About us
Professor Raluca Radulescu
The project was initiated by Prof. Raluca Radulescu, Director of the Centre for Arthurian Studies, and experienced researcher with a portfolio of public engagement activities and media work (links) and Gillian Brownson, an experienced Community Theatre practitioner and writer from Holyhead. Following the public interest generated by the ‘King Arthur Family Fun Day’ (Bangor University, June 2015), the ‘Medieval Fun Day’, run for over 500 primary school children and their teachers (Bangor University and CADW Caernarfon Castle, June 2016), the new Centre for Arthurian Studies launched in January 2017 to a local, national and international audience.
Raluca Radulescu is a Professor of Medieval Literature in the School of English literature and Director of the Centre for Arthurian Studies at Bangor University. She has published extensively on the Arthurian legends, and is currently President of the British Branch of the International Arthurian Society.
Gillian Brownson
Gillian Brownson 1st CLASS BA (Hons) Performance (Leeds), MA Writing for TV, Theatre & Film (York)
Gillian is an experienced Community Theatre practitioner and writer from Holyhead, who has worked globally and locally performing stories and inviting others to tell/write stories with her, in the hope that participants will be enriched, engaged and inspired. Gillian’s objectives in her Community Arts work are always clear and measurable and have enabled her to work on many successful projects with partners such as the Victoria & Albert Museum, The National Museum of Science and Industry, Richmond Theatre, Creative Gwynedd Greadigol, Arts Council Wales and Isle of Anglesey County Council among many others. She will be responsible for the content development of the programme and will be lead practitioner – forging partnerships with the target school, and working as liaison between the schools and the university.
Kate Stuart
Kate Stuart is a postgraduate student at Bangor University, working towards an MRes in Professional Writing. Her research focuses on adaptation and experimental storytelling. https://twitter.com/KateStuart4
She says: Stories are constantly evolving. Myths, legends, and folktales from the past develop with each retelling, adapting to new audiences and new environments. The tale Cinderella, for example, is thought to have originated in China but the earliest written examples bear little resemblance to the classic Perrault story many of us are familiar with today. Though themes and certain details - such as the missing shoe in Cinderella - may stay the same as these stories are passed on, storytellers add in their own flavour to suit their audience, intentions, and method of transmission. Thus the tales evolve through each retelling.
It is this adaptability that interests me as a researcher, with a particular focus on how changing technologies influence the evolution of a tale. This project has explored the different ways a story can be told and has utilised some newer technologies to do so, thus shedding light on what elements of an Aurthurian legend are discarded or maintained in the translation onto a digital platform. In addition to this, watching the students - as digital natives - create stories for these digital platforms has provided great insight into how new methods are adopted into the evolution of storytelling as a whole.