Professor Kirsti Bohata, recipient of the Learned Society of Wales’s inaugural Gwen John Medal for Arts and Humanities.
The Learned Society of Wales’s inaugural Gwen John Medal for Arts and Humanities has been awarded to Professor Kirsti Bohata, Director of the Centre for Research into the English Literature and Language of Wales (CREW) and Co-Director of the Climate Action Research Network at Swansea University for her advocacy work on behalf of the arts and humanities, as well as her reputation within literary studies.
The Gwen John Medal recognises Professor Bohata’s outstanding research, as well as her role as a passionate advocate for the importance to Welsh society of the arts and humanities.
This is seen in the leading part she has played the establishment of the Wales Arts and Humanities Alliance (WAHA) and her involvement in activities that position the arts and humanities within work on planetary health, British Sign Language, and supporting women and girls who are survivors of violence.
This passion for the social value of the arts and humanities is built on a research career that has seen her involved in the capture of £5m in grants. Professor Bohata’s research interests include Welsh writing in English, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary approaches to gender, ethnicity, disability, climate change, landscape and place.
She has pioneered work on LGBTQ+ literature in Wales, a fine, recent example being her edited transcript of the diaries of Welsh author and industrialist, Amy Dillwyn.
Professor Bohata said: “It is an honour to be nominated for this medal. I am standing on the shoulders of giants. Advocacy builds on brilliant work being done by others in the Arts and Humanities and WAHA is a real team effort. In my own research in literature, I have been blessed by fantastic mentors and generous collaborators in Swansea University, across Welsh writing in English and beyond. Diolch o galon i chi gyd.”
This is the first year the Society has presented its relaunched medals, which are named after some of Wales’s most important innovators, all of them pioneers in their fields, who often succeeded against the odds.
The Gwen John Medal recognises people with an established track record of research or innovative work in the arts and humanities in Wales.
Born in Haverfordwest, Gwen John was one of Wales’s most significant artists. She is famed for her portraiture, which features in many of the world’s finest collections.