Chris Williams (academic)

Professor Chris Williams FLSW FRHS is a Welsh academic, best known for his work on editing the diaries of Richard Burton.[1] Since 1 September 2017, Williams has been Head of the College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences, and Professor of History at University College Cork, Ireland.[2]

Williams is a graduate of Balliol College, Oxford, and obtained his doctorate from Cardiff University before becoming a lecturer there.[3] He subsequently worked at the University of Glamorgan and in 2005 became Professor of Welsh History and Director of the Research Institute for Arts and Humanities at Swansea University. He is a former Royal Commissioner with the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales and was Chairman of the Welsh Heritage Schools Initiative.[4] In 2013 he took up his appointment at Cardiff University. Williams was appointed Head of the College of Arts, Celtic Studies and Social Sciences in 2017 at UCC.

Williams' edition of the Burton diaries was published by Yale University Press.[5] The diaries were donated to Swansea University by Burton's widow, Sally Burton, in 2006.[6][7] He has written extensively on the history of the South Wales coalfield and on modern Welsh history and most recently on the history of political cartoons and caricature in Britain from the 18th century to the Second World War.[8]

Williams was born on 9 March 1963. He spent the first three years of his life in Newport but after his Dad got a job his family had to move. He grew up mostly in Swindon and did his O-Levels and A-Levels, spending a year in the army before going to Oxford. His first job was at Cardiff when he was 25, a young age to become a lecturer. He showed promising signs and earned his way up the job ladder and moved into management in 2013.

He has lectured on mountaineering around the world and in Wales. A keen walker, he has climbed La Breche De Rolland in the French Pyrenees, Ben Nevis, Snowdon and Pen-y-Fan.

• B. L. Coombes (Writers of Wales series) (with William D. Jones; 1999)
• With Dust Still in His Throat: A B.L.Coombes Anthology (with Bill Jones; 1999)
• Postcolonial Wales (ed, with Jane Aaron; 2005)
• Robert Owen and his Legacy (ed., with Noel Thompson; 2011)
• The Richard Burton Diaries (ed; 2012)
• The Gwent County History, vol. 4 (ed, with Sian Rhiannon Williams; 2011)
• The Gwent County History, vol. 5 (ed, with Andy Croll; 2013)