Our research in French and Francophone studies is global in outlook and diverse in approach, covering history, politics, literature, film, cultural studies, translation and publishing histories and networks.
We address contemporary, real-life challenges facing postcolonial, multicultural societies, using historical, textual and practice-based perspectives to advance current thinking on international philanthropy, conflict and nationalism, landscape change, and children's literature.
Areas of research
Our research specialisms include:
- Francophone postcolonial literatures
- Disability studies
- Women’s writing, feminist theory, and history
- War studies
- Nationalism and identities
- The classical tradition in the modern world
- Philosophy and literary theory
- Education
- Children’s literature
- Publishing history
- Translation studies
- Landscape change and loss
Research centres
The Women’s Hammam: an Experienced Space of Representation in Maghrebi Literature & film’ contribute to several of the University’s major research centres, including:
Staff research activities and collaborations
Dr Marjorie Gehrhardt is a Co-Director of the . Her current research focuses on the rehabilitation of WW1 disabled veterans, and the role of philanthropic organisations in this process.
She is interested in the history of philanthropy in the British and French context more specifically, including the work of the Salvation Army and the Red Cross. She has also been collaborating with a number of French and British charities, including , and the French disfigured veterans' organisation . She is on the editorial board of the .
Dr Sophie Heywood
Dr Sophie Heywood is co-founder and co-director of the at the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø. She specialises in the history of French and comparative children’s literature and publishing, and has published extensively on these subjects in French and English.
She is on the editorial board of the French children’s literature journal , and is a member of the editorial team for the Edinburgh Companion to Women in Publishing.
In her work on children’s literature in translation