Wales of a Time - II

     The primary purpose for our trip to Wales centered around the fact that Nan - excuse me - Dr. Mullenneaux was selected to present a paper at the annual conference of The Women's History Network.  The Women's History Network,established in 1991, is an association formed in the United Kingdom with the aim of promoting women's history and encouraging women and men to study and research women's history. The theme of this year's conference was Women, Gender and Nation: Creating Gender Identities.  Nan's current research falls well within this heading as it centers on how successful 19th centuries actresses reflected national themes and developed public images consistent with those themes.  I had originally intended to do a little sight-seeing while Nan attended the conference, but with her broken ankle I played sherpa: carrying computers,  backpacks, opening and holding doors, etc.  The conference was gracious enough to allow me to attend gratis.
     There were a number of very interesting papers delivered:  everything from a panel on the changing roles of U.S. First Ladies to fundamentalism in Hinduism.  We met quite a few scholars and had some fantastic discussions about not only history but health care in the UK and of political minimization of women by the Republican Party in the US.  It is always enlightening to get the perspective of US politics from foreign sources.  One of the other things about the conference that I found interesting was the fact that the meals and food served were vegetarian.

Reception at the Conference

     The Conference was held at the University of Cardiff in, naturally, Cardiff, Wales.  The University was founded by Royal Charter in 1883 as the University College of South Wales and Monmouthshire.  In 1988 it merged with University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology and took the name Cardiff University ten years later.  It has an enrollment of about 28,000 and employees of 6,000 people.  Below is the main building for the University where the reception and part of the Conference was held. 

      Cardiff is the capital and largest city in Wales with a population of 350,000.  This makes it the 10th largest city in the United Kingdom.  It is and interesting combination of quaint European architecture as exhibited by the City Hall.

and the beautiful gardens around it.

Contrasted by bustling streets

and a reconstructed downtown which features a huge series of shopping malls, hotels, restaurants, and the Millennium Center, a huge stadium(seen in the picture below)  Both US men's and women's soccer teams played in the stadium during the Olympics.

We stayed in the renovated downtown section at an Ibis hotel.  I forgot that European hotel rooms are quite a bit smaller than we are find in the States.  Additionally, there are no tubs, just a shower with a small curtain separating it from the shower from the rest of the bathroom.  The staff of the Ibis was great  and helped out quite a bit providing bags of ice so that Nan could ice down her ankle.