Dr. Robert Llewellyn Tyler was born in Newport, Wales. He received his BA from University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, his MA from the University of Pittsburgh, USA, and his PhD from the University of Melbourne, Australia. He has taught in Japan and Argentina, and at universities in Eastern Europe, China and the Middle East. For the academic year 2009-2010, he was the Fulbright Professor at Westminster College in Fulton Missouri, and was made a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in 2011. He has been widely published and continues to research Welsh communities overseas.
CURRENT RESEARCH
I am, presently, working in conjunction with the University of Pittsburgh Press on a third book on Welsh immigrants in the US steel town of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The University of Pittsburgh Press is one of the most highly regarded university presses in the USA. The book will be academic, but I believe will be attractive to the general reader and, as with my other two books, be shelved in all the major university libraries in the world.
In recent years, the Welsh in the United States have received increasing attention, most notably from W. D. Jones, Wales in America: Scranton and the Welsh, 1860-1920 (1993), Anne Knowles, Calvinists Incorporated: Welsh Immigrants on Ohio’s Industrial Frontier (1997) and Ronald L. Lewis, Welsh Americans: A History of Assimilation in the Coalfields (2008). Nevertheless, it is clear that much more work needs to be done. My current research considers the Welsh immigrant community as it existed in Pittsburgh (a noted centre for Welsh immigrants) during the second half of the nineteenth century. An effective analysis of this community requires the consideration of numerous issues including settlement patterns, economic specialisation, the establishment of cultural and religious institutions, and language retention. The endurance of the ethnic community was affected by a number of factors including residential propinquity, marriage within the group, institutional support, status, a sense of separateness and even an ideological commitment to the preservation of identity. All these conditions as they existed in the area chosen for study will be analysed, and an attempt will be made to quantify the extent to which an identifiable Welsh community was established and maintained, the nature of that community and the ways in which it was modified.
This study relies heavily on quantitative analysis and this is reflected in source material which will include: official census reports, city directories, birth, death and marriage certificates, hospital records, contemporary church records, eisteddfod programmes and the Welsh-American newspapers of the time which contain a wealth of information concerning community activity, language and culture retention and the vitality of cultural institutions. In addition, this work will draw upon the host of contemporary Welsh and American newspapers, periodicals, journals, biographies, diaries, books, articles, letters and the reports of societies and institutions, both secular and religious.
This study, therefore, sets out to provide a micro-level analysis of a Welsh community as it existed in a particular area and the ways in which it changed during a specific period of time. All aspects of that community, as they relate to identity and culture maintenance, will be considered, and quantitative evidence will be central.
At this stage, my research is focused on quantitative analysis and draws heavily on sources which are accessible online, most notably the US Federal Census reports and city directories.
Research
My main area of research interest has been migration from Europe and the subsequent emerging forms of identity in diasporic communities. More specifically, I have focused on the nature of immigrant groups as they existed in and interacted with the wider community in nineteenth and twentieth century USA and Australia. I have considered the continuation, modification and decline of discernible ethno-linguistic communities and while my focus has been primarily on Welsh migrants, my research has enabled comparisons to be made with other European groups.
I am the author of twenty-five, sole-authored articles published in peer-reviewed journals, most recently in Ethnohistory and the Journal of Migration History. Both are Q1 publications. I have also recently (2021) published in the Journal of American Ethnic History and Immigrants and Minorities, the leading journals in my field in the USA and the UK respectively.
My first book, The Welsh in an Australian Gold Town: Ballarat, Victoria, 1850-1900, was published by the University of Wales Press in 2010 and has been described as a “landmark study”. The University of Wales Press is the Gold Standard for Welsh historians. The book was produced as an e version in 2014. My second book, Wales and the American Dream, was published in 2015 by Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
I am, presently working, in conjunction with the University of Pittsburgh Press, on a third book on Welsh immigrants in the US steel town of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. This will a be a major work on a previously untouched subject. Pittsburgh University Press is highly prestigious in the USA and internationally.
I have addressed conferences and academic gatherings on various aspects of my research in Australia and throughout the UK and the USA.
Since taking up my position at Khalifa, I have had seven articles published and I anticipate significantly enhancing my publication record in the coming months.
PUBLICATIONS
Books
Wales and the American Dream, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, (2015).
The Welsh in an Australian Gold Town: Ballarat, Victoria, 1850-1900, University of Wales Press, (2010).
The Welsh in an Australian Gold Town, E-version, University of Wales Press, (2014).
Articles
“Migrant Identity and Culture Maintenance: The Welsh in Johnstown, Cambria County, Pennsylvania, 1870-1930.” Ethnohistory 69, 3 (2022), 243-264.
“Migrant Identity and Culture Maintenance: The Welsh in Columbus, Franklin County, Ohio, 1870–1930.” Journal of Migration History 8 (2022), 122–148
“Migrant Culture Maintenance: The Welsh in Mahaska County, Iowa, 1870-1920.” The Annals of Iowa 81, 1 (Winter, 2022), 43-73.
“Migrant Society and Culture: The Welsh in Madison County, Indiana, 1890-1920.” Indiana Magazine of History 117, 4 (2021), 266-295
“Migrant Culture Maintenance: The Welsh in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1870-1930.” Journal of American Ethnic History 40, 4 (2021), 86-112.
“Migrant Identity and Culture Maintenance: The Welsh in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, USA, 1880-1920.” Immigrants and Minorities 38, 3 (2021), 205-232.
“Culture Maintenance in an Immigrant Community: The Welsh in Seattle, Washington 1890-1940.” Pacific Northwest Quarterly 111, 4 (Fall, 2020), 134-148.
“Migrant Culture Maintenance: The Welsh in Silver Bow County, Montana, 1890-1930.” Montana Magazine of Western History (Winter 2018), 20-35.
“Migrant Culture Maintenance: The Welsh Experience in Martins Ferry, Belmont County, Ohio, 1900–1940.” Ohio History 125, 1 (Spring 2018), 70-94.
“Migrant Culture Maintenance: The Welsh in Granville, Washington County, New York, 1880-1930.” New York History (Winter 2018), 99-120.
“Culture Maintenance, Occupational Change, and Social Status: The Welsh in San Francisco, 1880-1930.” California History 94, 1 (Spring 2017), 6–25.
“Culture Maintenance, Occupational Mobility and Social Status: The Welsh in a Pennsylvania Slate Town 1900-1930.” Welsh History Review 28, 1 (July 2016), 115-145.
“Occupational Mobility and Social Status: The Welsh Experience in Sharon, Pennsylvania 1880-1930.” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies 83, 1 (Winter 2016), 1-27.
“Identity, Culture Maintenance and Social Mobility: The Welsh in Emporia, Lyon County, 1870-1930.” Kansas History: A Journal of the Central Plains 38, 2 (Summer 2015), 65-78.
“Migrant Culture Maintenance: The Welsh Experience in Poultney, Rutland County 1900-1940.” Vermont History 83, 1 (Winter/Spring 2015), 19-42.
“Occupational Change, Culture Maintenance and Social Status: The Welsh in a Missouri Coal Town, 1870-1930.” Missouri Historical Review 109, 1 (October 2014), 18-40.
“Newid Galwedigaethol, Cynnal Diwylliant a Statws Cymdeithasol: Y Cymry mewn Tref Lofaol ym Missouri, 1870-1930.” Llafur 11, 3 (2014), 5-20.
“Welsh Settlement Patterns in a Nineteenth Century Australian Gold Town.” Local Population Studies 83 (Autumn 2009), 6-20.
“The Welsh Language Press in Colonial Victoria.” Victorian Historical Journal 80, 1 (June 2009), 45-60.
“Religiosity and Culture Maintenance: The Welsh in Colonial Australia.” The Welsh Journal of Religious History 3 (November 2008), 82-99.
“Y Wasg Gymraeg yn Nhrefedigaeth Awstralia yn y Bedwaredd Ganrif ar Bymtheg.” Llafur 10, 1 (2008), 21-31.
“The Welsh Language in a Nineteenth Century Australian Gold Town.” Welsh History Review 24, 1 (June 2008), 52-76.
“Gender Imbalance, Marriage Preference and Culture Maintenance: The Welsh in an Australian Gold Town 1850-1900.” Llafur 9, 3 (2006), 14-28.
“Occupational Mobility and Culture Maintenance: The Welsh in a Nineteenth Century Australian Gold Town.” Immigrants and Minorities 24, 3 (November 2006), 277-299.
Reviews
Ogawa, Manako, Sea of Opportunity: The Japanese Pioneers of the Fishing Industry in Hawai‘i, University of Hawai‘i Press (2015) in Migration Letters: An International Journal of Migration Studies 13, 3 (September 2016).
Teaching
Khalifa University, 2019
[a] Western Civilization from 1500
[b]The History and Politics of Middle East Oil
Wenzhou-Kean University, China, 2017
[a] Worlds of History
Prince Mohammad Bin Fahd University, KSA, 2014- 2017
[a] World Civilizations from 1500
[b] Writing and Research
[c] Written Communication
[d] Oral Communication
[e] Critical Thinking
[f] Cross Cultural Communication
American University in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 2011- 2013
[a] Modern European History
[b] US History to 1877
[c] US History 1877 - present
Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, USA, 2009-2010
[a] Modern Britain 1800- present
[b] England, Britain or United Kingdom?
[c] Celtic Immigrants in Nineteenth Century USA
University of Wales, Newport, Wales, 2007-2014
[a] British Isles: History, Culture and Identity, 55BC-AD 1945
[b] Themes in British History 1066-1945
[c] Insights into European History, 400-1945
[d] Europe, 400-1945
[e] USA from Reconstruction
[f] The Impact of the Reformation on Europe
[g] The Making of the Modern World
[h] Imperial Rivalries and Global Conflict in the 20th Century
[i] The American West
[j] Religion and Ethnicity in Wales 1600-2000
University of Wales, Newport, Wales 2006-2007
Centre for Community and Lifelong Learning
[a] Understanding Change in the Community
[b] Contemporary Wales.
University of Melbourne 1997-2000
[a] Migration and Australian Society
My teaching philosophy is a simple one. While the function of a lecturer is not to provide entertainment, it is vital that students are, and remain, fully engaged throughout the course. This means interesting and relevant course materials, presented through effective and engaging teaching methods. In my experience, this requires adaptability; the ability and willingness of the teacher to adapt methods and materials to effectively serve the needs of students. I consider myself an effective teacher and all my student evaluations have indicated this.
