Research

This Centre was established in 1995 to promote francophone Belgian studies, including through the teaching of francophone Belgian literature on university courses. Its activities include seminars, conferences, publications, writing competitions, film screenings and other cultural events.

The Centre (which was formerly called the Centre for Medieval & Renaissance Studies) brings together around 70 researchers across the University of Edinburgh. Within the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, members span a range of disciplines in Celtic and Scottish Studies, English and Scottish Literature, European Languages and Cultures, Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies, and Asian Studies.

Bringing together specialists in the fields of anglophone and francophone diasporas, this international network is unique in comparing the various diasporic communities’ responses to issues of identity, belonging and relocation in the specific contexts of British/French and Canadian immigration policies.

Co-founded by colleagues from the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and St Andrews in 2014, and funded by the French Embassy London, this Franco-Scottish network brings together researchers from the humanities and social sciences. Its annual seminar at the Institut Français d'Ecosse has a particular focus on early career research, giving a platform to doctoral students from the founding universities and from a different francophone university each year.  

Led by Professor Marion Schmid and Dr Fabien Arribert-Narce, this research strand interrogates the theory and practice of ‘intermediality’, that is, the interrelationships between different art forms and their signification. With a particular focus on events, several jointly organised with Meiji University in Tokyo, the strand brings together academics, research students and practitioners to foster exchange and initiate new collaborative projects.

Based in European Languages and Cultures in LLC, this research strand explores the interplay between violence and language in various historical and cultural contexts and from different disciplinary perspectives (including literary and linguistic studies, translation, and memory studies).

The Société Internationale Rencesvals, founded in 1955, brings together scholars from all over the world in the study of the epic poetry of mediæval Europe. The first Chairman of the Society’s British Branch was Professor Duncan McMillan, Chair of French Language and Romance Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh (1955 to 1980). Professor Emeritus Philip Bennett has been President of both the Society and its British Branch. The University hosted the Society’s twelfth international congress in 1991 and publishes British Rencesvals Publications.

In the last decade, particularly among feminist scholars, there has been growing interest in early modern women’s cultural, literary and political agency. This body of work is designed not merely to (re)shape our collective memory and imaginary, but also to challenge deeply ingrained paradigms about knowledge production. Building on her AHRC-funded project of 2010/11, Women's Spaces, Bodies and Voices, Dr Séverine Genieys-Kirk has been working with partners including the Institute of Advanced Studies in the Humanities (IASH) and L’Institut français d’Ecosse on learning to see the power of women. Since 2016, the project has comprised a series of ‘cultural encounters’ between past and present, unlocking disciplinary differences and opening a new field of cross-cultural and transmedial investigation.

In 2016, a three-day conference on ‘Recovering Women’s Past: New epistemologies, new ventures’ brought together 35 international experts to explore the power of women in Europe and America from the Renaissance to the present. Associated events included an exhibition, a guided tour of ‘The Subject and Me’ - Alice Neel’s first solo show in Scotland, a screening of the documentary MARCH, a public panel event, and a facilitated playwrights’ discussion. Since then, the project has held workshops and film screenings on female writers from the early modern period, including Mme de La Fayette and Mme de Villedieu. It has also hosted a two-day meeting of an EU Working Group, focusing on mapping the digital future of European Women Writers before 1900.

Funded by the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures (LLC) Research Fund and Impact Fund

LLC team: Dr Séverine Genieys-Kirk (Principal Investigator)

In the course of his long and extraordinarily productive writing career, Michel Butor published a very wide range of poetry, novels and mixed genre works. He was also a prolific literary and art critic and was involved in hundreds of collaborative ventures not only with other writers, but also with artists, photographers, composers and film-makers. Jean Duffy, Emeritus Professor of French, has developed an online research and reference apparatus to assist orientation within Butor’s vast oeuvre. The site builds on Duffy’s research and publications on Butor and, in particular, her monograph Signs and Designs: Art and Architecture in the Work of Michel Butor (Liverpool University Press, 2003).

LLC team: Professor Jean Duffy (Principal Investigator)