In this blog post, Owen Chennetier, recent graduate in History at the University of Bristol, reflects on his attendance at an international conference where he presented on his dissertation research.
Between the 15th and 18th of July, I attended and contributed a 20-minute paper presentation at NAASWCH’s (North American Association for the Study of Welsh Culture and History) 30th anniversary conference at the University of Rio Grande, Ohio. More information on NAASWCH and their work can be found here.
As well as Bristol’s parting gift of a fractured ankle (spot the splint in the photo!), was a kind grant by the Alumni Group and the School of Humanities. These grants, such as the Conference Travel Fund, are vital for supporting student participation in academic discourse, opportunities to engage with experts in academic fields, and contribution to scholarship. I sincerely thank these groups for their financial and academic support.
My dissertation interrogated Welsh settler and Indigenous Tehuelche memorialisation in Patagonia’s built environment, exploring how so-called ‘discoverer’ of the New World, Christopher Columbus, together with corresponding mentalities underpinning American colonisation, influenced these memorialisation processes. I discovered NAASWCH’s conference whilst researching scholarship for my dissertation in January. This taught me the power of thorough research: just one footnote can make a radical impact!
Fast forward to July, after finishing my degree programme, and I was confronted with a bizarre introduction to the United States – Americans more proficient in Welsh than I was! This was testament to the little-known Welsh migrant histories during the colonial Westward expansion of the United States – one of many subjects that I learned a great deal about at the conference.
I spent 5 days at the University of Rio Grande’s campus in Ohio, engaging in busy conference days that saw speakers from across the Americas and Europe discuss a vast array of topics relating to Welsh-American studies. We were all also given the opportunity to explore the industrial and Welsh-diasporic heritage of the rural Midwestern region via a bus tour, making the trip all the more informative and unique.
It was incredibly rewarding to share my dissertation research, rightfully very niche within the History cohort, with like-minded scholars, students and researchers. This kind of exposure to other scholars’ real, living work was an essential reminder that the bounds of academic curiosity and innovation do not end with a coursework deadline or at the library or seminar room door. They exist far beyond it, studying very real subjects and offering very real opportunities to those willing to follow them.
As I look back to my roots in Wales after graduating from Bristol, I will always cherish this experience both as part of my aspirations for a career involved in Welsh politics and as an embodiment of the years of opportunity and exploration that Bristol, both city and university, have enabled.
I therefore recommend to History students that they look, if they are truly passionate about their work, beyond the dissertation as a mere deadline and to the exciting opportunities beyond it that the University is there to support you in exploring!