Geraint H. Jenkins


Geraint Huw Jenkins, FBA, FLSW is a historian of Wales and a retired academic. He was Professor of Welsh History at the Aberystwyth University from 1990 to 1993, when he became Director of the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies. In 2009, he retired from academia and was appointed Professor Emeritus of Welsh History at the University of Wales.

Education

Ysgol Gymraeg Aberystwyth Primary; Ardwyn Grammar Sch., Aberystwyth; UCW, Swansea ; UCW, Aberystwyth ; DLitt Wales 1994

Career

Born on 24 January 1946, Jenkins attended grammar school in Aberystwyth and then completed his undergraduate studies at the University College of Wales, Swansea, in 1967. He then went to the University College of Wales at Aberystwyth to carry out his doctoral studies; his PhD was awarded in 1974. Jenkins lectured at Aberystwyth from 1968; he was promoted to senior lecturer in 1981 and reader in 1988, before being appointed Professor of Welsh History in 1990. In 1993, he was appointed Director of the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, serving until 2008; in 2009, he was appointed Emeritus Professor at the University of Wales. He served on the Board of Celtic Studies at the University of Wales from 1985, and chaired the board from 1993 to 2007.
Jenkins is particularly noted for his contribution to the study of Iolo Morganwg and his work in collating and editing the papers of the latter to enable the publication of ''A Rattleskull Genius: The Many Faces of Iolo Morganwg. The book has been described as "a scholarly feast", but a reviewer also warned that "...it must run some risk of satiating the appetite it is designed to whet."

Honours

Jenkins was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2002, and was among the founding fellows of the Learned Society of Wales on its inception in 2010. He received a doctor of letters degree from the University of Wales in 1994.

Selected publications