Transnational cultural and visual studies
This theme brings together researchers with a shared interest in how cultures communicate across geographical, linguistic and social borders.
Specifically we look at how cultural products, such as translations, films and visual art, are produced, circulated and received.
This research theme is interdisciplinary in nature and aims to stimulate, promote, and disseminate high-quality research at the intersection of a range of fields, including translation and interpreting studies, cultural studies, critical theory, ideology critique, and adaptation and performance studies.
We aim to
- Investigate the connections between different transnational articulations of cultural heritage, paying particular attention to the production, (re)presentation and reception of different media.
- Explore cultural communication processes across geographical, linguistic and social borders, and to discuss ideas around the legitimacy of borders in the widest sense.
- Support dialogue between the fields of translation, nation branding, multilingualism, and cultural diversity, and to investigate language as a component of nationhood and a symbol of identity.
- Develop critical thinking on a range of significant contemporary issues, including capitalism as a social form and its ideological configurations, contested notions of belonging, and the mobility of people and cultures.
What we do
Staff and students working under this theme share an interest in transnational and transcultural perspectives, how global and local communication processes are articulated and received, and in the intersection between language, culture, race, religion and ideology.
This research theme examines all manner of cultural expressions, encompassing translated materials, literary forms, audio–visual culture, museal representation and the staging of cultures.
The theme embraces the subjects of modern languages research as well as those who identify themselves in other national, linguistic and cultural contexts - for example, migrants, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, religious minorities and those marginalised by sexual or gender identity.
Our research impact
We seek to develop impact for our research by cooperating with the creative and cultural sector, schools, and civil society organizations.
PhD research
If your research corresponds with the description and goals of this theme and you would like to pursue your MPhil or PhD studies with us, please see the profiles of our expert staff members and contact our postgraduate research administrator.
School Research Office
Our PhD supervisors
Dr Tilmann Altenberg offers supervision in the areas of comics/graphic novels, the cultural field more generally (including translation), and Hispanic literature (prose and poetry) from the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
Dr Heiko Feldner welcomes inquiries on topics related to the history and concept of capitalism, the critique of contemporary ideologies, the German school of value-criticism (Wertkritik), and the contemporary relevance of Marx, Foucault and Žižek.
Dr Dorota Goluch can supervise research on translation theory and history, particularly on topics related to translation, postcolonialism and activism; Polish literary translation and reception; translation and the Holocaust; translation in memorial museums.
Professor Claire Gorrara
Dean for Research and Innovation for the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Professor of French Studies
Professor Claire Gorrara can supervise in areas around histories and memories of the Second World War in France; popular culture and memory politics; graphic novels and history writing.
Professor Kate Griffiths supervises on adaptation and translation from any era of history in French and global contexts. She is happy to work on different media (radio, film, television, theatre, literature) and different nations.
Dr Charlotte Hammond welcomes inquiries for supervision on exploring the afterlives of empire through the lens of contemporary art, film, and material.
Dr Alastair Hemmens welcomes applications for supervision on all areas of modern French cultural and intellectual history. His research interests focus in particular on Marxian theory and practice, anti-capitalism and the French avant-garde in the twentieth century.
Dr Nick Hodgin is a cultural historian with particular interest in twentieth century and contemporary cultural studies, as well as film studies, memory studies and trauma studies. He has particular research interests in German culture, especially visual culture.
Dr Christopher Hood offers supervision on a wide range of subjects related to Japan, including the aspects of memorialisation and dark tourism.
Dr Cristina Marinetti can supervise research on translation theory, particularly on cultural and sociological approaches to translation, theatre history and theatre translation and the representation of multilingualism in contemporary Italy.
Dr Ryan Prout can supervise on topics related to visual cultures of Spain and Latin America, Spanish and Latin American literature, film and television, LGBT studies, disability studies, translation studies, intangible cultures, and cultural and social histories of festivals.
Professor Fabio Vighi can supervise research on critical theory, continental philosophy, ideology critique, psychoanalytic theory, contemporary Italian culture and European and World cinema.
Dr Joey Whitfield can supervise topics in Latin American Literary, Film and Cultural Studies, especially topics related to crime, prisons and justice.
Dr Elizabeth Wren-Owens
Dean of Postgraduate Education for the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Reader in Italian and Translation Studies
Dr Liz Wren-Owens can supervise on topics related to translation and world literature, contemporary Italian literature, adaptation, migration and diaspora, and transnational studies
Contact us
We organise research seminars, a monthly reading group, an annual research poster event and visual culture events such as film screenings. We open our research seminars to the public, record these events and publish the recordings on our website.
Should you wish to speak at one of our events or enquire about our research please contact Dr Elaine Chung.
Our PhD and MPhil opportunities are grouped together under the banner of Languages and Translation Studies.