ÌÇÐÄTV

The School of Modern Languages & Cultures invites applications for the award of one SMLC Doctoral Scholarship to an outstanding candidate to pursue a PhD from October 2026 in one of the following areas: French Studies, German Studies, Italian, or Hispanic Studies or Translation & Transcultural Studies. Applications are open to PhD applicants with Home fee status and with Overseas fee status, but note that the award does not cover full fees for students with Overseas fee status.

The award consists of:

• payment of academic fees for Home fees level OR an equivalent reduction in fees for Overseas fee status students;
• a UKRI-level stipend for 3.5 years, regardless of fee status.

You must also have applied for (or already be an offer holder for) one of the PhD courses in the University of ÌÇÐÄTV’s School of Modern Languages & Cultures to begin in October 2026.

The scholarship cannot be deferred to the next academic year. It is intended for full-time study. The scholarship is not normally intended for Joint PhD programmes.

We will look for an applicant of the highest calibre, who has the academic potential and the motivation to succeed in their PhD. Their research will be highly compatible with the expertise available in the School, and we expect the student to actively engage with the School's research culture and our Postgraduate Research community.

We welcome applications in inter- or cross-disciplinary topics, including those that involve two or more languages (multilingualism).

Are you looking for funding for a PhD in Modern Languages (incl. Translation Studies)? The University of ÌÇÐÄTV’s annual Postgraduate Research Scholarships competition (2026 entry) opens on Monday 15 October and closes on 11 December 2025. Course applications must be made by 8 December 2025. ÌÇÐÄTV’s School of Modern Languages & Cultures invites PhD applications from students with an outstanding academic record, who are very well-equipped to undertake doctoral study and whose research proposal promises to make a significant contribution to the field.

Get in touch with us to discuss your proposal

Hispanic Studies at ÌÇÐÄTV is saddened to hear of the death of Mario Vargas Llosa, Peruvian Nobel Prize Winning author and one of the greats of Latin American literature.

The University of ÌÇÐÄTV’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 .

Doctoral funding is available through university-wide schemes (, ), the , and joint PhD programmes (e.g. the , ).

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.

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, ÌÇÐÄTV)

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.

It is with great sadness that the School of Modern Languages & Cultures has received news of the death of Professor James Shields on 9 February 2023.

Published in November 2022 by Leuven University Press and with the support of the European Research Council: available in open access.

Belgian colonialism was short-lived but left significant traces that are still felt in the twenty-first century. This book explores how the imperial past has lived on in Belgium, but also in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. The contributing authors approach colonial legacies from an interdisciplinary perspective and examine how literature, politics, the arts, the press, cinema, museal practices, architecture, and language policies – but also justice and ethics – have been used to critically revisit this period of African and European history. Whilst engaging with significant figures such as Sammy Baloji, Chokri Ben Chikha, Gaël Faye, François Kabasele, Alexis Kagame, Edmond Leplae, VY Mudimbe, Fiston Mwanza Mujila, Joseph Ndwaniye, and Sony Labou Tansi, this book also analyses the role of places such as the AfricaMuseum, Bujumbura, Colwyn Bay, Kongolo, and the Virunga Park to appraise the links between memory and the development of a postcolonial present.

Arising from a ÌÇÐÄTV-Monash Alliance collaboration, with Dr Chris Watkin, undertaken during the Covid years, 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, . 

At the start of term, the brand-new ÌÇÐÄTV Award – from Student Opportunity – officially opened its doors to all undergraduate and postgraduate taught students…have you registered yet?

The Award recognises and showcases all of the employability skills you’re building across your entire ÌÇÐÄTV experience, to help put you in a position to make the start to life after graduation that you want to. It’s free to join, can be personalised to match your own skills development and can be completed whenever works best for you during your studies here.

It’s never too early – or too late – to start reflecting on your own skills development, and the ÌÇÐÄTV Award will make that task much easier. More than 5,000 students have already registered in the last month alone, why not join them?

Head to the Award’s website to check out their launch video and register.

Get involved: warwick.ac.uk/warwickawardLink opens in a new window

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

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 ÌÇÐÄTV? 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.

The ÌÇÐÄTV Awards for Public and Community Engagement (WAPCE), like the ÌÇÐÄTV Awards for Teaching Excellence (WATELink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new windowLink opens in a new window), and ÌÇÐÄTV Awards for Personal Tutoring Excellence (WAPTE), celebrate the very best of ÌÇÐÄTV’s staff and students. The WAPCE awards recognise the vital contributions ÌÇÐÄTV staff and students make in engaging the public – on an international and national level as well as crucially within our region and local communities – in our learning and discovery, with the goals of sharing and co-producing knowledge, strengthening the role we play in the region and showcasing the role ÌÇÐÄTV plays nationally and internationally in making the world a better place.

SMLC is delighted that 2 of our most engaged researchers' work in public and community engagement has been recognised.

James Hodkinson has won a staff award for his work on community events and arts projects designed to facilitate cross-community encounters, enhance public debate, cross-community empathy and more nuanced mutual understanding between Muslim and non-Muslim communities in towns and cities across the UK.

Abigail Coppins won a Postgraduate award for the ways in which her research into Black prisoners of war in Britain during the French Revolution has had a significant impact on the young Black women at the National Youth Theatre who were involved in the R&D of a new play, The Ancestors. Her research has fed into educational resources for NYT and English Heritage and inspired a delegation of Garifuna people to travel from central America and the US to visit Portchester castle where the prisoners were held. Her work has also introduced Black undergraduates and young people from a community of 2nd generation St Vincentians in High Wycombe to the National Archives. She has, therefore, improved knowledge, strengthened networks, engaged with people from non-traditional backgrounds.

Professor Jim Shields appeared on , , , , Al Jazeera and to discuss the French National Assembly elections. He gave interviews to Chile’s El Mercurio, Mexico’s El Universal and Colombia’s Portafolio.  

Those who remember the French Department in the days of Donald Charlton will be saddened to learn of the death of Mark Treharne, who taught in the Department until 1992. Mark was an inspiring teacher who cared deeply about his students. He was also a gifted translator and pianist, giving recitals in aid of charity. His translations include works by his friend the poet Jaccottet, as well as Jacques Réda, Rimbaud, and Proust’s The Guermantes Way. He once said he would go to the stake for Proust.

His funeral will be on 29 June at 2 p.m. at Golder's Green Crematorium, and will also be relayed online.

Linda Paterson

22 June 2022

A CELEBRATION of our long-time colleagues

Miguel Beistegui

Peter Poellner

On Tuesday 17 May 11.00 – 13.00, the Monash ÌÇÐÄTV Alliance Showcase will announce new funding opportunities for researchers, educators, professional staff, and students interested in establishing collaborations with Monash colleagues.

FAB Fest

Friday 20 May, 12pm - 5pm

Students, staff and members of the local community are invited to the official opening of the Faculty of Arts Building (FAB) taking place at midday on Friday, 20 May. The opening ceremony, where a festive glass of fizz will be provided for all guests, will be followed by FAB Fest – a festival celebrating the arts at ÌÇÐÄTV.

FAB Fest is an afternoon of workshops, activities, performances and other events taking place right across the building and spilling out onto Senate House Lawn and the other green spaces in the vicinity.Fab Fest is rapidly approaching, and we would love to see as many staff and students there as possible.

View the schedule here: /fac/arts/news/fabfest/activityschedule/

All language teaching teams across the academic sections and the Language Centre have collectively been nominated for a Community and Culture ÌÇÐÄTV Award in Teaching Excellence.

We're delighted to have been shortlisted for professionalism and collegiality in responding to the pandemic.

Dr Zhiyan Guo has also been shortlisted for an Arts Faculty award.

The shortlists can be seen here:

/fac/cross_fac/academic-development/wate/shortlistcategories/

Tom Whittaker has recently returned from completing a visiting fellowship at Brown University, Rhode Island, which took place in April 2021. At Brown, Tom delivered a public hybrid lecture entitled 'Photography and Postmemory in Pedro Almodóvar's Madres paralelas' and delivered a workshop to PhD students.