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.

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 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.

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.

Philippe Le Goff had a very successful PhD viva on 17 November. The external examiner was Dr Jim Wolfreys, from King's College, London and the internal examiner was Dr Oliver Davis. The title of Philippe's thesis is The militant politics of Auguste Blanqui.

Dr Wolfreys and Dr Davis commented that the thesis 'is a major contribution to the political history of nineteenth-century France, as well as a substantial intervention in today's debates about equality'.

The thesis was supervised by Professor Nick Hewlett.

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/

Dear students,

We are delighted and relieved to report that all our students are safe. Please read our updated statement here.

The School of Modern Languages and Cultures is shocked and saddened by the events on Friday 13 November in Paris. We send our solidarity and sympathy to all those affected. We ask all our students in Paris at the moment to verify their safety for us and to read this statement.

Professor Seán Hand, Head of School.

Congratulations to Professor Pierre-Philippe Fraiture, Head of French Studies, on the publication of his guest-edited special issue of the International Journal of Francophone Studies, around the theme of 'Francophone African Philosophy and the Aftermath of the Empire.' Well done Pierre-Philippe!

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.

Many congratulations to Warwick French Studies PhD students Hannah Grayson, Rebecca Pillière and Clare Siviter, who have received commendations in the Warwick Awards for Teaching Excellence for Postgraduates who Teach (WATE PGR).

Dr Mary Harrod (French Studies) appeared on BBC Radio 3's 'Free Thinking' programme on Thursday 9th July 2015 to discuss French intellectual culture.

Congratulations to the winners, runners-up and commended entrants of the Poetry competition organised as part of the 'Troubadours, trouvères and the Crusades' project led by Professor Linda Paterson (French Studies). The standard of entries was especially high; well done to all!