The BSHS Annual Conference will take place from Thursday 2 to Sunday 5 July 2015 at Swansea University.
 
Registration is now OPEN. To register use this link: http://www.bshs.org.uk/register-bshs-annual-conf-2015
 
Full details of the conference, including (shortly) its draft programme, may be found here: http://www.bshs.org.uk/conferences/annual-conference/2015-swansea.
 
Enquiries about the academic programme may be directed to [log in to unmask]
 
Please note registration will close on 5 June 2015.
 
Venue and accommodation
The conference will be held at the Singleton Park campus of Swansea University, which overlooks the magnificent sandy beach of Swansea Bay and adjoins Singleton Park proper, containing botanical gardens, boating lake, and acres of open meadow. It will start on the evening of Thursday 2 July with a plenary lecture delivered by Prof Iwan Morus (Aberystwyth University). On Friday afternoon we will announce the winners of the Dingle Prize and the new John Pickstone Prize. Friday evening will offer a change of scene, with an opportunity to take in some of the sites and dining options of the city. On the Saturday evening, we shall remain on campus for the Presidential address and conference dinner featuring Welsh cuisine.
 
Delegates choosing to stay in the en-suite accommodation on campus will be no more than ten minutes from the dining facilities and the venue for the academic sessions, the appropriately-named Faraday Building. The programme will include parallel themed sessions, an opportunity to explore the archives and museums of the University and the city, and optional excursions to local sites of interest. An inclusive conference package will be available. Twin rooms can be requested. All enquiries relating to the local arrangements should be directed to [log in to unmask]
 
About the area
Swansea University was founded in 1920 as the fourth college of the University of Wales. It became a university in its own right in 2007. Currently it is enjoying the kudos of having been shortlisted by the Times Higher for ‘University of the Year 2014’, and the anticipation of expanding on to a second campus, due to open in 2015. History of science, medicine, and technology takes place at the University in a number of guises: in the activities of the historians of science based in the large History & Classics department, whose interests span the ancient world to the twentieth century; in the cross-campus collaboration that has led to the University become a leading centre for Disability History; in the ‘Science, Scientists, and Society’ seminar convened by staff within the College of Science; in work on the Dillwyn family, whose diverse nineteenth-century interests encompassed pottery, photography, astronomy, and literature; and in the ongoing historical work on the metal industries of South Wales, which includes the Cu@Swansea project to preserve, interpret, and regenerate the Hafod-Morfa copperworks in the Lower Swansea Valley. The University’s Richard Burton Archives contain not only the eponymous collection of the actor’s papers but also the papers of Raymond Williams, part of the South Wales Coalfield Collection, and many materials concerning the metal industries of South Wales and the families who dominated them in the nineteenth century.
 
Swansea, Wales’s second-largest city, is situated on the sandy southwest Wales coast, not far from the Brecon Beacons, and serves as the gateway to the Gower peninsula, the first site in Britain to be designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. Direct trains to Swansea run from London Paddington and Manchester Piccadilly, taking approximately 3 hours and 4 hours respectively; buses run directly from the train station to the University via the city centre. Swansea can also be reached by intercity coach services. The nearest airports are at Cardiff, and then Bristol. The attractions of Swansea include two medieval castles, the Swansea Museum (formerly the Royal Institution of South Wales), the National Waterfront Museum, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, West Glamorgan Archives, and the Dylan Thomas Centre. It can serve as your staging post for day-trips and vacations further afield: to Worm’s Head and Rhossili Bay, named Britain’s best beach by TripAdvisor; to the castles of Gower; to the National Botanic Garden of Wales at Llanarthne; further west to Pembrokeshire and the spectacular Pembrokeshire Coast Path; northeast to the Brecons; or southeast to Wales’s capital city, Cardiff.
 
Further information on getting to Swansea can be found at http://www.visitswanseabay.com/tourist-information/travel-transport/.
 
General tourist information for the area is available at http://www.visitswanseabay.com/, with information specific to the city to be found at http://www.visitswanseabay.com/destinations/swansea/.