We are a team of academics and arts practitioners based in Wales, India and the USA. We are using creative practice in order to establish cultural dialogues to investigate and discuss the historical and contemporary relationship between Wales and the Khasi-Jaiñtia Hills. Creative outputs from the project include film, music and performance pieces in addition to conference papers and scholarly publications.
Professor Lisa Lewis
Principal investigator Professor in Theatre & Performance, Faculty of Creative Industries, and Co-Director of the Centre for Media and Culture in Small Nations, University of South Wales. She is a theatre practitioner and her resarch is practice based, focusing on performances of Welsh culture. 
Professor Desmond Kharmawphlang
Research Consultant Desmond Kharmawphlang is head of the Department of Cultural and Creative Studies at North Eastern Hill University (NEHU), Meghalay, India. He is a renound Khasi poet and folklorist. 
Dr. Gareth Bonello
PhD Researcher & Musician Gareth's PhD research is titled Deialogau Diwylliannol Cymreig a Khasi: Hunaniaeth mewn alawon (Welsh and Khasi cultural dialogues: Identity in song). His Phd was funded by Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol and the University of South Wales. Gareth has been using practice as research to build a musical collaboration between Welsh and Khasi artists. |
Professor Aparna Sharma
Co-investigator Aparna Sharma is an associate professor in documentary film, film theory, and post-colonialism at the department of World Arts, Culture and Dance, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She is a documentary film maker, and research is practice based focusing on communities displaced from the national imagination of India. 
Dr Helen Davies
Senior Research Assistant (2015-2019) Helen Davies is the project Senior Research Assistant at the University of South Wales (USW), Cardiff. She has a background in socio-linguistics and her reserach focuses on language and cultural identity. 
Lapdiang Syiem
Performer Trained in physical theatre, Lapdiang's work revisits Khasi folk tales, adapting them for contemporary audiences. |
Rhys ap Trefor
Perfomer A Welsh actor working in theatre, television, film and radio. Rhys is experienced in, and deeply committed to Welsh indigenous performance practices. |
Benedict Hynñiewta
Musician Benedict Hynñiewta is a visual artist and musician. He teaches art and music at the Department of Cultural and Creative Studies, NEHU, and he is a General Council member of the Lalit Kala Akademi, the National Academy of Art of the government of India. |
Advisory Board
is Jane Aaron, Emeritus Professor of English, University of South Wales. Prior to her retirement in 2011 she was head of the Centre for Gender Studies. A renowned expert on Welsh literature in the English language, she has written about ninenteenth century Welsh women's writing in the context of British Imperialism.
Uttam Bathari, Deputy Director of Research at the Indian Council of Historical Research, North East Regional Centre, Guwahati University. He is currently lead researcher on the case of North East India in a project entitled 'Imagined Sovreignities: Boundaries of Statehood and Globalisation' for the Peace Research Institute, Oslo, funded by the Norwegian Research Council. He has published widely on the history of the North East.
Aled Gruffydd Jones, Eminent Historian. He is former Chief Excecutive and Librarian of the National Library of Wales, and has written extensively on the relationship between Wales, the British Empire and the Indian sub-continent in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He was formerly Sir John Williams Professor of Welsh History and Senior Pro Vice-Chancellor of Aberystwyth University.
Tiplut Nongbri, Professor, Centre for the Study of Social Systems, School of Social Science, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. Her areas of expertise include: sociology of family and kinship, Ethnicity, Tribes and Marginalised Groups, Gender Studies and Environmental Sociology. She has authored books on gender and the Khasi family structure, on Khasi women and matriliny, and masculinity and Christianity in India's North East.
Mike Wilson, Professor of Drama, School of English, Drama and Publishing, Loughborough University. He is an expert in storytelling and digital technology, on which he has published extensively. He was formerly Professor of Drama and Dean of the School of Media and Performance, University College Falmouth.
Uttam Bathari, Deputy Director of Research at the Indian Council of Historical Research, North East Regional Centre, Guwahati University. He is currently lead researcher on the case of North East India in a project entitled 'Imagined Sovreignities: Boundaries of Statehood and Globalisation' for the Peace Research Institute, Oslo, funded by the Norwegian Research Council. He has published widely on the history of the North East.
Aled Gruffydd Jones, Eminent Historian. He is former Chief Excecutive and Librarian of the National Library of Wales, and has written extensively on the relationship between Wales, the British Empire and the Indian sub-continent in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He was formerly Sir John Williams Professor of Welsh History and Senior Pro Vice-Chancellor of Aberystwyth University.
Tiplut Nongbri, Professor, Centre for the Study of Social Systems, School of Social Science, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. Her areas of expertise include: sociology of family and kinship, Ethnicity, Tribes and Marginalised Groups, Gender Studies and Environmental Sociology. She has authored books on gender and the Khasi family structure, on Khasi women and matriliny, and masculinity and Christianity in India's North East.
Mike Wilson, Professor of Drama, School of English, Drama and Publishing, Loughborough University. He is an expert in storytelling and digital technology, on which he has published extensively. He was formerly Professor of Drama and Dean of the School of Media and Performance, University College Falmouth.