About

History at the University of South Wales is one of the University’s most successful research areas.

In the 2021 Research Excellence Framework – the government’s official measure of research capability – 78% of our published outputs were placed in the top two categories: 'world-leading’ and 'internationally excellent’. Our research was also found to have real-world impact that was 100% 'world-leading’ or 'internationally excellent’.

Some of what we do is announced to our professional community via scholarly monographs and articles in learned journals, such as Past & Present and English Historical Review, the traditional outlets of our craft. We also try to reach a wider and more diverse audience through social media, television and radio programmes, exhibitions and other forms of public history.

Our interests are wide-ranging and often involve us in cross-disciplinary research with colleagues in other parts of the University. USW historians are, for example, at the forefront of the Centre for Gender Studies in Wales and the Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations.

We are also networked into international scholarly collaborations far beyond South Wales. USW historians are partners in international initiatives on nuclear imperialism, ecclesiastical history, and the history of witchcraft persecution.

Our expertise is recognised by the appointment of USW historians to advisory roles for the Welsh Government, the National Museum of Wales, and the Church in Wales.