthew Cragoe, University of Hertfordshire. Dr. O'Leary was a former editor of the Welsh labor history journal LLafur, has published numerous essays on Welsh and Irish history and his book, Immigration and Integration: The Irish in Wales, 1798-1922 is expected this year. Dr. Cragoe has written several articles on Welsh political history and is the author of An Anglican Aristocracy: The Moral Economy of the Landed Estate in Carmarthenshire, 1832-1895 and the forthcoming Culture, Politics and the Rise of Nationalism in Wales, 1832-1895. Dr. John S. Ellis, Boston College, is organizing the panel and will act as its chair. Dr. Ellis is a member of the NAASWCH board and planning committee and has published recent articles on Welsh and British history in the Welsh History Review, The Journal of British Studies and Albion. The panel will be addressing an audience of British historians, very few of whom have any expertise in Welsh history. Our hope is that the session might impress upon them the relevance and significance of this often neglected subject to an understanding of the wider history of the British Isles.

The North American Conference on British Studies (NACBS) is recognized by the British consulate as the principal scholarly organizaton for British studies in North America. In addition to its annual national conference, which attracts roughly 300 participants each year, the NACBS holds regional conferences across the continent and enjoys the participation of hundreds of academics from American and Canadian universities. It also sponsors the publication of the Journal of British Studies and Albion.

1998 NAASWCH NEWSLETTER

1998 PLANNING MEETING

On 5-6 June, 1998, The North American Association for the Study of Welsh Culture and History held its annual meeting at the University of Rio Grande, hosted by the Madog Center for Welsh Studies.

The Executive Committee reviewed and approved finances and Minutes from the meetings of June, 1997, offered its thanks for financial support from the Welsh National Gymanfa Ganu and the Madog Center at the Univ. of Rio Grande and approved a two-year cycle of meetings. The Program Planning Committee also met to begin laying the groundwork for a full conference to be held in late June, 2000. In addition, Dr. John S. Ellis of Boston College offered to construct and maintain a web site for NAASWCH. His work was commended by the Executive Committee. Dr. Marcella Barton gave a report on the work of the Madog Center including plans to develop an academic minor in Welsh Studies and begin a faculty exchange program at Rio Grande with a Welsh university. Although unable to attend, Proceedings Editor, Micheal Thompson, sent word that his work on the 1997 Proceedings of NAASWCH was well underway.

In addition to the business of planning, the meeting featured four guest lectures addressing a broad range of topics within Welsh studies. Hazel W. Davies, of the Department of Theatre, Film and Television Studies, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, gave the opening address entitled “Wales, North America and the Dream.” Dr. Davies argued that to many Welsh writers and playwrights, the image of America served as a symbol of escape from what they perceived as the oppressive and at times stultifying weight of traditional Welsh life and culture. In a Wales marked by frustrated ambition and a sense of parochial inferiority, America was seen as a far off land of freedom, infinite possibility and hope. Citing a renewed sense of confidence and expectation created by the advent of the Welsh assembly, Dr. Davies discussed how a new generation of playwrights is increasingly turning away from the dream of America and towards the new icon of Europe as the depository for Welsh hopes and expressions. Unlike the American dream, which emphasized escape and distance from the deadweight of the Welsh past, the new vision of Europe holds the promise of transforming and embracing a reinvigorated Welsh-European culture of the future.

John Bollard, Visiting Lecturer in English, Medieval Studies and Comparative Literature, offered a fresh perspective on the sources and interpretation of the Medieval Welsh history and literature in his presentation, “The Romance of Medieval Welsh History.” Prefacing his discussion, Dr. Bollard explained the differences between the structure of classical literature and traditional storytelling. Rather than being structurally flawed, the seemingly disconnected and incoherent nature of the Mabinogion are really due to a traditional narrative structure founded upon thematic parallels between episodes rather than through more straight forward chronological narration. Dr. Bollard then applied this understanding of the structure of traditional storytelling to the tale of Owain ap Cadwgan and the abduction of Nest, incidents recorded in the medieval chronicle Brut Y Tywysogion and long accepted as historical fact. Arguing that the line between medieval fiction or “romance” and medieval history is often blurred, Dr. Bollard demonstrated how the life of Owain was patterned upon the narrative style of oral tradition and served to reiterate moral themes related to oaths, honor and ties of friendship and family during a time of warfare and feuding. Rather than a simple reiteration of a distant historical fact, the story of Owain is better understood as a moral lesson explaining the fall of Llewelyn the Last during the chroniclers own time.

Ronald Lewis, Distinguished Professor of American History at West Virginia University, presented a trenchant analysis of cultural identity and assimilation in “Welsh Miners, American Coal and the Loss of Memory.” In his discussion, he examined the question of how a people so intent on preserving their cultural identity like the Welsh in America could loose it within a generation. Dr. Lewis explored the factors favoring preservation of cultural identity, such as distinctive patterns of work, social life and cultural institutions and interethnic conflict with other migrants, and those favoring assimilation to wider American society, such as the comparatively small numbers of migrants, the mobility of Welsh workers back and forth across the Atlantic and the American continent, and the amenability of Welsh culture to the culture of their new American homeland. However, Dr. Lewis identified the most compelling factor in the fate of Welsh identity in America as being the fortunes of the industry that brought so many of them over the Atlantic in the first place. American capitalists recruited the Welsh as skilled workers in a nascent American coal industry and they soon came to dominate the American coalfield. Concentrated within one-industry towns, the Welsh enjoyed a vibrant and distinctive cultural life. With the collapse of the coal mining industry and the destruction of the coal towns, the Welsh dispersed, leaving their communities in search of work and a brighter future. In the words of Dr. Lewis, they abandoned being Welsh when they abandoned mining coal. But was the assimilation and loss of Welsh cultural identity something to lament? Dr. Lewis answered this question by reexamining our notion of culture itself. If culture is only to be understood as the immutable traits of a people, then the story of the assimilation of the Welsh was indeed a tragic loss. But if culture is more than a roster of characteristics but a people’s means of survival, then the transformation of Welsh identities in America can be seen as an effective and highly successful means of adaptation to life in a new society.

Finally, Robin Huw Bowen, the Welsh triple harpist of renown, gave a fascinating lecture-demonstration entitled “The Triple Harp- The National Symbol of Wales.” Bowen traced the origins and history of the Welsh triple harp and harp music and argued that it represented a continuous Welsh musical tradition dating back hundreds of years to rival that of even Ireland and Scotland. Dressed in the fanciful early nineteenth garments of the harpists of Lady Llanover, Bowen described the unique qualities and playing techniques of the instrument and performed music in a myriad of styles, including those of the eighteenth century blind bards and antiquarians, Welsh gypsies and the modern musicians most responsible for the revival of the art in recent decades.

1997 NAASWCH NEWSLETTER

PRESIDENTS MESSAGE

I greet you as newly elected president of NAASWCH and look forward to serving you as the organization continues to foster scholarship on all aspects of Welsh culture and history. I come to office, stepping into the shoes of Roderic L. Owen without whose leadership, direction and drive the North American Association for the Study of Welsh Culture and History would not have been formed. As I come to office, I want to recognize Rod for his diligent work to found the organization and express my appreciation for his dedicated two years of service. We all have him to thank for starting something important. And we are glad he is continuing his commitment to the organization by becoming a Member-At-Large.

I also came to office after attending another successful conference. This year's conference, held June 26-28 on the campus of the University of Rio Grande, provided for stimulating discussion and drew over eighty participants. Special thanks go to professor Geraint Jenkins, Director of the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, and Dr. Richard Loomis, Professor Emeritus, Nazareth College, whose respective presentations established a lively and scholarly tone for the conference. Special recognition also is given to the University of Rio Grande President Dr. Barry M. Dorsey, the University of Rio Grande community and the Madog Center for Welsh Studies whose generous contributions of time, staff, financial and moral support enabled the conference to take place. A heartfelt diolch yn fawr iawn is extended to John Deaver and Elizabeth Gibson Drinko whose generous support provided all presenters with a $100 honorarium to encourage participation and scholarship in Welsh Studies. The Drinko's have already been instrumental in establishing the Madog Center for Welsh Studies, and we thank them for their continued support. Thanks also are extended to Col. Alfred J. Reese, Jr. and the Welsh National Gymanfa Ganu Association who also supported the conference financially.

After hosting three successful meetings, NAASWCH can truly say that it has established a bond among scholars, teachers, and researchers, those on both sides of the Atlantic, in Canada and the United States, who have an intellectual interest in and commitment ot the study of Welsh culture, history, language and literature. I look forward to working with you and hearing from you as we continue to strengthen that bond to further the study of Welsh culture in North America.

Megan Lloyd, English Department, King's College

VISIONS OF WALES; THE 1997 NAASWCH CONFERENCE
By John S. Ellis and David Lloyd

In the three years since the foundation of the organization, the North American Association for the Study of Welsh Culture and History (NAASWCH) has attempted to promote scholarship on all aspects of Welsh studies by providing an intellectual forum for the scholarly discussion of Welsh history and culture. This forum has been instrumental in helping to develop international connections between the academic communities in Wales and North America and between Welsh scholars and the wider Welsh-American public. Held at the University of Rio Grande in southern Ohio on June 26-28, the third annual NAASWCH conference demonstrated the success with which the organization has pursued these goals. The conference attracted around eighty participants from different regions of the United States, Wales, England and Canada, and from as far away as Japan. The conference offered a range of events for participants including academic papers, artist performances, round table debate, and opportunities for informal discussions at coffee hours, lunches, receptions and dinners. Conference presentations and discussions explored historical events, cultural developments, musical topics, Welsh-American concerns, and literary figures and texts from the Mabinogion to R.S. Thomas. Evening activities offered the North American premiere of Brynmor Williams' acclaimed documentary, "Welsh Settlements in the American West," and a performance by jazz pianist Jen Wilson.

Reflecting the theme of this year’s conference, much discussion was devoted to the varied and sometimes conflicting visions of Wales and the Welsh. In his brilliant keynote address, Geraint Jenkins (Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, University of Wales) established that much of what is considered to be Welsh tradition was actually the product of the opium inspired imagination of the antiquary, visionary, literary fraud, and disreputable genius known as Iolo Morganwg, whom Dr. Jenkins terms "the Samuel Johnson of Wales." With his emphasis on the Welsh language, druidism and democracy, Morganwg attempted to verify and reinvigorate the Welsh nation by inventing new traditions based on a manufactured past. In doing so, Morganwg became a decisive figure in the collective memory that has defined Welsh national identity.

However, the traditional vision of Wales has often been contested. While Jenkins identified Morganwg’s construction of Welshness in its opposition to British nationalism, other scholars emphasized the essential compatibility of Welsh nationality and British patriotism. Gruffydd Aled Williams (University of Wales, Aberystwyth) discussed the long tradition of royal panegyric in Welsh literature. From verse hailing the medieval monarchs of England to the poetry of the 1969 Investiture, Williams argued that the bards of Wales have blended the celebration of British royalty with enthusiasm for Welsh culture. Presenting another aspect of the British dimension of Welshness, John S. Ellis (Boston College) examined how the idea of the Welsh as a “peaceful people” was challenged during the Edwardian period by an alternative vision of the Celtic martial race, an image that reconciled Welshness with British imperial endeavor.

Rather than being confined to any one cultural or ethnic community, some presenters argued that Wales has housed a variety of communities and cultural traditions. In a lively discussion on the Welsh language, John Walter Jones (Welsh Language Board) noted that the politics of the Welsh language has often been the focal point for division within a Wales that has raised “disunity to an art form.” In his description of a strategy for the future of the Welsh language, Jones emphasized the need not only to strengthen the language in Welsh-speaking communities but to allay the fears of the English-speaking communities of Wales. The progress of the Welsh language, he maintained, was to be established through consensus and empathy between the two communities, rather than through compulsion and alienation. Looking back to the Middle Ages, Helene Bradley (Chichester Institute of Higher Education) examined the multiethnic, multilingual nature of the structurally and culturally pluralist society of the Welsh frontier. Focusing on a more modern period, Jen Wilson (Women’s Jazz Archive) described the intersection of race, class and gender in Welsh popular culture through the influence of Afro-American music. In a Wales most often identified with the religious sects of Protestant Nonconformity, Micheal Thompson (Miyazaki International College) and Richard Allen (University of Wales, Aberystwyth) discussed the presence of religious minorities in the form of Welsh Catholics and Quakers.

The conference displayed much interest in the multifaceted visions of Wales reflected by Welsh immigrant communities in North and South America. Eirlys Mair Barker (Thomas Nelson Community College) discussed the aspirations of Pryce Hughes, an early Welsh explorer, who wanted to construct a haven for the Welsh in the New World. Through his study of the journals of John Daniel Evans, Paul W. Birt (University of Ottawa) offered a critical examination of one such haven in Patagonia called Cwm Hyfryd. Eirug Davies (Harvard University) explored the reproduction of Welsh culture in the poetry of miners in nineteenth century Colorado and the American premier of a documentary by Brynmor Williams’ traced the history of the Welsh in the American West. Attention was also focused on contemporary Welsh-America. Roderic Owen (Mary Baldwin College) discussed the current revival of interest in the “Welsh roots” of many Americans while Tina Popson (Grinnell College) examined the cultural transmission of Welsh values in Welsh-American families.

The conference presented many other interesting and thoughtful panels and presentations. James Doubleday (University of Rio Grande) and Alf Siewers (University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign) explored early Welsh literature in a panel on the Mabinogion and in his keynote address, Richard Loomis (Nazareth College of Rochester) examined the metaphoric use of homes and architecture in early modern Welsh poetry. Other speakers focused on more modern poetry. Walford Davies (University of Wales, Aberystwyth) examined the little recognized influence of Welsh language poetry on the English poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, Larry Griffin (Midland College) discussed the David Jones' poem "In Parenthesis," an epic poem on his experiences while serving in a Welsh regiment in the First World War and David T. Lloyd (Le Moyne College), Kathleen Ebell (West Texas A&M University) and Norman Chaney (Otterbein College) contributed to a panel on the poetry of R.S. Thomas. In the arts, noted playwright and director Ed Thomas (Y Cwmni Theatrical House) voiced impromptu and provocative reflections on the condition of contemporary film and theater in Wales and Christian Mueller (Illinois Wesleyan University) discussed the music of Robert Ap Huw. In a panel examining contemporary Welsh society, Douglas Caulkins (Grinnell College) and Caroline Reynolds discussed current cultural images of Wales in the context of international economics and politics.

The NAASWCH conference concluded with the annual meeting of the membership, which discussed various projects of the organization, including the construction of a web site and planning for the future national conferences and meetings. A planning meetings was announced for the summer of 1998 and a new slate of officers were nominated and elected. The annual meeting concluded with Megan Lloyd's testimony of appreciation, on behalf of organization members, for the excellent work of Roderic Owen, NAASWCH's first President, who was to a great extent responsible for the establishment and growth of the organization. Dr. Owen ended his term of office this year, but continues his involvement as a newly elected Member-At-Large.

For a complete list of papers given at the conference, go to the 1997 Conference Program

ROSTER OF OFFICERS AND APPOINTED POSITIONS, 1997-2000

President Megan Lloyd, Kings College

Vice President Ronald Lewis, West Virginia University

Secretary/Treasurer Eirlys Barker, Thomas Nelson Community College

Members at Large Roderic Owen, Mary Baldwin College
David Lloyd, Le Moyne College
John S. Ellis, Boston College
Marcella Barton, University of Rio Grande

Advisory Board Hazel Davies, University of Wales, Aberystwyth
R. Merfyn Jones, University of Wales, Bangor
Ned Thomas, University of Wales Press

Program Planning Committee Marcella Barton, University of Rio Grande
D. Eirug Davies, Harvard University
John S. Ellis, Boston College
David Lloyd, Le Moyne College
Roderic Owen, Mary Baldwin College
Linda Pohly, Ball State University

Editor, Conference Proceedings Micheal Thompson, Miyazaki International College

Editor, NAASWCH Web Site John S. Ellis, Boston College

President	Ronald L. Lewis, West Virginia University
Vice President	David Lloyd, Le Moyne College
Secretary/Treasurer	John S. Ellis, Green Mountain College
Members at Large	Melinda Gray, Harvard University Kara Lewis, University of Rio Grande Geoff Madoc-Jones, Simon Fraser University Carol L. Nelson Burns, University of Toledo Shannon Rogers, St. Joseph's University
Advisory Board	Hazel Davies, University of Wales, Aberystwyth R. Merfyn Jones, University of Wales, Bangor
Editor	John S. Ellis, Green Mountain College

President	Megan Lloyd, Kings College
Vice President	Ronald Lewis, West Virginia University
Secretary/Treasurer	Eirlys Barker, Thomas Nelson Community College
Members at Large	Roderic Owen, Mary Baldwin College David Lloyd, Le Moyne College John S. Ellis, Boston College Marcella Barton, University of Rio Grande
Advisory Board	Hazel Davies, University of Wales, Aberystwyth R. Merfyn Jones, University of Wales, Bangor Ned Thomas, University of Wales Press
Program Planning Committee	Marcella Barton, University of Rio Grande D. Eirug Davies, Harvard University John S. Ellis, Boston College David Lloyd, Le Moyne College Roderic Owen, Mary Baldwin College Linda Pohly, Ball State University
Editor, Conference Proceedings	Micheal Thompson, Miyazaki International College
Editor, NAASWCH Web Site	John S. Ellis, Boston College