About

Dr Rita Singer is an experienced researcher and project officer with a particular interest in historical fiction, ideas of space and place in fictional and non-fictional writing in Wales, heritage tourism, maritime history and cultural geography.

ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9803-3163

Since 2013, she has worked for the following projects:

• Diversifying the Dictionary of Welsh Biography (since 2023), National Library of Wales
• Ports, Past and Present (2019-2023), Aberystwyth University
• U-Boat Project 1914-18: Commemorating the War at Sea (2018-2019), Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales
• Journey to the Past: Wales in Historic Travel Writing from France and Germany (2017-2018), Bangor University
• European Travellers to Wales 1750-2010 (2013-2016), Bangor University

Academic Interests

• Welsh writing in English
• Romantic Studies
• Victorian Studies
• Visual Culture
• History
• (Digital) Heritage
• Museums
• Film Studies

Caergybi Carl Gottlob Küttner Digital Heritage Doc Penfro Documentary Eighteenth Century family history Film Film work Fishguard folk belief Folklore France Germany Gothic Heritage Historical fiction Historical masculinities History Holyhead Ireland Irish Sea Jemima Nicholas John MacGregor Skinner Lightning Llafur Minority travel Newspapers Nineteenth Century Off-cuts Pembroke Dock Pembrokeshire Photography Podcast Ports, Past and Present Rosslare Harbour thread Tourism Trailer Travel writing twitter Visual Culture Wales Welsh writing in English Workshop

Exhibitions

• U-Boat Project 1914-18. Travelling Exhibition. Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales. 22 venues across Wales. 2017-18.
• EuroVisions. Travelling Exhibition. European Travellers to Wales, 1750-2010. Bangor University, CAWCS, Swansea University. 3 venues across Wales. 2015-16.

Conferences

• Commemorating the Welsh Experience of The Great War at Sea. Conference. MOROL / U-Boat Project 1914–18. Pater Hall, Pembroke Dock. 3-4 November 2018.
• ‘Minority’ Cultures and Travel. Conference. Bangor University, CAWCS, Swansea University. National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth. 14-16 September 2015.
• Reassessing Anglicisation in Wales 1536-1868. Symposium. Aberystwyth University. National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth. 18 April 2015.
• The Common Denominator. Conference. Universität Leipzig. Bibliotheca Albertina, Leipzig. 21-22 March 2014.

Press and Media

• Aled Hughes. Radio Cymru. Radio. 6 Nov 2023. Interview in Welsh with Aled Hughes for morning radio programme about the Diversity Project of the Dictionary of Welsh Biography and the upcoming community workshop at Butetown Community Centre, Cardiff.
• Britain by Beach. Series 2, Episode 4: Wales. Channel 4. Television. 10 Sep 2022. Interview with Anita Rani about the French Invasion of Fishguard.
• Aled Hughes. Radio Cymru. Radio. 28 Oct 2019. Interview in Welsh with Aled Hughes for morning radio programme about German submarine warfare in the Irish Sea.
• Bryn Jones, ‘Dirgelwch y ci o Gymru a’r llong danfor Almaenig.’ BBC Cymru Fyw: Cylchgrawn. Web. 19 Oct 2019. Interview in Welsh for online magazine about German submarine warfare in the Irish Sea during WW1.
• Newyddion 9. S4C. Television. 17 June 2019. Interview in Welsh for evening news programme; segment covering the week-long dive school at the wreck of the LEYSIAN at Abercastle, Pembrokeshire.
• Heno. S4C. Television. 4 Aug 2015. Interview in Welsh for popular evening programme; segment covering the opening of the EuroVisions exhibition at Ceredigion Museum, Aberystwyth.
• Neil Prior, ‘What Euro visitors have thought of Wales in past 260 years.’ BBC News. Web. 19 July 2015. Interview for online article.

Education

2023

• BSL Level 2 Certificate (Signature), Dysgu Bro Ceredigion, Aberystwyth

2021

• BSL Level 1 Certificate (IBSL), Dysgu Bro Ceredigion, Aberystwyth

2014

• Summer School ‘Culture & Technology’ – The European Summer School in Digital Humanities, 2014, Universität Leipzig

2013

• Module for Teaching in Higher Education ‘Aktivierende Methoden in der Lehre’, Universität Leipzig
• PhD (summa cum laude), Institut für Anglistik, Universität Leipzig, Thesis: ‘Re-inventing the Gwerin: Anglo-Welsh Identities in Fiction and Non-Fiction, 1847-1914’
  Supervisors: Prof Dr Joachim Schwend (Universität Leipzig) and Prof Tony Brown (Bangor University, Wales)
  Funded by: Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes

2008

• Magistra Artium (GPA: 1.2), Universität Leipzig Master thesis: ‘Harry Potter and the Psychomachia’ (GPA: 1.0)
  1st Major: British studies at Institut für Anglistik
  2nd Major: German as a Foreign Language at the Herder-Institut

2006

• ERASMUS semester at University of Wales, Bangor
  School of English; School of Modern Languages

Languages

German, English, Welsh, BSL (Level 2)