SMLC - News and events

We’re excited to be able to share this opportunity offered by a Warwick SMLC alumnus, Richard de Meo, who has devised a 6-week paid internship programme with his company in London this summer specifically for Warwick students taking any BA degree course offered by SMLC.

The only prior expertise or experience required is the understanding of languages and cultures developed during your degree study. Applications from students in any year of their degree course are welcomed.

See details of the offer and the company below. Applications should be submitted by Monday 1st June.

*Please note that whilst Richard has discussed this opportunity with us from the outset and we are pleased to share it with students, the School of Modern Languages and Cultures and the University of Warwick take no responsibility for any part of the internship experience. Your relationship as an applicant and/or intern will be solely and directly with the company, Attara.*

East‑Asian Film Week (4–7 May) presents three acclaimed films—Monster, Burning, and The Farewell—exploring the emotional lives of young people in contemporary East Asia. Through powerful storytelling, the screenings invite reflection on family, identity, class, and social change, followed by engaging post‑film discussions. All are welcome.

The School of Modern Languages and Cultures is teaming up with Student Opportunity and Unitemps to bring you a practical and inspiring Careers Session on Wednesday, 6 May, from 3–5 pm in TRC. All SMLC students are warmly welcome!

If we accept that writing is an extension of ourselves, how do we understand the fear that arises when our words are translated into a language we cannot understand?

This event explores the questions and anxieties surrounding creative writing and translation in conversation with award-winning writer Juhea Kim.

• Time: Friday, 23 January 2026, from 3:00 PM.
• Venue: Oculus 1.09
• Enquires: Dr Yoosun Ko (Yoosun.Ko@warwick.ac.uk)

All are welcome!

Are you looking for funding for a PhD in Modern Languages (incl. Translation Studies)? The University of Warwick’s annual Postgraduate Research Scholarships competition (2026 entry) opens on Monday 15 October and closes on 11 December 2025. Course applications must be made by 8 December 2025. Warwick’s School of Modern Languages & Cultures invites PhD applications from students with an outstanding academic record, who are very well-equipped to undertake doctoral study and whose research proposal promises to make a significant contribution to the field.

Get in touch with us to discuss your proposal

Hispanic Studies at Warwick is saddened to hear of the death of Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian Nobel Prize Winning author and one of the greats of Latin American literature.

The School of Modern Languages & Cultures invites applications for a fully-funded PhD scholarship, to work with Prof. Katherine Astbury (French Studies) and Dr Charles Walton (History) in conjunction with historians at English Heritage on 'Anglo-French relations during the age of Revolutions'. The project will be financed by the AHRC-funded Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership (Collaborative Doctoral Award).

Applications must be received by noon (UK time) on 13th January 2025. The successful applicant will commence their studies in October 2025.

The University of Warwick’s School of Modern Languages & Cultures invites applications from highly qualified prospective doctoral students for its PhD programmes in French, German, Italian, and Hispanic Studies, and Translation & Translation Cultural Studies (TTS).

For further information, see the School’s webpages on postgraduate study.

Doctoral funding is available through university-wide schemes (Chancellor’s International Scholarships, China Scholarship Council/University of Warwick scholarships), the AHRC Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership, and joint PhD programmes (e.g. the Monash-Warwick Alliance, Shanghai Jiao Tong University-Warwick Joint PhD programme).

Given the early deadlines (in late November; December; or January, depending on the scheme), and the multi-stage selection process, we encourage applicants to get in touch with their preliminary enquiries by sending an academic CV and draft research proposal to the School Director of Graduate Studies, Professor Ingrid De Smet (I.de-Smet@warwick.ac.uk), by 28 October 2024,

and/or to the relevant subject-specific postgraduate research admissions advisors:

• French & francophone: Prof. Ingrid De Smet (i.de-smet@warwick.ac.uk)
• German: Dr Nicholas Jones (Nicholas.d.jones@warwick.ac.uk)
• Italian: Prof. Fabio Camilletti (F.Camilletti@warwick.ac.uk)
• Hispanic Studies: Assoc. Prof. Tom Whittaker (t.whittaker@warwick.ac.uk)
• Translation & Transcultural Studies: Assoc. Prof. Caroline Summers (Caroline.Summers@warwick.ac.uk)

Enquiries from suitably qualified self-funded or externally funded (sponsored) students are also welcome.

Online PhD admissions interviews will likely be held in the weeks commencing 9^th and 16^th December 2024.

On Thursday 11th of April, we will be joined by Hannah White from the Institute for Government for the first InReach10x Seminar of the summer term.

Hannah is the Director of the Institute for Government. She is a frequent commentator on radio and television and writes regularly for The Telegraph, Guardian, and The Times. Hannah holds a PhD in Human Geography and began her career as a parliamentary clerk in the House of Commons. She joined the Institute in 2014 and was appointed Director in October 2022. Hannah serves as deputy chair of trustees for Involve and was awarded an OBE in the 2020 Birthday Honours. In April 2022, she published her first book, Held in Contempt: what’s wrong with the House of Commons?.

Hannah will be giving a seminar as part of the InReach10x Series on Thursday 11th April, from 13.00 - 14.00 in JX2.02 (Junction).

If you would like to sign up for the talk and receive a calendar invite, please click here.

Colleagues and former students will be saddened to hear of the passing of Professor John Osborne, Chair of German at the University of Warwick from 1979 until his retirement in 2002.

The InReach^10X @IAS Seminar Series is a programme of open lectures that showcases some of the most outstanding research taking place at Warwick, bringing it to the widest possible audience across campus.

The speakers who will present at the upcoming Spring InReach10x @IAS seminar series are:

• Thursday 1^st February 2024 | 13.00 - 14.00 | C0.02 IAS Seminar Room – Dr Saad Bhamla, The Frugal Science Academy.
  • Dr. Saad Bhamla, an assistant professor at Georgia Tech, will give a talk about The Frugal Science Academy. The academy's goal is to make scientific experimentation accessible to everyone.

• Thursday 29^th February 2024 | 13.30 - 14.30 | C0.02 IAS Seminar Room – Professor Helen Wheatley, Film and Television Studies

• • Professor Helen Wheatley from the Film and Television Studies will be giving a talk titled 'Ghost Town: Exploring Posthumous Television and Doing Engaging Research'.

• Thursday 14^th of March 2024 | 13.00 - 14.00 | C0.02 IAS Seminar Room – Professor Timothy Saunders, Warwick Medical School

• • Professor Timothy Saunders from Warwick Medical School will be giving a talk titled 'Imaging the beginnings of life at single-cell resolution'. 

For more information on the speakers and to sign up for calendar invites please go to the IAS website. 

Dr Katie Reynolds| Strategic Programmes Manager | Institute of Advanced Study

Zeeman Building | University of Warwick | Coventry | CV4 7AL

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Cultivating Mental Health and the Whole Person: Two complimentary day conferences promoting thinking across cultures

Friday 15th December (mental health focus) @9.30-17.00

Saturday 16th December (whole person focus) @9.30-15.00

Room OC1.01

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.

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.