Languages and Global Cultures

Develop your language skills, work or study overseas, discover cultures and societies around the globe

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About Languages and Global Cultures

Languages and cultures are what make us distinctively human. As a discipline, we play an integral role within the School of Global Affairs by placing language learning squarely in a global context. We see language learning as a means to enhance awareness and understanding of different cultures.

We are research-led and much of what we do relies on in-house expertise in the languages and cultures of different parts of the world. Our research spans across multiple disciplines and we use collaborative methods across the arts, humanities and social sciences to analyse how global changes impact local communities around the world and to build mutual understanding for an inclusive, equitable future.

Our degree programmes are interdisciplinary in nature and offer the opportunity to acquire both high-level language skills and a thorough understanding of international cultures and societies. We provide beginners to advanced levels, focusing on contemporary aspects and historical perspectives of the English-, French-, Spanish-, Chinese-, German- and Italian-speaking worlds.

We also offer a range of short courses via our Languages for All programme, which currently includes Arabic, Dutch and Korean as well as French, Spanish, Chinese, German and Italian. Our popular MA Translation Studies provides the theoretical frameworks as well as the linguistic, cultural and technical skills to train translators as creative critical practitioners of the future.

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Global languages and social justice

This research topic posits a simple question: How can languages be taught so that they challenge rather than reinforce social inequalities?

Global languages and social justice
LGBTQIA+ people marching during social movement protesting outdoors

Languages blog

Two statuesque figures (one blue, one red) shaking hands.

The power of transcultural friendly agreement

As we celebrate the 120th anniversary of the Entente Cordiale between France and the United Kingdom, we are reminded of the importance of transcultural understanding.
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An Insight into Conference Interpreting - A Day at the European Commission

Final Year Student Emily Lock had the fantastic opportunity to visit the European Commission in Brussels recently. In this blog post, she shares her experience of the day and reflect on the insights she gained into the work of interpreters.
Person standing in front of a sign that says 'Queer Medical Humanities Network Seed Meeting'.

How can languages and cultures research help improve LGBTQIA+ healthcare?: Building a Queer Medical Humanities Network

Lecturer in French Studies Benjamin Dalton discusses how his own languages and cultures research engages with the Medical Humanities and how, after realising the strong dialogue between Queer Theory and the Medical Humanities, this inspired him to create the Queer Medical Humanities Network.

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Report from the international colloquium 'Los territories de la poesía hispanoamericana' / 'Territories of Hispanoamerican poetry'

As a long-term member of the research project POEPOLIT II, Cornelia Gräbner attended the colloquium Los territories de la poesía en el mundo ibérico y latinoaméricano (1990-2023) at the Université Catholique de Louvain-la-Neuve in Belgium. In this blog, she reports on three excellent days of discussions and readings, which were held in Spanish, Portuguese and Galician – a counterpoint to the dominance of English in academia.

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My Experience of a PhD Internship: Exploring Cultural Studies at Lancaster University

Francisco Welligton Barbosa Jr, a PhD student at the University of Aveiro in Portugal, recently completed a three month PhD internship with the Department of Languages and Cultures. In this blog post, he reports on his time at Lancaster University and how this experience benefitted him.
Looking up at the abbey of Mont-Saint-Michel.

“Hep Brezhoneg Breizh Ebet!”: Three Facts You Didn’t Know About Breton

In this blog post, Modern Languages Student Jack Shiers discusses how his fascination with the coexistence of both national and regional language during his International Placement Year in Britanny led him to contribute an article to the The Linguist about the Breton language.

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