Annual Leslie Brooks Lecture featuring Silvia Albert Sopale on Black theatre in Spain, followed by academic discussion and reception at St Cuthbert’s Society, Durham.

We welcomed Dr Francesco Bongarrà, Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in London, and Mr Gabriele Magagnin, Italian Consul General (Manchester), to celebrate and strengthen our longstanding ties with Italy. We marked our strong international profile and our deep and enduring connections with Italian institutions, underpinned by close collaborations with the Italian Cultural Institute in London since 2015.

MEMSA Conference at Durham University, co-organised by MLAC PhD researcher Ava Siena Cohen. The event brings together international postgraduate students—including contributors from MLAC’s Spanish, French, and Italian sections—highlighting the vitality and interdisciplinarity of Durham’s research and postgraduate community.

A public lecture by Yael Almog on Moses Mendelssohn and Johann Gottfried Herder will take place on 30 April 2026 at 5:45 pm (BST) at Senate House, University of London, with the option to attend online.

Following a visit to Australia and New Zealand, Professor Janet Stewart, Executive Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, has laid the groundwork for new research collaborations under Durham University’s Transformative Humanities work.

We have been ranked joint 40th in the prestigious QS World University Rankings by Subject.

MLAC marks Dantedì with news of national recognition for Dr Lorenzo dell’Oso, whose recent book on Dante Alighieri has been reviewed in Corriere della Sera, one of Italy’s leading newspapers.

The School of Modern Languages and Cultures is deeply saddened to announce the death of Daniel Newman, Professor of Arabic Studies, following a period of illness.

Two MLAC alumni have recently achieved notable successes. Dr Matt Hilborn has won the Edgar Allison Peers Award (2025) from the Association of Hispanists of Great Britain and Ireland for the best early-career essay, while Dr Joss Morfitt will contribute to the 40th anniversary programme of the BFI Flare London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival, including delivering a sold out public talk.

An interdisciplinary workshop organised by MLAC and Durham’s Institute for Medical Humanities explores how literature and emerging research in epigenetics illuminate the transmission of trauma across generations. The event brings together scholars and the writer Igiaba Scego to examine women’s narratives of transgenerational trauma.

New MLAC publication: Professor Luke Sunderland has co-edited The Horizons of Medieval French and Occitan: New Approaches to Manuscripts and Texts, a new volume exploring how medieval French and Occitan manuscripts shape literary voice, cultural identity, and sensory experience.

The French section in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures (MLAC) at Durham University is delighted to announce that Professor Catherine Dousteyssier-Khoze (MLAC, Durham University) will deliver one of this year’s Wheeler Distinguished Annual Lectures, hosted in Bristol on Wednesday 4 March 2026.