Modern Languages

Skills in Modern Languages have never been more important as the world becomes increasingly more connected. In addition, as the United Kingdom establishes new ways of working with partners abroad, multilingual communication is increasingly central to both commerce and culture. At Bangor, you will be able to develop an understanding of other cultures and hone your skills in a range of languages which will enable you to communicate with the speakers of other languages across the globe. Intercultural knowledge and multilingual skills are highly valued by employers and will give you a competitive edge in the international marketplace.

As well as enhancing your employment prospects, by studying languages at Bangor, you will become part of a supportive learning community in which students soon feel very much at home. We offer learning in small classes, where you get to know the staff and your fellow students in a friendly environment. You will have support through your studies from an experienced group of dedicated staff and expert advice in relation to the year abroad. There are also plenty of opportunities to develop your language skills beyond the classroom by getting involved in our student society, LangSoc, taking part in our Language Buddy scheme or volunteering as a Language Ambassador at one of our partner local schools.

Our international research profile in modern languages 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.

Particular research strengths lie 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.

Our students benefit from a lively and inclusive research community. Not only does our research inform our teaching, we also run an exciting Research Forum each term, comprising a variety of events, including talks from visiting scholars and our own research staff and students, book launches and art, music and poetry performances.