Program Overview
Overview
The MPhil and PhD in Modern Languages are research-based programmes. They're offered by the School of Modern Languages. We provide expert supervision in the following areas:
Chinese
Ethnicity, identity, Islam and Han settler colonialism, with a focus on Xinjiang, China (Dr Jo Smith Finley)
Film, literature, media and representation (Dr Yu, Prof Qian)
Modernity and modernisation (Prof Qian)
Gender Studies (Dr Smith Finley, Dr Yu)
French
Contemporary women's writing (Dr Henry-Tierney; Prof Jordan; Dr Robson)
Linguistics (Dr Hall) and in particular French syntax (Prof Mackenzie)
Sociolinguistics, language variation, language change (Dr Hall)
French and Algerian cinema (Prof Austin, Dr Leahy)
19th to 21st century French and Francophone literature (Prof Harkness, Prof Jordan, Dr El Maizi)
Gender studies (Prof Harkness, Dr Henry-Tierney; Prof Jordan; Dr Robson)
Cultural Gerontology/Ageing Studies (Prof Jordan)
Postcolonial cultures (Prof Austin, Dr El Maizi)
Translation (Dr Henry-Tierney)
Trauma and culture (Prof Austin, Dr Robson)
Visual culture (Prof Jordan, Dr Jein)
Urban Humanities: French urban cultures of the modern and contemporary period (Dr Jein)
19th and early 20th-century French labour history, especially the role of women (Dr Salin)
Language learning and teaching in higher education (Dr Salin)
German
20th-century German and Contemporary literature (Dr Ludden; Prof Muller, Prof Malkmus)
GDR literature and censorship (Prof Muller)
Representations of the Holocaust and/or World War II (Prof Muller)
Literature and philosophy - cultural and critical theory (Dr Ludden)
Women's writing (Dr Ludden)
Morphological theory - morphology, phonology and dialectology of German and Dutch (Dr Fehringer)
Environmental humanities and the Anthropocene (Prof Malkmus)
Japanese
Film, literature, media and representation (Dr Hansen, Dr Yoshioka)
Popular culture (Dr Hansen, Dr Yoshioka)
Gender Studies (Dr Hansen)
Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American studies
Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American cultural history and popular culture (Dr Catalá-Carrasco, Dr Morgan, Dr Oliart, Dr Fehimović, Dr Beleza)
Historical and contemporary discourses of race and identity in Latin America (Dr Oliart, Dr Morgan, Dr Fehimović, Dr Beleza, Prof Hentschke, Dr Borea)
Spanish American and Spanish Caribbean Latin American film, literature, and theatre (Dr Page, Dr Fehimović)
Luso-Afro-Brazilian literature and film (Dr Beleza)
History of education in 19th and 20th-century Latin America (Prof Hentschke, Dr Oliart)
Youth cultures and social movements, music and politics (Dr Oliart, Dr Beleza)
Spanish, Portuguese, and Latin American novels (Dr Catalá-Carrasco, Dr Beleza)
Political, social, and intellectual history of Latin America in the 19th and 20th centuries, especially Brazil and the Southern Cone (Prof Hentschke)
Linguistics, and sociolinguistics of Latin America (Dr Cru)
Diachronic Spanish syntax, Old Spanish, language change, and quantitative historical linguistics (Prof Mackenzie)
Catalan nationalism (Dr Catalá-Carrasco)
Film, literature and popular culture of the Spanish-speaking Caribbean and its diasporas (Dr Fehimović)
Lusophone environmental Humanities (Dr Beleza)
Latin American art, cultural policies, museums and material culture (Dr Borea)
Indigenous cultures, Amazon and Andes (Dr Borea)
Territory, place-making and cities in Latin America (Dr Borea, Dr Morgan)
Translating and Interpreting
We can offer supervision for projects involving English plus Catalan, Chinese, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Spanish, Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian.
Our research specialisms are:
Interpreting (Dr Chen, Dr Jin, Dr Wu, Dr Du)
Psycholinguistics of interpreting and translating (Dr Jin, Dr Lin)
Sociolinguistics, discourse analysis in translation and interpreting (Dr Du, Dr Hall)
Linguistic diversity and social justice (Dr Du)
Translating literature (Prof Jones, Dr Henry-Tierney, Dr Lin)
Translation and culture (Dr Chen, Prof Jones, Dr Lin)
Translation and ethics, ideology, and power (Prof Jones, Dr Lin)
Translation products, processes and strategies (Dr Chen, Dr Jin, Prof Jones, Dr Lin)
Translator and interpreter training and assessment (Dr Chen, Dr Wu)
Reflective/autonomous learning and educational psychology (Dr Chen, Dr Wu)
Audiovisual translation studies (Dr Chen, Dr Henry-Tierney)
Legal translation and legal and medical interpreting (Dr Du)
Migration and multilingualism (Dr Du)
Our Modern Languages research staff works in diverse fields. This ranges from sociocultural, historical and political studies to film and literature, linguistics and sociolinguistics.
You'll benefit from the School's strong links with interdisciplinary research centres and groups, including:
Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Research Centre in Film and Digital Media
Gender Research Group
Medieval and Early Modern Studies
Postcolonial Research Group
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Important information
We've highlighted important information about your course. Please take note of any deadlines.
Your course and study experience - disclaimers and terms and conditions
Please rest assured we make all reasonable efforts to provide you with the programmes, services and facilities described. However, it may be necessary to make changes due to significant disruption, for example in response to Covid-19.
View our Academic experience page, which gives information about your Newcastle University study experience for the academic year 2022-23.
See our terms and conditions and student complaints information, which gives details of circumstances that may lead to changes to programmes, modules or University services.
Program Outline
Your development
You may also have the opportunity to attend festivals and conferences with a direct bearing on your course:
Talking to the World Conference
VAMOS festival
Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HaSS) researcher development programme
Each faculty offers a researcher development programme for its postgraduate research students. We have designed your programme to help you:
perform better as a researcher
boost your career prospects
broaden your impact
Through workshops and activities, it will build your transferable skills and increase your confidence.
You’ll cover:
techniques for effective research
methods for better collaborative working
essential professional standards and requirements
Your researcher development programme is flexible. You can adapt it to meet your changing needs as you progress through your doctorate.
Find out more about the Researcher Education and Development programme
Doctoral training and partnerships
There are opportunities to undertake your PhD at Newcastle within a:
Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT)
Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP)
Being part of a CDT or DTP has many benefits:
they combine research expertise and training of a number of leading universities, academic schools and academics.
you’ll study alongside a cohort of other PhD students
they’re often interdisciplinary
your PhD may be funded
Find out more about doctoral training and partnerships
If there are currently opportunities available in your subject area you’ll find them when you search for funding in the fees and funding section on this course.
The following centres/partnerships below may have PhD opportunities available in your subject area in the future:
Northern Bridge Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership
ESRC Northern Ireland/North East (NINE) Doctoral Training Partnership
