Associates

Our Associates

Our associates are people from the countries in which the Academy works. Each of them brings to the Academy a rich knowledge of language, culture or music. Their combined expertise, experience and qualities bring scope, depth and variety to the Academy's activities. It is our privilege to collaborate with them.

Maoilios Caimbeul

Gaelic poet Maoilios Caimbeul (Myles Campbell) (b.1944) comes from Staffin, Isle of Skye. He has published many collections of verse, is author of six novels in Gaelic for children and teenagers, of one novel for adults (Teas, 2010), and of a Gaelic grammar workbook for schools. He was writer-in-residence at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig UHI in 2008, and has since worked part-time for the College as a creative writing tutor. 'Stanza', the international poetry festival based in St Andrews, celebrated the centenary of the birth of the acclaimed Gaelic poet Somhairle MacGill-Eain (Sorley MacLean) in 2010, and as part of the celebration Maoilios Caimbeul was the festival’s first Gaelic Writer in Residence.

Patrick Carlin Ph.D.

Patrick Carlin hails from Belfast, has lived in Wales for many years, and is fluent in numerous languages. His main research interests lie within a broad range of language policy and planning issues, including the relationship between state-wide and regional governance, and efforts by sub-regional and local governments in Wales, the Basque Country and Catalonia to devise and to implement language policies. Other related interests include: linguistic mobilisation and its linkages with non-statewide and statewide political parties; critical interpretations of language planning; the sociology of language and its location within the wider arena of the politics of culture.

Tomasz Klimkowski Ph.D.

Tomasz Klimkowski lectures in the Romanian language in UAM, Poznań, Poland. His research interests include Slavic influence on the syntax and lexicon of the Romanian language during the various phases of its historical development. His interest in the smaller European languages, and in their typological diversity, extends to Irish, a language he adopted during his time as a post-graduate student. Tomasz is a prolific translator of Romanian literature and enjoys collaboration with The Romanian Cultural Institute.

George Jones Ph.D.

George Jones is a translator and interpreter working in west Wales. He has a particular interest in the dialectology of the present-day Celtic languages and holds a PhD for his description of his own Scottish Gaelic dialect, namely that of the isle of Jura. He previously worked for many years in the wider field of European minority languages at the Mercator Institute in the University of Aberystwyth, editing the Mercator Media Forum (University of Wales Press) from 1995 to 2007. He has a strong working knowledge of numerous European languages.

Bastien Le Guillou

One of the few speakers of traditional Breton born after 1970, Bastien Le Guillou is one of the foremost film-makers working through the medium of Breton in Brittany today. His work illustrates life and work in rural Brittany, principally in Trégor, in the communities where Breton is still the everyday means of communication. Amongst the twenty five titles he has to his credit are Marsel Paotr Plaen, a tribute to singer Marsel Guillou, 'Tre Leurenn ha leur-di, a documentary about Breton theatre featuring Jean Gevronneg, and Roje pe an 8vet Kousker, an insight into the church at Sept-Saints, Trégor, its islamo-christian history, and its current keeper. Bastien lives in Ar C'houerc'had (Le Vieux Marché) about 12 miles south of Lannion.

Ceri Matthews

Ceri Matthews is a leading figure in the world of Welsh traditional music. For many years he produced albums for the Fflach label. His research culminated in the revival of the pibgorn, the small Welsh bagpipe. Ceri is an accomplished guitar player, and, together with Julie Murphy, arranges much of the music for the group Fernhill. His music has taken him to venues in Europe, Asia, Africa and America. A solo album with friends, Yscolan, features a repertoire gleaned from many sources and played on the wooden flute. Ceri is a native Welsh speaker from lower Cwm Tawe, Glamorganshire.

Peter Busse Ph.D.

Peter Busse was born in Cologne in 1968. He graduated with an M.A. in 1997 and Dr. phil. in 2000 in Celtic Studies, Comparative Linguistics and Archaeology at Bonn University. He worked as research fellow at Bonn University from 1995-1999 and at the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth from 1999-2001. He has been teaching Celtic languages and literature and Comparative Linguistics at the Free University Berlin since 2002 until the present day. His research interest focuses on Celtic medieval poetry, areal linguistics, gender issues in medieval literature and the linguistic prehistory of Eurasia.

Bethan Miles

Bethan Miles lives in Plas Hendre, Aberystwyth, where over the decades many visitors of note have spent time, and where now others still enjoy the hospitality, the library and the sense of history the house and grounds posess. In earlier years, Bethan did ground-breaking research on the crwth, and her experience as lecturer in musicology embraces music from diverse sources. Her other interest include the cywydd tradition of the 14th to 16th centuries.

Michael Hornsby Ph.D.

Based in Poland, where he teaches Welsh, English and sociolinguistics, Michael Hornsby's research interests include sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology, especially the reaction of speech communities to the pressures of globalisation and modernisation, preservation and revitalisation of minority languages, language ‘authenticity’, and the relationship between language and national/regional identity. His Ph.D. thesis is entitled PhD Thesis: “Minority languages and processes of globalisation: Linguistic hybridity in Brittany”.

Michał Żak

Michał Żak (b. 1979), flautist, clarinetist and shawm-player, has been exploring Polish village music for a number of years, and is a co-founder of the House of Dance in Poznań. He collaborates with groups playing traditional village music, world music, early music, jazz and fusion. He has received many awards, notably at the annual “Nowa Tradycja” competition organised by Polish Radio. He composes and performs music for theatre performances and silent films. He has performed at hundreds of venues around the world, from festivals to concert halls in New York, Chicago, Barcelona, Sofia, Stockholm, Paris and Baku. A former member of the Lautari band, he has collaborated with Marcin Pospieszalski, Janusz Olejniczak, Zbigniew Łowżył, Miguel Czachowski, Yair Dalal, Amin M’raihi, Alim Qasimov as well as Polish Radio and the National Theatre.

Gareth Evans

Gareth Evans has worked as a radio producer for Radio Cymru and Deutsche Welle (Cologne). He is an experienced scriptwriter, working regularly for S4C, and has taught script-writing at the University of Glamorgan. A native Welsh-speaker from Ceredigion, and fluent German, he is also conversant in Spanish and Basque.

Kristian ar Bras

Kristian ar Braz hails from Menez Are, West Brittany, and lives in Landerneau, near Brest. In 1998 he created the video workshop Blaz Produktion around the A-hed ar C’hantved project, a vast fund of video recordings of native Breton speakers. This in turn generated teaching material, as well as numerous short films. Translator and interpreter (Breton, French, German and English), he is also the author of two prize-winning short novels: Spont (children, 2008) and Kest (young adults, 2009). He currently runs short training courses in film and radio through the medium of Breton, and is responsible for Breton programmes on RCF-Radio Rivages.