Warwick's School of Modern Languages and Cultures welcomes expressions of interest for a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship. Please click on the headline to find out how to apply by the internal deadline of 15 January 2018.

German Studies at the University of Warwick, School of Modern Languages and Cultures, invites applications to the University’s annual funding competition for doctoral students, for entry in autumn 2018. We will happily consider applications from well-qualified native speakers of German with strong English skills whose projects have a strong literary or cultural focus. The deadline for expressions of interest to the department is Tuesday 7 November 2017.

Dr James Hodkinson and Professor Karen Leeder (Oxford) launch a creative writing competition on Monday 25 Sept.

The Department of German Studies and the School of Modern Languages and Cultures played host to British and Irish-based Germanists of all backgrounds last week, from 5-7 September. A brief preview follows.

Dr James Hodkinson's touring exhibtion has now opened in schools in Surrey. It will be touring educational institutions in the UK over the next 12-18 months.

The exhibition takes visitors on a journey through representations of Islam in German-speaking culture from the late Enlightenment to the Great War of 1914-1918. Looking at texts and images, it tracks the shifting values and functions attributed to Islam in German and Austrian society, culture, thought and politics, highlighting both the Islamophobia and Islamophilia of the age and asking visitors to reflect on how these patterns are still with us today.

On Wednesday, 25th January, we will have this year’s first event in the SMLC Lunch-Time Seminars.

Nick Hewlett and Oliver Davis (French) have agreed to give two papers on the topic: 'Policing Mai 68: theories, techniques, legacy’.
Please join us for this very interesting event.

Details: 1:00-2:00, H5.45, Wed. Week 3 (25th January). All welcome. Bring your own lunch.

Together with Dr Ian Roberts, Dr James Hodkinson is making a series of films charting his impact project on Islam in Germany. Watch the trailer here.

The School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Warwick welcomes expressions of interest from early-career researchers who would like to apply to the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship scheme in 2016-17. Closing date for proposals: 16th September 2016. 

More information

Dr James Hodkinson, Warwick German Studies, will hold a public lecture at Coventry Cathedral on May 4, 7 pm, on the role of Islam in German history and its implications for Britain today. All welcome!

Dr. James Hodkinson of SMLC, currently researching Islam in German History, has been invited to take part in an event hosted by Woking People of Faith Interfaith forum, alongside prominent speakers in Woking on November 18th, 7pm.

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/modernlanguages/people/academic/jameshodkinson/

Congratulations to Prof. Anne Fuchs (German Studies) on the publication of two new essays! Follow the link for full details.

The School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Warwick invites applications to the university’s annual funding competition for doctoral students, for entry in 2016-17.

SALTS (School of Languages at Lunchtime Series) is a new interdisciplinary research forum for the entire research community in the School of Modern Languages and beyond. The School strongly promotes interdisciplinary research across several fields including comparative medieval and early modern studies, Film History and Film Aesthetics, Postcolonial and Transnational Studies, Migration Studies, Translation Studies, Renaissance Studies, Memory Studies, Gender Studies and Disability Studies.

Members of our vibrant research community also engage in editorial and archival work, sociocultural and political contextualization, philosophical and theoretical interrogation, medical and psychiatric history. Their research addresses the urgent issues of linguistic, cultural, religious and ethnic diversity in Europe, Africa, North America, the Caribbean and Central and South America. By examining the reception and reshaping of philosophical, intellectual and literary traditions, they also contribute to a nuanced understanding of what is involved in transcultural and intercultural encounters and translations.

Designed to facilitate cross-disciplinary dialogue, SALTS adopts a dynamic and informal format. Presenters from a particular discipline will team up with a respondent from a different subject area who is working in a related field. A short paper or position statement will be circulated ahead of each lunchtime talk and form the basis for the response and the ensuing discussion.

Term 2 (1 - 2pm)

Week 4 (3 February) – Eliana Maestri (Italian) and Mary Harrod (French): Women’s Autobiography and Cultural Production - H545

Week 8 (2 March) – Santiago Oyarzabal (Hispanic) and Jenny Burns (Italian) – Politics on Screen - H060

Term 3 (1 - 2pm)

For all further information about SALTS, contact Professor Anne Fuchs, Director of Research, School of Modern Languages and Cultures.

Dr Seán Allan (German Studies) Screening Art. Modernism and the Socialist Imaginary in East German Cinema

Four PhD students in the School have been successful in their bids to win funding from Warwick's Humanities Research Centre to stage their own events and projects.

Professor Anne Fuchs (German Studies) to mark the anniversary of the Dresden bombing at high profile memorial events in Germany next week

The School of Modern Languages and Cultures was highly successful in the most recent national research exercise, the 2014 REF, with our research outputs ranked 5th in the UK. 79.7% of our work, and 100% of our environment, was judged to be world-leading or internationally excellent. With three of the four submissions ranked above us specialising entirely in Linguistics outputs, we are one of the very best UK institutions for comprehensive research in modern languages. This output ranking also places us above all other Russell Group universities, including Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Durham, King's College London, Leeds, Liverpool, Newcastle, Nottingham, Oxford, Queen Mary University of London, and UCL. The School is also top-ranked for Modern Languages overall in the Midlands region.

Professor Seán Hand, Head of the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, commented: ‘We are delighted with this strong endorsement of our research capabilities across the whole of our School, in French, German, Italian and Hispanic Studies. As we do not pursue research in Linguistics, the proportion of our outputs deemed to be in the highest possible category of 'world-leading' also places us just behind Cambridge and Kent (which both also included Linguistics in their overall return). And our output's 'intensity' ranking (which takes account of the proportion of staff entered into the exercise), again ignoring Linguistics returns, places us 2nd in the UK, just behind Cambridge. In conjunction with our University’s overall rankings, where we are rated the 7^th best research university in the UK, and with our status as the current Times/Sunday Times University of the Year, this result really emphasizes how Warwick offers a truly world-class research-intensive environment for the comprehensive study of modern languages.’

Warwick German colleagues James Jordan and Stephen Lamb are proud to announce the publication this month of a new ‘kritische Studienausgabe’ of the complete works of Ernst Toller.

Call for Papers

 Iran and the West: Converging Perspectives

To be held from 1-3 July 2015, and hosted by the University of Warwick. Introductory speaker – Dr James Hodkinson, the University of Warwick. Keynote speaker – Prof Ali Ansari, the University of St Andrews.

We cordially invite scholars from diverse fields to contribute towards a wide-ranging interdisciplinary conference which aims to further our understanding of Iranian perceptions of the West and Westerners and Western perceptions of Iran and Iranians, from c. 500 BC until the present day. The aim of this conference is to improve our understanding of Iranian and Western cultural perceptions of the other’s culture, people, and politics, both from popular and elite viewpoints, and the points of convergence and divergence between them.

For further details, and for any questions regarding the themes of the conference, please consult the conference web page.

For any further clarifications, contact Dr Margaux Whiskin by email at M dot Whiskin at warwick dot ac dot uk