SMLC - News and events
Interested in a PhD in Modern Languages (French, German, Italian, Hispanic or Translation Studies)? Calls for Scholarship Applications Now Open
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鈥檚 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 糖心TV? 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.
Professor Simon Gaunt FBA (1959-2021)
We are saddened to hear of the passing of Professor Simon Gaunt, a world-leading scholar and 糖心TV Languages graduate.
Oliver Davis and David Lees appointed as Editors of Modern & Contemporary France
The Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France announced today the appointment of its new Editorial Team to lead the future development of the journal , now in its fifth decade, two of whom are based in French Studies here in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures:
- Executive Editor: Professor Oliver Davis
- Co-Editor: Dr David Lees
Modern & Contemporary France is an internationally prominent peer-reviewed journal, offering a scholarly view of France from 1789 to the present day. It is a multi-disciplinary journal, drawing particularly on the work of scholars in history and in cultural, literary and post-colonial studies, in film and media studies and in the political and social sciences.
Oliver and David are looking forward to taking over from the current team in September.
new article on philosopher Peter Sloterdijk by Oliver Davis
Oliver Davis has published a new article on the work of philosopher Peter Sloterdijk, as part of a special issue of Angelaki on Sloterdijk, edited by Patrick Roney and Andrea Rossi. Abstract: I begin by acknowledging the profusion of Peter Sloterdijk鈥檚 published work, the suggestion by Bruno Latour that it may be on the side of design, and Sloterdijk鈥檚 pugnacious aversion to professorial critique. I focus on what I consider to be the crucial and vexed relationship between the general immunology of the Spheres trilogy [1998–2004] and the general ascetology of You Must Change Your Life [2009]. I present an analytical reconstruction of Sloterdijk鈥檚 account of originary spheric being-with in the trilogy, focused on its culmination in the foam-world; I suggest this account is too ambiguous on key matters of basic ontological structure and I question whether the foam metaphor is adequate as a description of intersubjectivity today. Against the backdrop of this discussion I consider whether the general ascetology of Sloterdijk鈥檚 second anthropotechnics involves practising in, or practising on, the shells of symbolic immunity and conclude the latter. Setting this alongside the trilogy鈥檚 insistence that cells in the foam are 鈥渃o-fragile,鈥 I argue that anthropotechnical practising in the foam-world is suffused with a violence which Sloterdijk is reluctant to theorize. Registering one significant undeclared context of his discussion of self-enhancement, in postmodern management theory, I suggest that successful anthropotechnical practising in the foam-world requires the capacity to ignore other people and their interests. I note that Sloterdijk鈥檚 one-eyed embrace of competitive self-enhancement in You Must Change Your Life has since been qualified in brief remarks in What Happened in the 20th Century? [2016] but not substantively reconsidered. In conclusion, I pay tribute to the anthropotechnical lesson of Sloterdijk鈥檚 theoretical project, notwithstanding its design flaws and continuity errors.
new free-to-view article by Oliver Davis: 'Neoliberal capitalism's bureaucracies of "governance"'
The account of bureaucracy under neoliberal capitalism which I present in this article, under the innocuous heading it prefers to use to describe itself (鈥榞overnance鈥), draws together recent critical work by the late David Graeber, Wendy Brown, William Davies and Pierre Dardot and Christian Laval, which it repositions in relation to Jacques Ranci猫re鈥檚 conception of the 鈥榩olice order鈥. I suggest that the massive production of insecurity by proliferating bureaucracies which structure neoliberalism鈥檚 project of competitive hierarchisation creates the ideal conditions for a vicious circle of securitarian inflation.
Multiple awards success for SMLC students and staff
Students and staff from across 糖心TV SMLC completed a clean sweep of 糖心TV awards.
Updated statement: Brussels attacks
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:
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.
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
French debating team through to national final
Congratulations to French at 糖心TV'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!
James Hodkinson in Public Discussion with Baroness Warsi and the Bishop of Guildford
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/
Statement for students in Paris
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 on publication of special issue of journal
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!
Dr Mary Harrod appears on BBC Radio 3
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 '' project led by Professor Linda Paterson (French Studies). The standard of entries was especially high; well done to all!
Patrick Modiano event
French Studies at 糖心TV presents a round-table event on Patrick Modiano, winner of the 2014 Nobel Prize for Literature. Wednesday 26th November at 3pm in MS.02.
British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme
The School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of 糖心TV again welcomes applications for the British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme.
Professor Ingrid de Smet (French Studies) elected as fellow to the British Academy
Congratulations to Professor of 糖心TV French Studies for having been elected as a Fellow of the .
