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Join Katia Pizzi as she introduces the IMLR’s Research Training programme: a series of seminars and workshops run throughout the year for all to access free of charge

The IMLR is a hub of research training in Modern Languages, stimulating initiatives and collaborating with language departments nationally.

Collaborations and activities gathered initially around a series of monthly day-long workshops devised in the early 1990s by the then-named Institute of Romance Studies. Revised on an annual basis, tailored to individuals and small groups, this seminar series has grown organically and exponentially into a fully-fledged programme, sustained by active participation of graduate students from all over the UK and Europe. We thrive on the input of sister Institutes within the School of Advanced Study (SAS), languages departments and translation agencies, libraries, museums, heritage trusts, NGOs, publishers, etc. The British Library, the Wiener Museum and Library of the Holocaust, the Tavistock Square Memorial Trust, and Refugee and Migrant Justice are established friends and partners.

A-Port-for-Modern-Languages is one of the jewels in our crown. The Institute began work to build PORT in the late 1980s, thanks to a grant obtained from the Arts and Humanities Research Board. A-Port-for-Modern-Languages comprises resources in French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Italian, Polish, Czech and Russian studies. In addition to specific resources, PORT will help gain an understanding of issues involved in applying and progressing in doctoral studies in Modern Languages, organising a conference, preparing and giving a research presentation and writing a successful CV. PORT was arguably the first and, to this day, the only substantial digital platform exclusively tailored for Modern Languages Research, accessible openly from the Institute’s Research Training webpages and free of charge. Open Access before the letter! And it’s as yet unrivalled too!

Further initiatives have stemmed from the leadership of IMLR Research Training. In 2006 the Institute received an AHRC grant to lead and build a research training network across the School of Languages at the Universities of Birmingham, Leeds and Glasgow, leading to graduate conferences and workshops. This was followed in 2012 by a network of King’s College and University of London in Paris, also led by the Institute and driven by funding obtained from the AHRC’s Skills Development scheme. This culminated in an international Modern Languages and Film Spring School in 2013, with visits to archives in Rome, Gorizia, Berlin, Madrid, Paris, as well as London.

Jeremy Mortimer – ‘Migrating Texts’

More recent partnerships and initiatives include the student-led annual workshop Migrating Texts, funded by LAHP and the European Commission, to explore the world of interlingual translation, from dubbing to subtitling to adapting texts, involving BBC radio professionals, EU translators and film producers. We also welcome the recent collaboration with the AHRC funded Researching Multilingually grouping of the Universities of Durham, Manchester, St. Andrews and Glasgow.

What is the meaning of doing research multilingually? How do researchers draw on their own linguistic resources, and those of others, when undertaking research involving more than one language? These are the fundamental questions asked in research in the Modern Languages. These are precisely some of the questions that IMLR’s Research Training mission aims to address.

Katia Pizzi, Senior Lecturer in Italian Studies/Director of the Centre for Cultural Memory, IMLR