The SMLC will be taking part in The Big Read on Sunday 2 April, an event designed for young people aged 3 to 11 to celebrate reading, writing and storytelling.

Colleagues will be running an interactive multi-lingual Harry Potter session for children aged 8+, and for younger children there will be story readings in French, German and Spanish. Everyone is also welcome to taste different languages and cultures through fun quizzes on the day or the simple online story title reading activitiesLink opens in a new window.

The call for the EUTOPIA PhD Co-tutelle 2023 Programme is now open.

Funding is available for 3 – 4 year PhD projects co-supervised between a candidate’s home university and a second participating EUTOPIA institution: Babes-Bolyai University (Cluj); Ca’Foscari University of Venice; CY Cergy Paris Université; Vrije Universität Brussel (VUB); NOVA University Lisbon; Technische Universität Dresden; and University of Warwick.

Hartmut Rosa (Jena/Erfurt) and Elisabeth Herrmann (Warwick)

Moderator: Irina Hron (Copenhagen)

Public Event at Jonsered Manor, Gothenburg

Monday, 27th March, 13:00-16:00 (CET)

Abstract

How does social reality come into being? Where do social impulses originate and how do they enter the public sphere?

Imaginaries are at least partly constitutive for what societies are, how they develop, how they are modified and continuously negotiated. Fictional stories, whether in the form of literary texts, visual media, or music and lyrics, can be catalysts for social transformation by reflecting the present from alternative viewpoints, including looking back at the past and imagining possible futures. Fictional stories turn imaginings into possibilities, taking them into the world, bringing them to mind and prototyping possible social realities through images and narration, figures and plots. How do social imaginaries emerge? How does fiction contribute to social transformation – and how are social transformations reflected in social imaginaries? What is social energy and how is it set in motion?

Available to watch now Ask an Autistic Panel Event

We are delighted to invite you to a research seminar jointly organised by the Department of Italianand the Centre for Digital Inquiry.

Monday 20^th February, 17:00-19:00

FAB 3.26  

The Digital Frontier? New Approaches to Literary and Translation Studies, History and Music

Giovanni Pietro Villani (Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin - Paris Saclay)

in conversation with

Federica Coluzzi (Italian/CDI, Warwick)

While it is difficult to answer the question what are the digital humanities, empirically it becomes easier to show what advantages digital brings to research in the humanities. The aim of this talk is to show the inside of a digital laboratory in order to show what are the reflections, failures and successes of using informatics applied to different fields of the humanities. Examples will be shown of studies carried out in the English-speaking, Italian-speaking Francophone and Spanish-speaking areas relating to procedures typical of literary analysis and studies of translation, (socio)linguistics, history and music.

It is with great sadness that the School of Modern Languages & Cultures has received news of the death of Professor James Shields on 9 February 2023.

Published in November 2022 by Leuven University Press and with the support of the European Research Council: Unfinished Histories available in open access.

Belgian colonialism was short-lived but left significant traces that are still felt in the twenty-first century. This book explores how the imperial past has lived on in Belgium, but also in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. The contributing authors approach colonial legacies from an interdisciplinary perspective and examine how literature, politics, the arts, the press, cinema, museal practices, architecture, and language policies – but also justice and ethics – have been used to critically revisit this period of African and European history. Whilst engaging with significant figures such as Sammy Baloji, Chokri Ben Chikha, Gaël Faye, François Kabasele, Alexis Kagame, Edmond Leplae, VY Mudimbe, Fiston Mwanza Mujila, Joseph Ndwaniye, and Sony Labou Tansi, this book also analyses the role of places such as the AfricaMuseum, Bujumbura, Colwyn Bay, Kongolo, and the Virunga Park to appraise the links between memory and the development of a postcolonial present.

Arising from a Warwick-Monash Alliance collaboration, with Dr Chris Watkin, undertaken during the Covid years, this new edited volume considers whether autonomy is still a useful concept today. Is the Enlightenment understanding of autonomy still relevant in addressing contemporary challenges? How have the limits and possibilities of autonomy been transformed by recent developments in artificial intelligence and big data, political pressures, intersecting oppressions and the climate emergency? The challenges to autonomy today reach across society with unprecedented complexity, and in this book leading scholars from philosophy, economics, linguistics, literature and politics examine the role of autonomy in key areas of contemporary life, forcefully defending a range of different views about the nature and extent of resistance to autonomy today. These essays are essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the predicament and prospects of one of modernity’s foundational concepts and one of our most widely cherished values. Oliver Davis's chapter, on conceptualising the role of patient autonomy in psychedelically assisted psychotherapy, can be viewed Open Access here. 

Warwick Data event for the academic community and PGRs

Warwick Data event for the academic community and PGRs

At the start of term, the brand-new Warwick Award – from Student Opportunity – officially opened its doors to all undergraduate and postgraduate taught students…have you registered yet?

The Award recognises and showcases all of the employability skills you’re building across your entire Warwick experience, to help put you in a position to make the start to life after graduation that you want to. It’s free to join, can be personalised to match your own skills development and can be completed whenever works best for you during your studies here.

It’s never too early – or too late – to start reflecting on your own skills development, and the Warwick Award will make that task much easier. More than 5,000 students have already registered in the last month alone, why not join them?

Head to the Award’s website to check out their launch video and register.

Get involved: warwick.ac.uk/warwickawardLink opens in a new window

A research project in the psychology department is looking for participants for a language study. The study involves describing pictures in English and filling in a few questionnaires. Participants should be English OR French native speakers. The test lasts between 30min and 45min, it takes place in the humanities building at the University of Warwick and you will receive a £5 Amazon voucher for taking part.

Please get in touch with me (m.coumel@warwick.ac.uk) if you would like to participate.

Thank you

Dr Marion Coumel

Postdoctoral Researcher

Department of Psychology

The School of Modern Languages and Cultures (SMLC) wamly invites applications from outstanding candidates for doctoral study commencing in September/October 2023. The SMLC will support pre-selected candidates for the Chancellor’s International Scholarships and Midlands4Cities scholarships

To express an interest, please send your CV and a two-page research proposal to smlcoffice@warwick.ac.uk (cc I.de-Smet@warwick.ac.uk) as soon as possible, ideally by 16 November 2022.

Interested in applying for a Midlands4Cities scholarship for doctoral study in Modern Languages or Translation Studies at Warwick? Register for the online Application Writing Workshops for M4C scholarship candidates on 19 November 2022, 10 am-1 pm. Registration details and the link to subscribe are on the M4C website.

In anticipation of our ‘Global Challenges, Local Solutions’ event programme starting in December 2022, and building on the innovative and collaborative ‘Getting Creative with Sustainability’ programme launched earlier this year, the Sustainable Cities GRP is hosting a showcase and workshops to highlight and build on the best co-created research between Warwick academics, local government, industry and civil society groups. While this is a call for presenters - attendees can register to attend the event as well.

Find out more and sign up to present your research Sustainable Cities GRP Events (warwick.ac.uk)

Waswasa - A Soul City Arts Production For the Birmingham 2022 Festival, with contributions by Dr James Hodkinson. Running from Aug 25- Sept 3, this is a multi media spectacle, including film, live physical theatre, immersive sound and graphic arts. The project aims to detoxify and demystify the often misunderstood tradition of Islamic prayer, and uses a blend of high-end digital art and the tactile productions of community arts projects to ensure local voices are at the heart of this internationally renowned project

The Warwick Awards for Public and Community Engagement (WAPCE), like the Warwick Awards for Teaching Excellence (WATELink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window), and Warwick Awards for Personal Tutoring Excellence (WAPTE), celebrate the very best of Warwick’s staff and students. The WAPCE awards recognise the vital contributions Warwick staff and students make in engaging the public – on an international and national level as well as crucially within our region and local communities – in our learning and discovery, with the goals of sharing and co-producing knowledge, strengthening the role we play in the region and showcasing the role Warwick plays nationally and internationally in making the world a better place.

SMLC is delighted that 2 of our most engaged researchers' work in public and community engagement has been recognised.

James Hodkinson has won a staff award for his work on community events and arts projects designed to facilitate cross-community encounters, enhance public debate, cross-community empathy and more nuanced mutual understanding between Muslim and non-Muslim communities in towns and cities across the UK.

Abigail Coppins won a Postgraduate award for the ways in which her research into Black prisoners of war in Britain during the French Revolution has had a significant impact on the young Black women at the National Youth Theatre who were involved in the R&D of a new play, The Ancestors. Her research has fed into educational resources for NYT and English Heritage and inspired a delegation of Garifuna people to travel from central America and the US to visit Portchester castle where the prisoners were held. Her work has also introduced Black undergraduates and young people from a community of 2nd generation St Vincentians in High Wycombe to the National Archives. She has, therefore, improved knowledge, strengthened networks, engaged with people from non-traditional backgrounds.

Professor Jim Shields appeared on BBC World, France 24, TRT World, CNBC, Al Jazeera and TVP World to discuss the French National Assembly elections. He gave interviews to Chile’s El Mercurio, Mexico’s El Universal and Colombia’s Portafolio.  

Those who remember the French Department in the days of Donald Charlton will be saddened to learn of the death of Mark Treharne, who taught in the Department until 1992. Mark was an inspiring teacher who cared deeply about his students. He was also a gifted translator and pianist, giving recitals in aid of charity. His translations include works by his friend the poet Jaccottet, as well as Jacques Réda, Rimbaud, and Proust’s The Guermantes Way. He once said he would go to the stake for Proust.

His funeral will be on 29 June at 2 p.m. at Golder's Green Crematorium, and will also be relayed online.

Linda Paterson

22 June 2022

Following up on initial survey findings, from the recent staff culture survey to explore staff sense of belonging and inclusivity at the University, a series of six independently run focus groups (via Sea-Change Consultancy) are taking place to further explore some specific staff experiences.