Research in Modern Languages and Cultures

Our international profile is derived from the dynamic work of academic and research staff, who have built major individual and collaborative projects in the histories, cultures and politics of the Francophone, Hispanic, German and Italian-speaking worlds, with a growing specialism in Translation Studies and Chinese Studies.

We are proud of our strong performance in the Government’s Research Excellence Framework (REF 2014), which judged 76% of our research to be internationally excellent or world-leading, with particularly outstanding results on our research impact. We are committed to maintaining research excellence through our ongoing research projects (such as the AHRC-funded ‘Travellers to Wales’ project led by Professor Carol Tully or the British Academy-funded ‘Postcolonial Spain’ project led by Dr Helena Miguélez-Carballeira), our publications portfolio (which includes award-winning and ground-breaking work), our public engagement activities and our international collaborations.

Research Strengths/Specialisms

We have particular strengths in postcolonial approaches to Francophone and Iberian Cultures, the politics of memory and memorialisation, travel writing, Catalan and Galician Studies, Italian organised crime, translation, power and critical discourse, film and national identities, popular culture and comics, material cultures and material texts, visual cultures and contemporary art.

Further information about individual staff research specialisms and interests can be found here.

Research Partnerships

Academic staff in Modern languages and Cultures are involved in research collaborations with a number of organisations and networks. Our scholars have led international collaborative networks such as the AHRC-funded ‘After the Wall’ Network (2009–2011), ‘Translation in Non-State Cultures: Perspectives from Wales’ (2012) and ‘European Travellers to Wales 1750–2010’ (2013–2016). Some of our recent or current research activities include collaborations with: the Irish Centre for Transnational Studies at Mary Immaculate College, University of Limerick; the Lewis Glucksman Gallery in Cork; the Chester Arts Centre; the Royal Society of Edinburgh funded network 'Contested Identities: Cultural Dialogues between Small Nations’ (2015–2017) at the University Glasgow; Cymdeithas Cyfiethwyr Cymru, Wales Literature Exchange/Cyfnewidfa Lên Cymru, Literatures Across Frontiers, and the Universities of Birmingham, the Balearic Islands and Seton Hall University (New York).

Research Events

We run an exciting Research Forum each term, which comprises a variety of events, including talks from visiting scholars and our own research staff and students, book launches and art, music and poetry performances.