PhD, MPhil, MRes Modern languages

Arts and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Landscape Award available for stipend and tuition fees.

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Research opportunities

We have full-time staff in French, Italian, Spanish and Translation studies who can offer you great expertise and supervision in your area of research.

You'll be based in our Graduate School where you'll join our current research students working across many disciplines.

You can study an MPhil over one year or a PhD over the course of three years.

You can carry out your degree in any of our research areas:

Culture in France (including Francophone West African Culture), Italy, Latin America and Spain (19^th and 20^th century)
Women’s Writers and Readers
19^th and 20^th-century History (particularly the Second World War)
Intellectual History
Translation Studies

MRes

Our MRes degree is available in:

French
Italian
Spanish

Mediterranean sea

The Place of Useful Learning

UK University of the Year

Daily Mail University of the Year Awards 2026

Scottish University of the Year

The Sunday Times' Good University Guide 2026

View our current research opportunities

THE Awards 2019: UK University of the Year Winner

Fees & funding

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Fees & funding

All fees quoted are per academic year unless otherwise stated.

Entrants may be subject to a small fee during the writing up period.

Fees may be subject to updates to maintain accuracy. Tuition fees will be notified in your offer letter.

All fees are in £ sterling, unless otherwise stated, and may be subject to revision.

Annual revision of fees

Students on programmes of study of more than one year (or studying standalone modules) should be aware that the majority of fees will increase annually.

The University will take a range of factors into account, including, but not limited to, UK inflation, changes in delivery costs and changes in Scottish and/or UK Government funding. Changes in fees will be published on the University website in October each year for the following year of study and any annual increase will be capped at a maximum of 10% per year. This cap will apply to fees from 2026/27 onwards, which will not increase by more than 10% from the previous year for continuing students.

2024/25

Go back

Scotland	£4,786
England, Wales & Northern Ireland	£4,786
Republic of Ireland	If you are an Irish citizen and have been ordinary resident in the Republic of Ireland for the three years prior to the relevant date, and will be coming to Scotland for Educational purposes only, you will meet the criteria of England, Wales & Northern Ireland fee status. For more information and advice on tuition fee status, you can visit the UKCISA - International student advice and guidance - Scotland: fee status webpage. Find out more about the University of Strathclyde's fee assessments process.
International	£18,050
Funding	Take a look at our funding your postgraduate research web page for funding information. You can also view our scholarships search for further funding opportunities.
Postgraduate research opportunities	Search for all funded and non-funded postgraduate research opportunities.
Additional costs	International students may have associated visa and immigration costs. Please see student visa guidance for more information.

Please note: the fees shown are annual and may be subject to an increase each year. Find out more about fees.

Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences Scholarships

EU Engagement Scholarships are available to EU applicants who would have previously been eligible for Home (Scottish/EU) fee status.

EU Engagement Scholarships

Our research

Our multidisciplinary research in modern languages (French, Spanish, Italian and Mandarin) investigates questions of representations, interpretations and transmissions in film, fiction, journalism, opera, print media, theatre, philosophy and translation.

Our main areas of research include:

literature and intellectual history
exile, trauma and wellbeing
women writers, performers and audiences
translating people, cultures and heritages

Within these areas, we have ongoing research projects which involve working closely with a range of external partners.

Books in a library

Find out more about our research

My advice for future PhD students is that before applying for this course, choose a topic that you will enjoy because you will study, eat, sleep and carry your research with you everywhere. Lean on your Supervisors and do not be afraid to admit that you need clarification or help from them.

Erica Zuniga

Learn about Erica's Strathlife

Supervisors

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Supervisors

Name	Areas of expertise
French
Karine Varley	France in the Second World War relations between France and Britain Franco-Prussian War memory and Commemoration European diplomacy
Caroline Verdier	contemporary French and Francophone Literature critical medical humanities writing illness and the body gender and illness contemporary Women's Writing Belgian literature and culture feminism in France and Belgium
David Murphy	anti-colonialism in Africa French colonial history colonial troops and the First World War Francophone African Literature and Cinema race and identity in France
Sharon Deane-Cox	literary (re)translation translation and Systemic Functional Linguistics translation and memory translation and trauma museum translation multimodal translation translator and interpreter history
Italian
Philip Cooke	modern Italian culture (literature, film, art, 'popular culture') Italian history language teaching and language teaching policy
Katharine Mitchell	female-authored literary texts about women in 19th and 20^th century Italy cross-disciplinary female spectators (opera/silent camera) in late 19th and early 20^th century Italy Italian women’s periodicals and domestic fiction Scotland and Europe’s connections and exchanges in the long 19th century figure of the diva and celebrity culture
Paul Hare	literary and artistic patronage in Italian renaissance courts language acquisition in Scotland
Spanish
Lidia Acosta Mederos	20^th century Mexican politics and electoral reform. history of 20^th century Latin American revolutions and dictatorships films of Tomás Gutiérrez Alea (Cuban cinema) Spanish Second Language Acquisition
Charles Pigott	environmental humanities (e.g. ecocriticism) indigenous studies biocultural heritage cultural memory multilingualism
Rhiannon McGlade	19th, 20th and 21st Century Spain Catalan Studies: Cultural and Political History Visual Print Media and Ephemera: Comics; Cartoons; Graphic Novels; ‘Zines; Caricature humour Studies Spanish and Catalan Visual Cultural Studies Spanish feminisms political satire
Jesus Sanjurjo-Ramos	history of slavery and the slave trade Atlantic imperial history history of race and politics of racism revolutions, war and state violence in Spain and Latin America Anglo-Spanish diplomatic relations
Mandarin
Hui Li	cultural translation translator and interpreter training business translation vocabulary acquisition and assessment
Arabic
Tamara Barakat	intersemiotic translation translation and multimodality sociological approaches to translation oral history, memory and translation Palestinian cultural memory

Support & development

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Support & development

The Graduate School

The Graduate School is a friendly and supportive study environment for research students studying subjects within Humanities & Social Sciences.

Our staff will support you through your studies and you'll become part of a community of students who get involved with our workshops, seminars and competitions.

Postgraduate Certificate in Researcher Professional Development (PgCert RPD)

Our PgCert RPD programme aims to ensure you get the most out of your current research activities at Strathclyde and helps you prepare for your future career as a researcher.

We'll help you recognise and develop your transferrable skills that'll have a positive impact on your research, now and in the future.

PgCert Researcher Professional Development

Careers

The University Careers Service can help you with everything from writing your CV to interview preparation. Take a look at our careers service pages to get more information.

Student support

From financial advice to our IT facilities, we have a wide range of support for all students here at Strathclyde. Get all the information you need at Strathlife.

International students

We've a thriving international community with students coming here to study from over 140 countries across the world. Find out all you need to know about studying in Glasgow at Strathclyde and hear from students about their experiences.

Visit our international students' section

Postgraduate research at the Strathclyde Doctoral School

The Strathclyde Doctoral School offers a vibrant, student-centred research and training environment, dedicated to supporting both current and future research talent.

Bringing together all four of our faculties, it is committed to enhancing the student experience, increasing research outputs and opportunities, and ensuring that training is delivered at the highest standard.

As a postgraduate researcher, you will automatically become a member of the Strathclyde Doctoral School.

Find out more about the Doctoral School

Apply

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Apply

Entry requirements

You normally require to have a first-class or upper second-class UK Honours degree, or overseas equivalent, in Spanish, French or Italian.

The application

During the application, you'll be asked for the following:

your full contact details
transcripts and certificates of all degrees
proof of English language proficiency if English isn't your first language. For postgraduate studies, we require a minimum overall IELTS score of 6.5 or equivalent (no individual test score below 5.5, the test must be taken within two years of the programme start date)
two references, one of which must be academic
funding or scholarship information
research proposal of 250 to 1,000 words in length, detailing the subject area and topic to be investigated

By filling these details out as fully as possible, you'll avoid any delay to your application being processed by the University.

Supervisors

You'll need to identify your research supervisor before you finalise your application, preferably as soon as possible. When you've identified a potential supervisor, based upon how well your research interests match theirs, drop them an email to introduce yourself.In the email, make sure you attach a draft of your research proposal along with a copy of your CV. Don't worry about how rough your research proposal may be at this stage – you'll have help from the Department of Humanities to refine it.

If your chosen supervisor is unavailable to work with you, they'll confirm this and nominate a potential second supervisor. As soon as a second supervisor is confirmed, an offer of study will be sent to you through Pegasus, our online application system.

When you accept our offer, you'll receive a full offer in writing via the email address you provide.

Accepting an offer

When you've accepted our offer, we'll need you to fulfil any academic, administrative or financial conditions that we ask.

UK or EU students

If you're applying as a UK or EU student, you'll then be issued with your registration documentation.

MRes applications

Closing date for applications: Friday 24 April 2026

Stage 1: applicants must apply online and have uploaded the required documentation, no later than Friday 24 April 2026 deadline. Late applications will not be accepted
Stage 2: applicants who have been successful in the initial selection from Stage 1, will be called for interview by mid-May 2026

full-time

Start date: Oct 2026 - Sep 2027

Apply now

Spanish

MPhil

Katharine Mitchell

Email: hass-hum-pgr@strath.ac.uk

Chat with us

Modern languages

Telephone: +44 (0)141 444 8402

Email: hass-pgr-applications@strath.ac.uk

Fees & funding

Back to course

Fees & funding

All fees quoted are per academic year unless otherwise stated.

Entrants may be subject to a small fee during the writing up period.

Fees may be subject to updates to maintain accuracy. Tuition fees will be notified in your offer letter.

All fees are in £ sterling, unless otherwise stated, and may be subject to revision.

Annual revision of fees

Students on programmes of study of more than one year (or studying standalone modules) should be aware that the majority of fees will increase annually.

2025/26

Go back

Scotland	£5,006
England, Wales & Northern Ireland	£5,006
Republic of Ireland	If you are an Irish citizen and have been ordinary resident in the Republic of Ireland for the three years prior to the relevant date, and will be coming to Scotland for Educational purposes only, you will meet the criteria of England, Wales & Northern Ireland fee status. For more information and advice on tuition fee status, you can visit the UKCISA - International student advice and guidance - Scotland: fee status webpage. Find out more about the University of Strathclyde's fee assessments process.
International	£19,850
Funding	Take a look at our funding your postgraduate research web page for funding information. You can also view our scholarships search for further funding opportunities.
Postgraduate research opportunities	Search for all funded and non-funded postgraduate research opportunities.
Additional costs	International students may have associated visa and immigration costs. Please see student visa guidance for more information.

Please note: the fees shown are annual and may be subject to an increase each year. Find out more about fees.

Research opportunities

MRes

The Place of Useful Learning

UK University of the Year

Scottish University of the Year

View our current research opportunities

Fees & funding

Annual revision of fees

Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences Scholarships

Our research

Supervisors

French

Italian

Spanish

Mandarin

Arabic

Support & development

The Graduate School

Postgraduate Certificate in Researcher Professional Development (PgCert RPD)

Careers

Student support

International students

Postgraduate research at the Strathclyde Doctoral School

Apply

Entry requirements

The application

Supervisors

Accepting an offer

UK or EU students

MRes applications

Start date: Oct 2025 - Sep 2026

Spanish

Start date: Oct 2025 - Sep 2026

Spanish

Start date: Oct 2025 - Sep 2026

Spanish

Start date: Oct 2025 - Sep 2026

Spanish

Start date: Oct 2025 - Sep 2026

Spanish (partner organisation)

Start date: Oct 2025 - Sep 2026

Spanish (partner organisation)

Start date: Oct 2026 - Sep 2027

Spanish

Start date: Oct 2026 - Sep 2027

Spanish

Start date: Oct 2026 - Sep 2027

Spanish

Start date: Oct 2026 - Sep 2027

Spanish

Start date: Sep 2026

Spanish

Start date: Sep 2026

Spanish

Start date: Oct 2026 - Sep 2027

Spanish (partner organisation)

Start date: Oct 2026 - Sep 2027

Spanish (partner organisation)

Start date: Oct 2025 - Sep 2026

French

Start date: Oct 2025 - Sep 2026

French

Start date: Oct 2025 - Sep 2026

French

Start date: Oct 2025 - Sep 2026

French

Start date: Oct 2026 - Sep 2027

French

Start date: Oct 2026 - Sep 2027

French

Start date: Oct 2026 - Sep 2027

French

Start date: Oct 2026 - Sep 2027

French

Start date: Sep 2026

French

Start date: Sep 2026

French

Start date: Oct 2025 - Sep 2026

Italian