Skip to main content

Postgraduate research in Modern Languages and Cultures

 

Our research, and research supervision, ranges across a wide variety of disciplines including European Literature and Culture, Film, Linguistics, Medieval Studies, Gender Studies, and Translation, and reaches across time from the medieval to the contemporary. 

Researchers in Modern Languages and Cultures are actively engaged in projects across a broad range of subjects, including linguistics and translation studies, film, visual arts, and literary culture.

Our research-active academic staff, supported by a team of language teachers which includes native-speaker teachers, are highly successful in winning prestigious research awards from funding bodies including the AHRC, British Academy, EU, Leverhulme, and Marie-Curie.

Our wide range of expertise offers postgraduates the possibility of preparing for research degrees in one or more areas. We attach particular importance to the quality of research supervision and training in research methodology and to the integration of our postgraduates into the Department’s academic and research community. Scholars of international repute are frequent visitors.

Explore our research centres and research projects to find out more about our current research topics.

Visit our Modern Languages staff profiles for details on individual staff research interests and publications.

Our current PGRs

We're proud of the research carried out by our PhD students. There are currently around 15 PhD students in the Department, many of whom maintain an online personal profile detailing their research activities. Follow the links below to find out more about them and their research projects.

 

StudentResearch titleFirst supervisorSecond supervisor
Abdulkareem Adnan The Translator as a mediator of Languages and Cultures: Comparative analysis of translators of the Qur’an Michelle Bolduc Mustafa Baig
Rawan Al Qassas The effect of the translator’s ID in translating historical literature: case study Walter Scott’s Talisman 1825 Tina Philips  Eliana Maesteri

Sarah Alateeg

  Michelle Boluc Tina Philips
Slwa Maidh Alhammad Death of the author and Birth of Adapter in a literary work Michelle Bolduc Tina Philips
Abeer Mohammed A Alkahtani Strategies of Subtitling English Literary-based films into Arabic between Domestication and Foreignization: A case study of Three Versions of Jane Eyre Michelle Bolduc Tina Philips
Rossano Astremo The adolescent crisis in contemporary Italian fiction Luciano Parisi Eliana Maestri
Coline Blaizeau The Metafictive Marvellous in Perceforest Thomas Hinton Michelle Bolduc
Jiahao Fei The Evolution of Postcolonial Writing in Hong Kong Literature Zhiguang (Sam) Yin Regenia Gagnier
Sarah Elizabeth Gear What do Translations Say About Us? A Comparison Between the Translations of Nationalist and Liberal Writers from Putin's Russia Muireann Maguire Catherine Mcateer
Nicholas Hall Searching for the ‘unofficial Russian’: Sincerity in the encounters between British travellers and Soviet citizens, 1928-39  Emily Lygo David Thackerey
Christina Karakepeli A Translation History of Dostoevsky in Greece: from 1886 to the present day Muireann Maguire Catherine Mcateer
Katy Humberstone From Mines to Signs: Negotiating identity through the lens of the Cornish-Mexican Linguistic Landscape Francesco Goglia Supervisor from Southampton University
Irem Kasar Bilinguality, Co-Translation/Self-Translation and Hybridity in the Prose of Elif Safak and Samuel Beckett  David Jones Natalie Pollard
Ying Huang China’s Cultural Diplomacy in Arab Countries (1955-1966)  Zhiguang Yin  István Kristó-Nagy’ 
Hui-Hua Lu Alice’s Adventures in Taiwan: Through the translation of Wonderland and What Alice Found There  Ting Guo Eliana Maestri
Yang Lu Literature Adaptions in China: From Online literature to TV Drama Danielle Hipkins  Ting Guo
Anna Maslenova Anglo-Russian Cultural Interactions in 1890-1930: The Microhistories of Translators and their networks Muireen Maguire Catherine Mcateer
Edward Mills Imagining and enacting education in the French texts of post-Conquest England Thomas Hinton Susana Afonso
Sean Morris Self-translation of Mathematical Texts in Seventeenth-century France: The Cases of Pascal, Mersenne and Hérigone Michelle Bolduc  Chloe Paver
Seulki Oh  Study on Translation in International Relations by Analysing News that Quotes Foreign Media: The Korean Peninsula Issues Regenia Gagnier  Michelle Bolduc
Mevlide Peyker Özler Queering the Family and Modes of Belonging in Contemporary Italian Women’s Writing Danielle Hipkins João Florêncio
Benjamin Shears Novel Discoveries and Enlightened Characters: Subjective Experience in Voltaire's 'Contes philosophiques' and the Novels of Samuel Richardson Melissa Percival Henry Power; Helena Taylor
Yandi Wang Art in Translation: contemporary Chinese art in Chinese and English publications: A case study of the paintings of Xiao Gang Zhang (张晓刚), 1984 to 2014  Ting Guo João Florêncio
Svetlana Yefimenko The Iliad and War and Peace as Existential Prophecies Murieann Maguire João Florêncio
Ying Zhang Reception of Chinese Xianxia TV Dramas in the English-Speaking World  Ting Guo Richard Mansell

Supervisors

All students have a primary and a secondary supervisor who provide regular, high quality advice, support and direction in their academic endeavours. You will work closely with your supervisors over three to four years (full time PhD) or six to seven (part-time PhD) to develop, investigate and write-up a project at the cutting edge of theological research.

Visit our staff profiles for more information about individual research interests or use the search box on the right of this page to find a supervisor.

Mentor

Each student will also be assigned a mentor who will take on a pastoral role and mediate on any problems that arise during the period of study. Your mentor will keep in regular contact and will provide background stability and support.

View list of funding opportunities available to students on our research degree programmes in Modern Languages and Cultures. 

We are committed to making your PhD a rewarding experience that will develop your skills and expertise. Undertaking a postgraduate degree with us also provides you with access to the wide range of support offered by our Career ZoneIn addition, postgraduate research students can access our Postgraduate Researchers' Programme, which covers a range of topics to help you to succeed during your research degree and to act as a springboard for your research career.

Graduate destinations

Below are some examples of initial jobs undertaken by Modern Languages postgraduates who studied with us in recent years.

Please note that due to data protection, the job titles and organisations are listed independently and do not necessarily correspond.

Job titleOrganisation
Associate lecturer
Associate lecturer in French
Associate Lecturer in French in Education and Scholarships
Associate Research Fellow
Content Designer
Freelance Proofreader and Translator
French teacher
French teacher
Grammar School Teacher
Independent Quality Evaluator
Italian Teacher
Lecturer in French Studies
Post Doctorial Researcher
Recruitment and marketing assistant
Reporter & Producer
Self-Employed Translator
Spanish Lecturer
Teacher and Honorary Research Associate
Teacher/Researcher
University of Exeter
Visiting Lecturer in Media and Cultural Studies
Work Placement Coordinator
Alliance Française Devon
Antenna International
Baylis Court School
BPA Quality
Hoheretechnische
Kennet School
Language Advanced
Middlesex University
National Public Radio, USA
Uni of Exeter
University of Poitiers
University of Portsmouth