Lead supervisor:
Dr Anwen Elias 
Other supervisor(s):
- Dr Catrin Wyn Edwards
Start date: January 2026 (Full time)
Award: General
Subject Pathway:
Politics, International Relations and Global Language Based Area Studies
Thematic Cluster:
Rights and Governance Cluster
In partnership with:
Constructing Wales: National Narratives' Role in Forming Intergroup Relationships
This research aims to understand how we use collective memory and future-making to consistute 'the nation'. Drawing from Tajfel and Turner's Social Identity Theory, they assert that we will always create boundaries within groups to construct an 'us versus them' dynamic. I am particularly interested in role that collective assertions -- who 'we' are and who 'we' will be -- form an individual's indentity as British and/or Welsh within Wales. Furthermore, to identify who 'we' are, is also to say who we are not.
While past research has found that right-wing nationalists use collective nostalgia (e.g. MAGA and Take Back Control slogans) as way to distinguish national identity on the basis of country of origin, it is less clear how nationalists on the political left form that intergroup boundary. Through mixed-methods research, this project asks:
- How are these intergroup boundaries formed in Wales?
- What is the meta-perspective of the boundaries? (e.g. 'X group is more/less Welsh/British than my group')
- What role does education play, if any, in shifting these boundaries?
Biography
Prior to Aberystwyth, Tyler has recieved degrees from Macalester College (USA) with a B.A. in Psychology and an MSc in Social and Cultural Psychology from London School of Economics. Outside of research, Tyler is a photographer, language learner, and coffee shop lover. Feel free to reach out!