SMLC - News and events

The School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Warwick again welcomes applications for the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme.

In research that will take him to Italy, England and Australia, Mr Goffredo Polizzi, one of the first students to receive a coveted Monash Warwick joint PhD scholarship, is examining how Italians form their identities in light of changing cultural influences. Associate Professor Rita Wilson from Monash University, and Associate Professor Loredana Polezzi from the Warwick School of Modern Languages and Cultures, are jointly supervising Goffredo’s research. The Monash Warwick Alliance is an innovative approach to higher education that is accelerating the exchange of people, ideas and information between Monash and Warwick Universities. For the full story, see here.

Impressive scores were achieved by several languages within Warwick's School of Modern Languages and Cultures in the latest National Student Survey. German Studies was awarded an exceptional 96% overall satisfaction score, while French Studies scored 93%. Commenting on the overall results, the Vice-Chancellor Professor Nigel Thrift said: 'This success reflects our commitment to provide Warwick students with a high-quality research-led learning experience, that also equips them to become internationally aware and to leave Warwick inspired and equipped to take on some of our world’s greatest challenges. It also reflects Warwick’s continued reinvestment in its campus to provide the experience that our students expect.'

Congratulations to Professor Ingrid de Smet of Warwick French Studies for having been elected as a Fellow of the British Academy.

Dr Kate Astbury, Associate Professor and Reader in the Department of French Studies, is one of this year's University winners of the Research Impact and Public Engagement Awards, given in recognition of an academic's strong focus on public understanding and involvement in research activity. The list of all winners can be viewed here. Dr Astbury's work especially analyses the French Revolution and the Napoleonic era, and is decribed here.

Sir Michael Edwards, a founding member of the Department of French Studies at Warwick, has become the first Briton and first native English speaker to enter the prestigious Académie française, France's highest learned body charged with defending the purity of the French language. He was elected by standing members in 2013, and was received on 22 May 2014. He will occupy seat F31 in the Academy.

The Modern Languages subjects at Warwick achieved some impressive rankings in the 2015 Complete University Guide, published 12 May 2014. French moved up one place to 3^rd, and now sits above Cambridge and just behind Oxford. German moved up to 5^th position, on the heels of Oxford, Cambridge, and Exeter. Italian is in 7^th position, on equal footing with St. Andrew’s. Our new Department of Hispanic Studies does not yet feature in these tables.

The next SFPS Postgraduate Study Day will be held on Thursday 5 June 2014, at the University of Warwick, in the Wolfson Exchange Centre. The theme of the day willl be: 'Migrations in Francophone Culture'. For full details of papers, location, and registration, see here.

Dr Christabelle Peters (Hispanic Studies / IAS) is now a member of the research team for the UNESCO project ‘A Rota do Escravo’ based in the Centro de Estudos sobre África, Ásia e América Latina at the Universidade Técnica in Lisbon.

The Department of German Studies is pleased to announce the appointment of Mary Cosgrove as Professor of German Studies from January 2015

Prof. Glave's Among the Bloodpeople: Politics and Flesh has been named a finalist for the 2014 Lambda Literary Award in LGBT Nonfiction. Many congratulations!!!

We are delighted to announce that the Language Centre and the Hispanic Studies department have been certified by Instituto Cervantes to allow students to take the Diplomas de Español como Lengua Extranjera (DELE). These diplomas, administered on behalf of Spain's Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport, help to provide non-native Spanish speakers with a legitimate and certified method of proving their proficiency in the Spanish language.

Warwick Hispanic Studies are delighted to welcome 2014 Leverhulme Visiting Professor Thomas Glave, who will be joining the department from January-December 2014. Click on the headline above to find out more about Professor Glave and his work!

Warwick scholar Dr James Hodkinson, together with colleagues from his Occident-Orient Research Network, have published a volume of essays on the the still under-researched theme of Germanic, central and eastern European forms of Orientalism during the long nineteenth century.

Article published in the December 2013 E-Newsletter for Research Active Staff from the Learning and Development Centre. Full E-Newsletter can be accessed at: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/ldc/researchers/about/newsletter_december_2013.pdf