The Department of Languages has been the focal point for the successful European Studies submissions in both the 2001 and 2008 Research Assessment Exercises. The academic interests of researchers straddle a wide range of disciplines, including film, literature, culture and linguistics, extending beyond Europe to the French and Spanish-speaking peoples worldwide, oriental cultures and communication; and community languages. Staff have strong international reputations and are regularly cited as being amongst the leading authorities in their respective fields, are members of editorial boards, and are regularly invited to attend conferences as keynote speakers at prestigious events.
Many of the staff belong to the Institute for Humanities and Social Sciences Research (IHSSR), which is home to the Centre of Research in World Cultures and Languages. The Institute incorporates researchers who employ an array of critical and theoretical approaches to the study of French and Francophone, Hispanic, Italian and German literatures, cultures and languages, and aspects of theoretical and applied linguistics and pedagogical research.
The Department has a thriving research culture, and recently hosted the international conference Metropolitan Desires: Cultural Reconfigurations of the European City Space; and stages an annual seminar series, which in 2009-10 was devoted to Visualisations. An international conference on the Bande Dessinnée is being held in 2011.
Staff have been involved in a number of interdisciplinary and collaborative projects, including: cultural representations of the city; transnational cinemas and cultures; noir fiction and film; pedagogical aspects of film studies.
Particular research strengths exist in the following areas:
French: contemporary French cinema; modern and contemporary French fiction (especially the nouveau roman); autobiography; French popular culture and popular literature (especially the bande dessinée and noir fiction and film); symbolist aesthetics; French linguistics; translation studies.
German: modern and contemporary German literature; German media and popular culture; German crime writing and science fiction.
Italian: modern Italian society and culture; Italian female-authored writing; twentieth-century Italian fiction; contemporary Italian cinema; Italian crime writing.
Spanish: contemporary Spanish fiction and popular culture; contemporary Spanish cinema; contemporary Latin American literature and urban imaginaries; Lorca; Cervantes
Linguistics: applied and theoretical linguistics; Oriental cultures and communication; syntax studies.
For further information on Research in the Department of Languages please contact:
Dr Edmund Smyth
Research Degrees Coordinator
e.j.smyth@mmu.ac.uk
tel. 0161 247 6190
and
Faculty Research Degrees Administrator
hlss-research@mmu.ac.uk