The University of Warwick’s School of Modern Languages & Cultures invites applications from highly qualified prospective doctoral students for its PhD programmes in French, German, Italian, and Hispanic Studies, and Translation & Translation Cultural Studies (TTS).

For further information, see the School’s webpages on postgraduate study.

Doctoral funding is available through university-wide schemes (Chancellor’s International Scholarships, China Scholarship Council/University of Warwick scholarships), the AHRC Midlands4Cities Doctoral Training Partnership, and joint PhD programmes (e.g. the Monash-Warwick Alliance, Shanghai Jiao Tong University-Warwick Joint PhD programme).

Given the early deadlines (in late November; December; or January, depending on the scheme), and the multi-stage selection process, we encourage applicants to get in touch with their preliminary enquiries by sending an academic CV and draft research proposal to the School Director of Graduate Studies, Professor Ingrid De Smet (I.de-Smet@warwick.ac.uk), by 28 October 2024,

and/or to the relevant subject-specific postgraduate research admissions advisors:

• French & francophone: Prof. Ingrid De Smet (i.de-smet@warwick.ac.uk)
• German: Dr Nicholas Jones (Nicholas.d.jones@warwick.ac.uk)
• Italian: Prof. Fabio Camilletti (F.Camilletti@warwick.ac.uk)
• Hispanic Studies: Assoc. Prof. Tom Whittaker (t.whittaker@warwick.ac.uk)
• Translation & Transcultural Studies: Assoc. Prof. Caroline Summers (Caroline.Summers@warwick.ac.uk)

Enquiries from suitably qualified self-funded or externally funded (sponsored) students are also welcome.

Online PhD admissions interviews will likely be held in the weeks commencing 9^th and 16^th December 2024.

Hartmut Rosa (Jena/Erfurt) and Elisabeth Herrmann (Warwick)

Moderator: Irina Hron (Copenhagen)

Public Event at Jonsered Manor, Gothenburg

Monday, 27th March, 13:00-16:00 (CET)

Abstract

How does social reality come into being? Where do social impulses originate and how do they enter the public sphere?

Imaginaries are at least partly constitutive for what societies are, how they develop, how they are modified and continuously negotiated. Fictional stories, whether in the form of literary texts, visual media, or music and lyrics, can be catalysts for social transformation by reflecting the present from alternative viewpoints, including looking back at the past and imagining possible futures. Fictional stories turn imaginings into possibilities, taking them into the world, bringing them to mind and prototyping possible social realities through images and narration, figures and plots. How do social imaginaries emerge? How does fiction contribute to social transformation – and how are social transformations reflected in social imaginaries? What is social energy and how is it set in motion?

We are delighted to invite you to a research seminar jointly organised by the Department of Italianand the Centre for Digital Inquiry.

Monday 20^th February, 17:00-19:00

FAB 3.26  

The Digital Frontier? New Approaches to Literary and Translation Studies, History and Music

Giovanni Pietro Villani (Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin - Paris Saclay)

in conversation with

Federica Coluzzi (Italian/CDI, Warwick)

While it is difficult to answer the question what are the digital humanities, empirically it becomes easier to show what advantages digital brings to research in the humanities. The aim of this talk is to show the inside of a digital laboratory in order to show what are the reflections, failures and successes of using informatics applied to different fields of the humanities. Examples will be shown of studies carried out in the English-speaking, Italian-speaking Francophone and Spanish-speaking areas relating to procedures typical of literary analysis and studies of translation, (socio)linguistics, history and music.

Arising from a Warwick-Monash Alliance collaboration, with Dr Chris Watkin, undertaken during the Covid years, this new edited volume considers whether autonomy is still a useful concept today. Is the Enlightenment understanding of autonomy still relevant in addressing contemporary challenges? How have the limits and possibilities of autonomy been transformed by recent developments in artificial intelligence and big data, political pressures, intersecting oppressions and the climate emergency? The challenges to autonomy today reach across society with unprecedented complexity, and in this book leading scholars from philosophy, economics, linguistics, literature and politics examine the role of autonomy in key areas of contemporary life, forcefully defending a range of different views about the nature and extent of resistance to autonomy today. These essays are essential reading for anyone who wants to understand the predicament and prospects of one of modernity’s foundational concepts and one of our most widely cherished values. Oliver Davis's chapter, on conceptualising the role of patient autonomy in psychedelically assisted psychotherapy, can be viewed Open Access here. 

The School of Modern Languages and Cultures (SMLC) wamly invites applications from outstanding candidates for doctoral study commencing in September/October 2023. The SMLC will support pre-selected candidates for the Chancellor’s International Scholarships and Midlands4Cities scholarships

To express an interest, please send your CV and a two-page research proposal to smlcoffice@warwick.ac.uk (cc I.de-Smet@warwick.ac.uk) as soon as possible, ideally by 16 November 2022.

Interested in applying for a Midlands4Cities scholarship for doctoral study in Modern Languages or Translation Studies at Warwick? Register for the online Application Writing Workshops for M4C scholarship candidates on 19 November 2022, 10 am-1 pm. Registration details and the link to subscribe are on the M4C website.

In anticipation of our ‘Global Challenges, Local Solutions’ event programme starting in December 2022, and building on the innovative and collaborative ‘Getting Creative with Sustainability’ programme launched earlier this year, the Sustainable Cities GRP is hosting a showcase and workshops to highlight and build on the best co-created research between Warwick academics, local government, industry and civil society groups. While this is a call for presenters - attendees can register to attend the event as well.

Find out more and sign up to present your research Sustainable Cities GRP Events (warwick.ac.uk)

Waswasa - A Soul City Arts Production For the Birmingham 2022 Festival, with contributions by Dr James Hodkinson. Running from Aug 25- Sept 3, this is a multi media spectacle, including film, live physical theatre, immersive sound and graphic arts. The project aims to detoxify and demystify the often misunderstood tradition of Islamic prayer, and uses a blend of high-end digital art and the tactile productions of community arts projects to ensure local voices are at the heart of this internationally renowned project

Internal funding call - closes Feb 28th @ 12 noon - Getting creative with Sustainability - all career stages

Warwick is hosting some global online seminars (Jan-April 2022) exploring how the film and TV industries in Miami, Reykjavik, Cornwall and Venice are connected to a watery sense of place, water pollution, water scarcity and water cultures.

The School for Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Warwick warmly invites expressions of interest in its MPhil/PhD programmes in French Studies, German Studies, Hispanic Studies, Italian, and Translation and Transcultural Studies (including a theoretical/academic and a practice-based route).

Please join us, in person or online, for the second part of our conference on Postcolonial Italian Cinema which will take place at Warwick on October 1^st. You can find the program and any other relevant information here: https://postcolonialitalia.wixsite.com/website.

If you want to see the first part of the conference, which took place in Rome last week, it is available here (in Italian and English): https://www.youtube.com/c/LabsSaras 

Should you need more information please get in touch with us directly or email postcolonialitaliancinema@gmail.com

Head of School and Professor of French Kate Astbury and her PhD student Abigail Coppins welcomed a delegation of Garifuna people to Portchester Castle on Wednesday 8th September 2021 to show them the fruits of Abigail's research into the prisoners of war from the Caribbean held their during the Revolutionary wars. You can watch the BBC South report of the visit here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=JOVWmfZuDuU

and read the Portsmouth News article about it here: https://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/people/descendants-of-banished-caribbeans-visit-portchester-castle-to-find-out-about-revolutionary-heroes-3376145

Teleworkability as a new digital divide – Webinar

July 14^th, 11am-12pm

What has the extent of teleworking been in the EU before and during the Covid-19 outbreak? Are we seeing a trend of new teleworkers across occupations and types of workers who weren’t able to work remotely previously?

This webinar, facilitated by Professor Chris Warhurst from the Institute of Employment Research and Dr Enrique Fernández-Macías of the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, examines how Covid-19 has changed the profile of the teleworker and what it means for the future of work. Find out more: https://warwick.ac.uk/research/priorities/productivity/webinars/teleworkabilityasanewdigitaldivide/

Coventry Creates 2021

The City of Culture University Partnership is pleased to announce that Coventry Creates is running again this year. The call invites academics from all disciplines, with researchers to be paired with successful artist applicants to create artistic responses to research. The call now closes on 12pm on Thursday 08 July.

See more: Coventry Creates 2021

It will take place online on 29-30 June, 2021 (next Tuesday and Wednesday) and is open to all in our Warwick academic community.

The conference features the impressive research of our department, through five book panels published with excellent university presses (Oxford, Cambridge and others) on topics from democracy, peacekeeping, security, diasporas and migration and others that could be of interest to the wider Warwick academic community.

Find out more - https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/pais/news/research2021/

Warwick Food GRP and the Centre for Research in Philosophy, Literature and the Arts (CRPLA) seek contributions for the WARWICK DINNER PARTY - a creative project to highlight different food cultures, memories, ideas and goals, to be displayed on campus in July 2021. Deadline for brief proposals: 1 June, 5.00 pm.

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/philosophy/research/researchcentres/phillit/currentevents/dinnerparty/

Sponsored by the Warwick Food GRP and CRPLA.

Warmest congratulations to Mary Jane Dempsey, current visiting research student at Warwick and also PhD candidate at Cornell, on the award by the American Academy in Rome of the Rome Prize in Modern Italian Studies, 2021-22. Mary Jane's project, which she first developed as a researcher in Italian at Warwick in 2016-17, is 'Remember to Forget: Migration, Gender, and Transnational Identities in Twentieth-Century Italy'.

The first in a series of events for this network Producing the Post-National Popular (warwick.ac.uk) took place this Friday 23rd April online, with 50 registrations and much dialogue generated.

• Past Imperfect: Time and African Decolonization