PhD, MPhil, MRes Modern languages

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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

View our current research opportunities

MRes/MPhil Interdisciplinary Excellence Awards 2023-24

These master's-level (MRes or MPhil) bursaries are being funded by Research and Knowledge Exchange Services, to facilitate applications to the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC)'s Doctoral Training Partnership Scotland, the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities (SGSAH).

The awards are intended to promote interdisciplinary collaboration: preference will be given to research projects with two supervisors from different disciplinary backgrounds, who may, or may not, be located within the same department or faculty. We encourage innovative collaborations within the arts and humanities, and with colleagues in social science, science and engineering.

This competition provides the Home postgraduate research student fee for 1 year (Full-time) or 2 years (Part-time).

International candidates are welcome to apply but they must be able to demonstrate that they can fund the difference between the Home fee and the International fee (approximately £11,300 for 2023/24 entry).

Students undertaking an MRes must start their studies on 1st October 2023. This start date cannot be deferred.

Deadline:

16 June 2023

Funding:

Funded

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 should be aware that tuition fees are revised annually and may increase in subsequent years of study. Annual increases will generally reflect UK inflation rates and increases to programme delivery costs.

2023/24

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Scotland	2023/24: £4,712 2022/23: £4,596
England, Wales & Northern Ireland	2023/24: £4,712 2022/23: £4,596
International	£16,050
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
Full-time international (non-EU) students applying to postgraduate study may be eligible for a scholarship worth between £2,500 and £5,000

View all our 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

Supervisors

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Supervisors

Name	Areas of expertise
French
Karine Varley	France since 1789 France in the Second World War Corsica Franco-Prussian War Memory and Commemoration
Caroline Verdier	contemporary French and Francophone literature Belgian literature and culture contemporary Women's writing Francophone identities 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) Multimodal translation French Holocaust writing French World War II memorial museums Systemic functional linguistics
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	20th and 21st Century Spain Catalan 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 censorship in Spain and Catalonia
Mandarin
Hui Li	cultural translation translator and interpreter training business translation vocabulary acquisition and assessment

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.

Find out more about the PgCert RPD programme

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 100 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

Map of the world.

Postgraduate research at the Strathclyde Doctoral School

The Strathclyde Doctoral School provides a vibrant and comprehensive student-centred research and training environment in order to grow and support current and future research talent.

The School encompasses our four faculties and is committed to enriching the student experience, intensifying research outputs and opportunities, and ensuring training is at the highest level. As a postgraduate researcher, you'll automatically become a member of the Strathclyde Doctoral School.

Find out more about the Doctoral School

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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
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 School 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

part-time

Start date: Oct 2024 - Sep 2025

Apply now

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Contact us

Katharine Mitchell

Email: katharine.mitchell@strath.ac.uk

Chat with us

Modern languages

Telephone: +44 (0)141 444 8402

Email: hass-postgrad@strath.ac.uk