Taking on complex societal issues using linguistics, modern languages, and cultural studies
We conduct socially engaged and interdisciplinary research, deploying the tools of linguistics, modern language and cultural studies to address complex real world issues. These include war and conflict, migration, multilingualism, literacy and intercultural contact, othering and discrimination, and maintaining healthy and prosperous societies in the context of rapid social, political and technological change.
With the Department of Languages and Cultures specialising in French, Italian, German and Spanish, and English acquisition, literacy, multilingualism and professional communication in the Department of English Language and Applied Linguistics, our research is inter-disciplinary and exceptionally diverse.
This expertise is evident in our interdisciplinary projects funded by major national and international research councils (AHRC, ESRC, Leverhulme, Wellcome Trust, British Council, British Academy, Wolfson Foundation, European Innovation and Technology/Horizon 2020 and Erasmus+) and our leading innovative archive-based research in literary studies and film, book cultures, publishing and translation studies.
Our division is in constant communication with a range of non-academic communities and actively contributes to international debates. Our projects include the language issues faced by non-governmental organisations and aid agencies operating in crisis zones, challenging media representations of migration, and – from an historical perspective – informing perceptions of intellectual networks and the experience of conflict.