Durham Modern Languages and Cultures

05/10/2026

Welcome to a new year at MLAC! 💜

A very warm welcome to all our new and returning students as we begin a new term in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures.

Whether you’re a new or returning undergraduate or postgraduate student, studying Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian or Spanish, or exploring Visual Arts and Film, we’re delighted to have you as part of our community. 🌍🎬🎨

05/10/2026

Black History Month: an evening with Asma Elbadawi

Join us on 12 October, 6:30–8:30 p.m. at the Lindisfarne Centre for an inspiring evening with award-winning British-Sudanese spoken-word poet, visual artist and basketball player Asma Elbadawi.

Through poetry, visual art and conversation, Asma will explore creativity, identity, sport and activism, followed by a conversation with Professor Abir Hamdar, audience Q&A, and a reception with refreshments.

🏀 Asma has campaigned successfully for FIBA to lift its ban on religious headwear in professional basketball and has been recognised with the British Muslim Awards and the British Journal of Photography’s Female in Focus x Nikon Award.

📅 12 October
🕡 6:30–8:30 p.m.
📍 Lindisfarne Centre
🎟️ Free — registration required

Open to staff, students and the wider community. Places are limited, so please register via the link/QR code on the event poster.

Funded by the BAME Network/EDI Unit and St Aidan’s College.


Asma Elbadawi

30/09/2026

09/09/2026

🌍 From Durham to Girona and Andorra!

First-year student Akriti Simha has taken their Catalan studies beyond the classroom, spending two weeks immersed in Catalan language and culture as part of a summer programme organised by the Institut Ramon Llull.

Akriti joined around 30 students from around the world for the programme, building on their studies in Durham’s Introduction to Catalan Language and Culture course.

🎙️ And their experience even took them onto the airwaves! Akriti was interviewed by Ràdio SER Principat d’Andorra about learning Catalan and taking part in the programme.

You can listen to the interview here, from around 13 minutes into the Aquí Andorra programme: https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/modern-languages-cultures/about-us/news/akriti-simha/

👏 Congratulations to Akriti on this fantastic achievement!

08/09/2026

📚 From MLAC PhD to published monograph!

Congratulations to Vladimir Liparteliani, a former PhD student in Durham’s School of Modern Languages and Cultures, whose doctoral research has now been published as a new book by Routledge.

Soft Power Competition Between Russia and the West: Contesting Georgian National Identity, 1991–2024 explores the competition between Russia and the West for influence in Georgia and its impact on Georgian national identity and nation-building.

Vladimir completed his PhD at Durham under the supervision of Professor Andy Byford.

A fantastic achievement so soon after completing his doctorate. Congratulations, Vladimir! 🎓📖

08/09/2026

New MLAC publication

A special issue on the films of the late Ventura Pons (1945-2024) has just been published in Studies in Spanish and Latin American Cinemas (21.3). The issue is edited by Santiago Fouz Hernández, who also authored an introductory piece (open access).

The issue brings together essays on some of Pons’s best-known films, from his first feature, Ocaña, retrat intermitent(1978), to some of his lesser-known work, including several of his most recent films. It features outstanding contributions from esteemed colleagues Alberto Mira, Carolina Sanabria, Antoni Maestre Brotons, Raquel Medina, and Alfredo Martínez Expósito, alongside personal pieces by Pons’s biographer Anabel Campo Vidal and actor Josep Maria Pou.

Ventura Pons directed more than 30 films during a lengthy and very successful career. In 2010 he visited the School of Modern Languages and Cultures to give a public talk and to present his film Barcelona, a map at the Gala Theatre.

08/09/2026

🎬 Claude Chabrol on the big screen: three special introductions by Durham’s Professor Catherine Dousteyssier-Khoze

Professor Catherine Dousteyssier-Khoze, Professor of French in Durham University’s School of Modern Languages and Cultures, will introduce three films by acclaimed French director Claude Chabrol at special screenings in Manchester and London this September.

📍 15 September, 6pm | HOME Cinema, Manchester
La Femme infidèle (1968), followed by a discussion with Catherine and Dr Isabelle Vanderschelden.

📍 20 September | BFI Southbank, London
3pm: Le Beau Serge (1958)
6pm: Violette Nozière (1977)

The Manchester screening is presented in partnership with Alliance Française de Manchester.

A fantastic opportunity to experience Chabrol’s cinema alongside expert academic insight into French film and culture.

More info and tickets here: https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/modern-languages-cultures/about-us/news/claude-chabrol/

08/09/2026

🍽️ From medieval Catalonia to the contemporary table

What can a 14th-century recipe teach us about the future of gastronomic heritage?

On 25 September at 18:00, Durham University and the RELISH project will bring Escabetx: Between History and Gastronomic Future to Terra Madre Salone del Gusto 2026 in Turin.

Participants will taste and compare historical and contemporary versions of escabetx, a recipe whose story connects ancient Persia, the medieval Mediterranean and present-day cuisine.

Drawing on the 1324 Catalan cookbook Llibre de Sent Soví and working with Fundació Alícia, the workshop will explore culinary memory, historical recipes and the ways food traditions continue to evolve.

🍷 The tasting will also feature wines from Serra Ferdinandea, part of the Banca del Vino network.

📍 Turin city centre
📅 25 September 2026
🕕 18:00
🎟️ €35 | €30 for Slow Food members and UNISG students
⚠️ Only 8 places available

A fascinating meeting point between medieval history, gastronomy and the future of food heritage.

More info: https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/modern-languages-cultures/about-us/news/from-medieval-recipe-to-contemporary-table-durham-and-relish-at-terra-madre-turin-italy/

07/09/2026

Dante, AI, international research and award-winning scholarship

It has been an exciting year for Dr Lorenzo Dell’Oso, Assistant Professor in Italian Studies at Durham University’s School of Modern Languages and Cultures.

A new Meet the Staff video introduces Lorenzo’s research on Dante, the Middle Ages and AI, including his work exploring how technology can help us imagine medieval soundscapes and reconsider how Dante made knowledge accessible to a wider audience.

Lorenzo is also Principal Investigator on a new Notre Dame–Durham Seed Grant project with Professor Theodore Cachey of the University of Notre Dame. The two-year project, Dante Among Theologians, will investigate the scholastic and theological soundscape surrounding the formation of Dante’s Commedia and will include two international workshops.

His 2026 book, Il poeta alle «scuole delli religiosi», has also received major recognition, including the Pontremoli “Pier delle Vigne” Prize for Medieval Studies – Young Scholars Category and the “Leva la testa e fa che t’assicuri” Prize 2026. These follow the Kleinhenz Prize for Publication from the Dante Society of America in 2025.

🎥 Watch the Meet our Staff video and discover more about Lorenzo’s research:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SuNNXAL2Nbo

Read more here: https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/modern-languages-cultures/about-us/news/delloso/



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