Ruth Atherton is a social, religious and cultural historian of early-modern Europe. Her research interests focus on confessional identity formation and the nature of sin and salvation in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Germany, especially with regards to the development of early modern sacramental education. She is a member of the Ecclesiastical History Society.
Fiona Bowler is a historian of twentieth-century Britain and an oral history specialist. Her PhD research explored the evolution of a community of British nuclear test veterans over the course of the second half of the twentieth century. She is currently working on a government-funded project with Dr Chris Hill to record the experiences of Britain’s nuclear test veterans, ‘An Oral History of British Nuclear Test Veterans’.
Andy Croll is developing research interests in the history of tourism (particularly coastal tourism) in the long nineteenth century. He is also interested in the history of poverty and welfare in the era of the New Poor Law.
Jonathan Durrant is a historian of gender in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. His current research interest is in the experiences of witchcraft in early modern England and Germany. Dr Durrant edits the internationally- acclaimed Witchcraft Bibliography Online.
Dr Tim Galsworthy's research focuses on American Civil War memory and the Republican Party in the civil rights era. His first journal article – “Carpetbaggers, Confederates, and Richard Nixon” – was published by Presidential Studies Quarterly in 2022. He also has a chapter forthcoming analysing the modern Republican Party’s relationship with the Lost Cause. Tim is finishing his two-year term as a member of the Southern Historical Association Graduate Council, having previously served as Postgraduate Secretary for HOTCUS (Historians of the Twentieth Century United States) and Chair of the Pubs and Publications postgraduate blog. He has written for the Washington Post’s “Made by History” section, Muster by the Journal of the Civil War Era, and regularly supplies expert comments for various outlets.
Madeleine Gray is a medieval historian with close links with a number of heritage and community organisations and is an honorary research fellow of the National Museum of Wales. She has published extensively on late medieval and early modern history with a particular focus on visual evidence for the history of religious belief and practice.
Christopher Hill is an Associate Professor. His recent research, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), has explored the multifaceted role of imperialism across the cycle of nuclear development in Britain, from uranium extraction in the Congo and South Africa to nuclear weapons tests in Australia and the Pacific. Chris is Principal Investigator for the Office for Veterans’ Affairs project: ‘An Oral History of British Nuclear Test Veterans’. Chris is also a member of USW's Centre for the Study of Media and Culture in Small Nations.
Rachel Lock-Lewis's main research interest is the history of feminism in post-war Britain and she's currently researching the Women's Liberation Movement in South Wales. Her previous publications have focussed on gender and social change in post-war Britain, particularly in relation to sexuality, marriage, maternity, parenting and childhood, and kinship. Rachel is a co-director of the Centre for Gender Studies in Wales.
Richard Willis was appointed Visiting Professor at the University of South Wales in April 2023. He is a British historian and he has held senior research roles at Cambridge, Oxford, London, Roehampton, Sussex and Adelaide Universities. He is regarded as the world's leading authority on the history of the English teachers' registration movement.
