Mission
The Wales Arts and Humanities Alliance (WAHA) was launched in August 2023 and encompasses all nine universities in Wales. WAHA provides a pan-Wales opportunity to build deeper and stronger partnerships and knowledge exchange through the research and innovation excellence of higher education arts and humanities – from archival and textual analysis to creative economies and design thinking. The Alliance is also a platform for advocacy and activism rooted in our shared creativity and expertise in arts and humanities research and impact rooted in Wales. It offers an opportunity for arts and humanities in Wales to contribute fully to national and international debates on arts and humanities and their value for people, employability, and the economy in a rapidly changing world.
Strategic aims
The strategic aims of WAHA are fivefold:
- To act as a shared voice for Higher Education arts and humanities in Wales, ensuring that the social, cultural, political, and economic benefits of arts and humanities are widely appreciated, understood, and mobilised for the nation.
- To shape policy and practice around arts and humanities in higher education in Wales, including relevant data collation, and to act as a significant interlocutor with the Welsh Government, CTER, as well as prominent arts and humanities organisations, such as the AHRC, the School of Advanced Studies, in the UK and globally.
- To nurture partnerships between arts and humanities researchers, practitioners and scholars in Wales and their local communities, national institutions, and global networks. 4
- To share Higher Education arts and humanities research and innovation widely through policy networks, engagement with statutory education providers, community groups and the media, supporting researchers in Wales at all career stages to disseminate their work.
- To counter negative or misleading perceptions of arts and humanities and to defend and preserve the value of arts and humanities in and for Wales.
Our work
Blaenau Gwent REACH
Bawso Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Oral Stories
Torfaen Health Determinants Research Unit, Citizen involvement and engagement work package
Media Cymru
Welsh Language and Maori music collaboration
Resilient Buildings
FovoRender
Climate Lab
Preserving Cultural Heritage
Creating Safer Space research network
Ecological Citizens Project
Community Open Map Platform (COMP) Project
Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru
UNESCO-MOST BRIDGES
Our members
Professor Anwen Jones, Aberystwyth University
Dr Neal Alexander, Aberystwyth University
Professor Sue Niebrzydowski, Bangor University
Professor Ruth McElroy, Bangor University
Dr Debbie Savage, Cardiff Metropolitan University
Professor Andrew Walters, Cardiff Metropolitan University
Professor Claire Gorrara, Cardiff University (co-chair)
Dr Liz Wren-Owens, Cardiff University
Dr Richard Marsden, Open University in Wales
Professor Jonathan Bradbury, Swansea University
Professor Kirsti Bohata, Swansea University (co-chair)
Dr James Lea, University of South Wales (Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama)
Professor Lisa Lewis, University of South Wales
Dr Malcolm MacLean, University of Wales Trinity Saint David
Professor Mary-Ann Constantine, University of Wales Trinity Saint David
Professor Alec Shepley, Wrexham University
Dr Karen Heald, Wrexham University
Dr Fiona Dakin, Learned Society of Wales