Honouring Sioned Davies

During the School’s Graduation reception this year, a new annual prize was announced and named in honour of Professor Sioned Davies, who has retired after 40 years at Cardiff University.

The Sioned Davies Prize will be awarded to the postgraduate student, from the School’s MA in Welsh and Celtic Studies programme, who produces the best dissertation.

While presenting the inaugural prize this year, Dr Dylan Foster Evans, who succeeded Professor Davies as Head of the School of Welsh in 2017, said: “Sioned’s contribution and impact over 40 years at the University, and 20 years as the Head of the School of Welsh, is impossible to overstate. She has played a vital role in the development of the Welsh discipline and made significant contributions to Wales’s social, political and literary progress.

“Under her leadership, the School of Welsh grew in size and influence, with expertise across the Welsh discipline, from medieval studies (Sioned’s specialism) to language planning, policy and acquisition.

“Establishing this new prize and naming it for Sioned is our way of celebrating her contribution thanking her for her hard work over many years and recognising her transformative influence on generations of students. We wish her the very best in retirement but she will always remain an integral part of our School community.”

First prize

The first winner of the Sioned Davies Prize was Judith Musker-Turner for her MA dissertation project ‘Yng Nghledr y Clyw: Gwybyddiaeth Ymgorfforol a’r Broses o Farddoni’. This was a creative and experimental project composing poetry through sewing words onto a costume and gloves. This original and multidisciplinary project combined literary criticism and cognitive science and developed a new understanding of the creative process.