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Dr Hannah Sams

Dr Hannah Sams

Lecturer, Cymraeg

Email address

Welsh language proficiency

Fluent Welsh Speaker
Office - 028
Ground Floor
Keir Hardie Building
Singleton Campus
Available For Postgraduate Supervision

About

Originally from Penrhiwgoch in Carmarthenshire Hannah first came to Swansea University in 2008 to study Welsh and Spanish. After graduating in 2011, Hannah stayed in the department to do an AHRC funded Masters by Research that considered to what extend the label ‘absurdist’ could be used when discussing the playwright Gwenlyn Parry. She then continued with her postgraduate studies by doing a PhD that was once again funded by the AHRC that allowed her to look at the Theatre of the Absurd in Wales.

Since completing her PhD Hannah has been further developing elements of her thesis, namely, a comparative study between the Welsh language playwright Aled Jones Williams and the Catalan playwright Sergi Belbel. Hannah was awarded the Saunders Lewis Memorial Scholarship in 2017 in order to conduct this research. Some of the research findings were published in Llên Cymru in 2019.

Hannah’s work has also been recognized by my university, who have named her as one of seven Florence Mockeridge fellows.

Hannah continues to explore the parallels between Aled Jones Williams and Sergi Belbel as well as developing her research that focuses on national theatres in stateless nations. In December 2019 she gave the Cymdeithas y Ddrama Gymraeg centenary lecture that enabled her to voice some of her initial thoughts and ideas.

For the next three years, Hannah will be working on an ERC funded research project led by Dr Ríona Nic Congail at University College Dublin. The project entitled ‘Youth Engagement in European Language Preservation’ will give her the opportunity to further develop the comparative element of her research as it aims to establish why, how, when, and in which ways youths have been engaged with or disengaged from the preservation of Irish, Welsh and Catalan since 1900. 

Areas Of Expertise

  • National theatres in stateless nations
  • Contemporary Welsh language theatre
  • Theatre of the Absurd
  • Contemporary Welsh literature

Career Highlights

Teaching Interests

Hannah teaches a broad range of interesting and exciting modules that focus on contemporary Welsh literature. These modules offer her the opportunity to share her love of words and literature with students. 

Research