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.

We are incredibly proud of our inaugural Hispanic Studies prizewinners. These prizes reflect some really outstanding contributions and achievements. Congratulations to all of you!

Many congratulations to our former student Emily Wagstaffe, now Head of German at Oundle School, who has been awarded a very prestigious German Teacher Award by the German Embassy. The ceremony was on 12 June, and Emily received her prize from the Ambassador Peter Ammon and John le Carré. Click here to read the Embassy's report.

Congratulations to Dr Maude Vanhaelen on the award of a Leverhulme Trust research fellowship to support her project on Plato and his Readers in Sixteenth-Century Italy.

Congratulations to Em. Prof. Ann Caesar on being awarded a Leverhulme Trust Emeritus Fellowship for her project The Rise and evolution of the modern Italian novel in eighteenth-century Venice. The project will run from October 2017 until January 2019.

2017 marks the 200th anniversary of the French literary giant Stendhal publishing under that pseudonym for the first time. We are showcasing some of Stendhal favourite pieces.

Congratulations to Kayte Stokoe on passing her PhD viva! Kayte’s thesis, entitled ‘Reframing Drag Performance: Beyond Theorisations of Drag as Subverting or Upholding the Status Quo’, was supervised by Dr Oliver Davis.

Congratulations to Merryn Everitt (French) on passing her PhD viva. Her thesis, entitled 'Travelling Saints and Religious Travellers in Twelfth- to Fourteenth-Century Francophone and Occitan Literary Texts’, was supervised by Dr Emma Campbell and Professor Linda Paterson.

The students took part in the Finals Day of the 12th Japanese Speech Contest for University Students, which was held on March 4th 2017.

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.

Welcome to the newsletter for SMLC. The purpose of this publication is to pass on information in a more digestible and succinct manner. It aims to create a platform for communicating as one whole department. News and information can be shared, but with a personal touch. Feel free to circulate to any staff that it may benefit.

Dr Villamediana González was awarded the prize for Images and Representations of 18th-Century Spain.

Dr Oliver Davis is delighted to have been appointed as Co-Director of the Centre for Research in Philosophy, Literature and the Arts for a two year term commencing April 2017. He looks forward to collaborating with colleagues in Philosophy and from departments across the Arts Faculty to develop the work of this internationally renowned forum for interdisciplinary research and exchange.

Read more about the Centre

Congratulations to Elio Baldi in Italian Studies, who will be awarded his PhD after a successful viva on 26th January!

Congratulations to Matt Coneys in Italian Studies, who will be awarded his PhD after a successful viva on 19th January!