Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies

ILCS Research Training Programme Training Programme

📢 Sign up now for our training sessions this term!

Our first session is on 22 Oct:

🎙️'Podcasts to Engage Audiences in Languages, Cultures and Societies Research and Practice': ilcs.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

ilcs.sas.ac.uk/research-pol...

Senate House

Come and join us as the ILCS Creative Practitioner in Residence 2025-26!

Spend up to 3 months based in ILCS with a bursary of £1,000/month.

For full details of the scheme and the application process, please visit our website:

ilcs.sas.ac.uk/fellowships/...

Promotional banner for the Bulletin of Hispanic Studies. On the left, against a teal background, white text reads: SPECIAL ISSUE followed by “Expresiones posliterarias en el ámbito cultural ibérico.” At the bottom is the Liverpool University Press logo. On the right, the journal’s cover page is shown, listing the title Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, volume 102, number 8 (2025), and a table of contents with article titles and authors. The background pattern is geometric and decorative in pale blue and white.

New special issue of Bulletin of Hispanic Studies: Expresiones posliterarias en el ámbito cultural ibérico.
Exploring how literature circulates beyond the book—through branding, tourism, memes & music—across Iberian cultures.
Available online at: bit.ly/BHS-posliterario
@ilcs.bsky.social

Caribbean Studies Seminar

Sign up for our next CLACS Caribbean Studies Seminar, 21 Oct:

Jamaica’s “Bitter Medicine”: Education and Women Teachers in Debt and Austerity w/ Shari-Lee Carter, NYU Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, & Human Development

@ilcs.bsky.social / @soccaribbeanuk.bsky.social

shorturl.at/BLplw

The Ridge Salon: Undisciplinary conversations at the house on chicken legs

The Out Of Practice Seminar has launched for 2025/26!

We are kicking things off with the first seminar on 22 October.

The Ridge Salon: Undisciplinary conversations at the house on chicken legs

ies.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

@ilcs.bsky.social

Thinking Strategically: Challenges Facing Language Educators – ILCS An online event with the ILCS focussing on issues faced by language educators will take place on 21st November 2025, featuring Megan Bowler (Oxford), Emma Cayley (Leeds and UCFL), and Charles Forsd…

21 November ILCS event on thinking strategically about the challenges faced by language educators.
Don't miss it, sign up now!
university-council-for-languages.org/2025/09/24/t...

Apprenticeship and the Rise of London, 1500 - 1800 Join us at The London Archives for an illustrated talk by Professor Patrick Wallis (London School of Economics).

📣Two new events in collaboration with @thelondonarchives.bsky.social! 📣

Apprenticeship and the Rise of London, 1500-1800 | 15 Oct | 5.30 - 7.30pm
tinyurl.com/2uayfe7r

From Bones to Books to Blitz Scrap – What London Recycled during the Second World War | 10 Dec | 5.30 - 7.30pm
tinyurl.com/3t2f435p

Thinking Strategically Seminar Series Bringing together researchers to discuss issues of major concern and to ensure joined-up action for the future development of the study of languages and cultures.

Please do sign up to join in our online conversation event on 21st November, 12 noon, about the recent report on language education in the UK from the @hepi-news.bsky.social by @meganlbowler.bsky.social, sponsored by #Duolingo Thanks to @ilcs.bsky.social
for hosting ilcs.sas.ac.uk/research-pol...

Today! Our first CLACS Caribbean Studies Seminar Series 2025/26!

“The Long Road from Bog Walk: Electricity and Electrification in Jamaica, 1890s–1970s” with Andrew Williams, University of the West Indies (Mona)

@ilcs.bsky.social @soccaribbeanuk.bsky.social

ilcs.sas.ac.uk/news-events/...

Thanks!

Shortfall Teachers training compared with target in selected subjects (2024-25) Physical Education 209% Biology 119% English 101% Mathematics 72% Modern Foreign Languages 43% Computing 37% Chart: The Times and The Sunday Times • Source: Department for Education

The government managed to recruit only 43 per cent of its target number of modern foreign language teachers for initial teacher training in 2024-25.
www.thetimes.com/article/df90...

Rethinking language education in the school curriculum in England This Special Collection comprises contributions to the debate on languages across the school curriculum from leading researchers and practitioners in the field. It aims to support the strengthening...

Rethinking language education in the school curriculum in England

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Contents | Journal of Romance Studies 25, 3 This article was published open access under a CC BY-NC-ND licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.

Thrilled that @katharinemurphy.bsky.social and my co-edited Special Issue is now out in the Journal of Romance Studies! 🎉 Huge thanks to our contributors across French, Spanish, Italian & Portuguese studies—showing the value of a multilingual approach to the Medical Humanities: tinyurl.com/mrxmznsm

Join us on 23 September for the start of our CLACS Caribbean Studies Seminar Series 2025/26 @ilcs.bsky.social / @soccaribbeanuk.bsky.social
The Long Road from Bog Walk: Electricity and Electrification in Jamaica, 1890s–1970s w/ Andrew Williams (University of the West Indies, Mona) shorturl.at/euVXU

"Modern Foreign Languages degrees are the most starkly affected, with the number of courses nearly halved since 2011" 👇

Liverpool University Press Launches LUP Open Languages: A New Subscribe to Open Initiative Liverpool University Press (LUP) is pleased to announce the launch of LUP Open Languages, a new Subscribe to Open (S2O) initiative designed to make high-quality research in languages, literatures a…

🎉 We’re proud to have launched LUP Open Languages
A #SubscribetoOpen initiative aiming to make research in languages, literatures & cultures #OpenAccess. Thanks to partners & editors for their support.
Find out more ⬇️
#S2O @frenchstudies.bsky.social @ilcs.bsky.social @aupresses.bsky.social

The four UK higher education funding bodies confirm the pause in the criteria setting and publication of final guidance for REF 2029 for a short period, as announced by the UK Science Minister Lord Vallance today at the Universities UK conference. 2029.ref.ac.uk/news/pause-t...

Banner announcing a special issue of Contemporary French Civilization. On the left, white text on a blue abstract background reads: “SPECIAL ISSUE: From author films to operational images: French and francophone documentary practices in the new millennium.” At the bottom left is the Liverpool University Press logo and the text “Liverpool University Press, Founded 1899.” On the right, a blue journal cover displays the title Contemporary French Civilization in large white letters. Smaller text notes: “An interdisciplinary journal devoted to the study of French-speaking cultures throughout the world.”

A new special issue of Contemporary French Civilization examines French & francophone documentary cinema in the new millennium. Essays explore aesthetic, ethical & political debates shaping the field.
Browse the issue online at🔗 bit.ly/CFC-Vol-50-3
@sfps.bsky.social @ilcs.bsky.social #FrenchStudies

Lost in translation Even in the language app era there are benefits to learning a foreign tongue

‘2023 polling for the @britishacademy.bsky.social found 71 per cent of Britons would support making language study compulsory in schools.’

Pleased to see this FT editorial makes the case for learning foreign languages

on.ft.com/4mP3rrf

Promotional graphic for Liverpool University Press’s LUP Open Languages initiative. The left side displays the LUP logo and reads: “LUP Open Languages – Subscribe to Open – Archival Access from 1923.” The right side features journal covers from included titles such as French Studies, Revista Iberoamericana, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, Contemporary French Civilization, and European Journal of Language Policy.

📢 Introducing LUP Open Languages – a Subscribe to Open initiative supporting access to research in languages, literatures & cultures.
From French & Catalan to Hispanic & Francophone studies, explore journals with archives dating back to 1923.
🔗 bit.ly/LUP-Open-Lang
#SubscribeToOpen #LUPOpenLanguages

Now postponed to a later date

📢 Tune into LBC tomorrow morning (Sat) at 10.50 to hear ILCS Director Charles Burdett talk to Matt Frei about languages and the decline in uptake.

@ucflangs.bsky.social

New HEPI report calls for urgent action on revitalising language learning UCFL welcomes the release of a new HEPI report, sponsored by Duolingo, that highlights the urgent need for action to support and improve the uptake of languages at school level and beyond. It empha…

Read UCFL's reaction to the new HEPI report on languages: university-council-for-languages.org/2025/07/31/n...
The recommendations for HE are particularly welcome, as are those around equality of access and social justice. @emmacayley.bsky.social @cforsdick.bsky.social

MA in Languages and Cultures Across Borders This interdisciplinary MA brings together teaching and resources from several University of London federation members, offering a unique breadth of expertise.

Tomorrow is the *final opportunity to apply for our MA in Languages, Cultures and Societies* - co-delivered with RHUL, UCL, QMUL, ULIP and KCL Language Centre! www.sas.ac.uk/postgraduate...

🎙️What’s the value of speaking other languages?

In this month’s Crossing Channels, Wendy Ayres-Bennett points out a major AI issue: big languages dominate training data, so smaller languages & dialects get left behind. That’s a problem.

🎧 pod.fo/e/2fb7e1

#AI #Multilingualism #podcast @iast.fr

Very many congratulations @clairelanghamer.bsky.social!

The British Academy welcomes 92 new Fellows in 2025 92 distinguished scholars have today been elected to the British Academy’s Fellowship, in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the humanities and social sciences.

Congratulations to all 92 newly elected FBAs including the wonderful @clairelanghamer.bsky.social whose sterling research is matched by her sterling (or is it platinum?) work for the discipline of History (in all its academic, public and other forms) at the also ace @ihr.bsky.social . 1/2

The ability to attract and retain global talent and international students is fundamental to the UK’s research and innovation excellence. We have today published our response to the Government’s Immigration White Paper. Read it here: buff.ly/0TEPdtz

The Thriplow Charitable Trust has established a bursary for the MA in Refugee Protection and Forced Migration Studies by distance-learning.

Apply by 1st August for the October 2025 intake.

Learn more about the bursary here: www.london.ac.uk/study/fees-f...

#RefugeeProtection #ForcedMigration

LANGUAGES, SOCIETY AND POLICY - HOME | LSP Languages, Society and Policy

✨ The Languages in UK Education special issue is now complete! Many thanks to our guest editors @wendya-b.bsky.social & @cforsdick.bsky.social for compiling this important collection, and to every contributor for sharing bold ideas to shape language education policy.
🔗 www.lspjournal.com