Last night Dr. Susannah Wilson, Dr. Oliver Davis and Dr. Rebecca Powers from the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Warwick hosted a ‘Psychoactive Supper’ to stimulate discussion about the concept of psychoactivity, central to The Psychoactive Substances Act (2016), a new piece of UK legislation that seeks to ban ‘legal highs’ by instituting a blanket ban on all psychoactive substances. Read more...

The School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Warwick invites applications for two PhD fellowships from outstanding Home/EU candidates in any area of research in French, German, Hispanic or Italian Studies in which the School is able to offer supervision. The fellowships cover fees and maintenance at RCUK rates for three years from October 2016. Successful candidates will be required to carry out some teaching or other academic-related duties for the School as part of the fellowship.

In the most recent QS world rankings by subject, Modern Languages at Warwick were ranked 30^th in the world. This is a rise of 3 places on last year’s position in the same table. Warwick remains 6^th in the UK according to the QS methodology.

We are very relieved to say that all of our students based in Brussels on the Year Abroad are safe and well. Students in Brussels should continue to heed the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) advice which is to stay away from crowded places and public transport at this stage. Full and updated details of the FCO’s advice can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/belgium

We are now in the process of contacting every student in France or a francophone country directly to ensure that they are also safe and well and you will be contacted individually by your Personal Tutor directly to check in. Students in France should likewise continue to heed the FCO’s advice for France which continues to state that the public should be extra vigilant, especially in public places.

These events are difficult to comprehend and of course follow only a few months after the Paris attacks in November. We are conscious that these attacks may well have an impact on your wider wellbeing. Further pastoral support is therefore available from your personal tutor in the first instance, from the French Studies Senior Tutor, Dr Susannah Wilson (s.m.wilson@warwick.ac.uk) and from the University’s counselling team (counselling@warwick.ac.uk).

We will be in touch with any important further information where necessary. Further updates are available through the University's Insite page.

Thank you for your cooperation so far. We are naturally thinking of you and all those who have lost their lives or been injured in this tragic attack.

With best wishes

Professor Seán Hand, Head of the School of Modern Languages and Cultures

The School of Modern Languages and Cultures is concerned to hear of two explosions at the Brussels airport (Zaventem), and at Brussels metro stations (Maelbeek and Schuman) near the EU, this morning, 22 March. This situation has been reported as a terrorist attack, and the Belgian ministry has placed the country on maximum alert.

We are asking all our students in Brussels and Belgium at the moment to confirm immediately their safety for us, as your welfare is our first priority. If you wish to speak to anyone about your safety or welfare, please contact your Personal Tutor in the first instance, or you can contact David Lees (d.w.lees@warwick.ac.uk), Pierre-Philippe Fraiture (p-p.fraiture@warwick.ac.uk) or Cathy Hampton (c.m.hampton@warwick.ac.uk).

Brussels hosts a number of international institutions (EU and NATO), as well as government and foreign embassy buildings, which are sensitive locations. Please be vigilant at this time.

Transport, and especially flight travel, are likely to be severely disrupted today into and out of Belgium, and there will be enhanced border controls and a heightened military presence. We hear at this time (08:30 British time) that the Brussels metro has been closed. If you are planning to travel or from the UK in the near future, you may need to plan for the extra time that it may take to go through security checks. Security has been stepped up at Paris and Frankfurt airports.

Further updates may be provided by the University via the Insite web page.

Our deepest sympathies go to anyone affected by these latest outrages, and we ask all our students once again to verify their safety to us at the earliest opportunity.

Professor Seán Hand, Head of the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Warwick UK.

"Working as a Translator for the EU" by Mark Smith, Head of English and Irish Translation Unit at the European Parliament.
A wide-ranging presentation, covering all institutions, the institutional framework and legislative process, the need for multilingualism, the work of a translator and finally the recruitment process.

Respondent: Dr Mila Milani, Senior Teaching Fellow in Italian and former translation trainee at the EP.

12-13 (Graduate Space): informal Q&A session with Mark Smith, coffee/tea will be provided.

This event will be a unique opportunity to engage directly with translation experts at a highly professional standard and know more about the professional routes in translation available for Modern Languages students.

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!

This year’s winners (and the conferences they will organise) are as follows:

 Rebecca Carnevali and Gloria Moorman (Centre for the Study of the Renaissance)

‘More than meets the page: Printing Text and Images in Italy 1570s-1700s’ 

Liam Lewis and Jane Sinnett-Smith (French)

‘Bodies in Flux: Rewriting the Body in Medieval Literature, Art and Culture 1000-1450 

Gianmarco Mancosu (Italian)

‘Trespassing the Borders: Redefining Postcolonialism from Peripheral Experiences’

The winners of the competition are each given a research budget of £400 and a conference budget of £600, and are invited to organise a one-day interdisciplinary conference during the following academic year.

The School of Modern Languages and Cultures is pleased to offer three bursaries to suitably qualified MA applicants for the 2016-17 academic year. These bursaries cover fees only, at the home/EU rate. Any home/EU applicant for any of the Masters courses offered in the School is eligible to apply for one of these bursaries.

Congratulations to French at Warwick's debating team, made up of Courtenay Barron-Cutts, Anna Cottakis, Manon Lepretre and Peter O’Brien, who beat Exeter yesterday to make it through to the national final at the Institut français in London. Well done to their coach, Dr Margaux Whiskin, on this great result! Chapeau!

The Warwick Latin American Film Festival, organized by Hispanic Studies PhD student Sofia Mercader, is going from strength to strength. Join Sofia and the team for our next showing and after-film discussion, Walter Salles's Central Station (1998), on Thursday 11 February @ 6pm in Ramphal 1.15.

Check out the full programme here.

This winter, Warwick is hosting an exciting festival of Latin American Film screenings, each followed by debate and discussion. Screenings are FREE and open to all. Download the programme (PDF) for dates and venues. Please contact organiser Sofia Mercader (s.mercader@warwick.ac.uk) for more information.

The Cultural Engagement Fellowship is a three-month position beginning 15 February 2016, based in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University Of Warwick.

Professor Menezes's paper, entitled 'Out of the Labyrinth? Television Memories of Revolution and Return in Contemporary Portugal' will examine the role of television nostalgia as a potentially productive form of cultural memory. It will focus on RTP's populist series, Depois do Adeus, which charted the return of settlers, or retornados, from Angola to metropolitan Portugal following the 1974 Revolution and the declarations of independence in former Lusophone African colonies. Click on the headline to see the full programme!

Warwick’s new Academy (Warwick International Higher Education Academy) was set up in 2015 to champion inspirational and effective teaching at the University. During this year a number of staff were nominated as Foundation fellows, including Teresa MacKinnon from the Language Centre at SMLC. Further information about the possibilities that will be supported by the Academy can be seen here:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/academy/about/

Find out what the Academy can do for you.

Dr. Guo said: I am very pleased that my reflective practice and efforts have been recognised by Higher Education Academy. I recommend all my colleagues to experience this joy of being a teacher. I have been teaching languages in higher education in China and in all sectors of education in the UK for the past twenty years. Being interactive, supportive and research-informed have been my teaching principles. It is fun to use blended learning to enable students to become competent and confident learners taking charge of their own Chinese learning for their future personal and professional life.

Hispanic Studies have launched a research blog, where you can read about new research by members of the department. Read the first entry, Rosalía de Castro, un reto para los estudios hispánicos, by Honorary Associate Professor Helena González (Universitat de Barcelona) now!

Many congratulations to Deirdre McMahon, student taking the MA in Translation, Writing and Cultural Difference, who has had her translations of two poems by Austrian-Slovene writer, Maja Haderlap, published in Berlin-based journal, No-Mans-Land: see http://www.no-mans-land.org/issue10.htm.