Read all the latest news and upcoming events from the faculty on the main News page.
Friday 5 May saw the culminating event of an exciting collaboration between the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages and the Faculty of Music in Oxford. The project, generously supported by the John Fell OUP Research Fund, has been investigating the descriptions of the imaginary sonata for piano and violin of the fictional composer Vinteuil from Marcel Proust's famous long novel À la recherche du temps perdu (In Search of Lost Time).
2017 sees the sixth year of Oxford University’s French film competition, in which school pupils are invited to watch (a) selected French film(s), and write an essay or script re-imagining the ending.
During the Enlightenment, many men and women of letters envisaged the continent’s future, in particular when stressing their hope that peace could be secured in Europe. Published in French, and edited by academics from the University of Oxford and the University of Augsburg, with colleagues from different European countries, this volume gathers such texts on Europe, its history, its diversity, but also on what its nations have in common.
Debra Walsh, teacher of French at Brynteg Comprehensive School in Bridgend, is one of ten state school teachers who have been recognised by the University of Oxford's annual Inspirational Teachers Awards. She was nominated by Elis Harrington, a first-year student at Jesus College studying French and German.
The University of Oxford has been ranked second in the Complete University Guide for 2018 entry, and very highly across the board for language subjects.
The Faculty is delighted to report that Neil Kenny and Patrick McGuinness have been announced as the joint winners of the prestigious R. Gapper Book Prize for their publications Death and Tenses: Posthumous Presence in Early Modern France (Oxford: OUP, 2015) and Poetry and Radical Politics in fin de siècle France (Oxford: OUP, 2015) respectively.
The MFO is hosting a two day conference jointly organised by Sophie Lefay (Université d'Orléans), Laurent Turcot (Université du Québec à Trois Rivières) and Catriona Seth (University of Oxford) on walking and social rituals in the 18th century. It will include papers on national characteristics of walks, literary and educational walks, royal progresses and botanical collections, garden fashions and commercial activities for walkers. All welcome.
Prize-winning French author and film producer, Delphine de Vigan, will be in conversation with Henriette Korthlas Altes (MFO) and Catriona Seth (All Souls) at Jesus College, in the Harper Room at Jesus College at 5.15 P.M. on Wednesday 26th April.
Oxford academic Professor Catriona Seth is interviewed on French radio by philosopher Adèle van Reeth. They discuss Germaine de Staël (1766-1817), a 'thinker without borders', whose works include essays, novels and political pamphlets and whose ideas often show preoccupations with themes which are still present in contemporary debates, from the role of fiction to the way culture can serve to unite people.
Congratulations to current MSt student Helen Craske, who has won the Society of Dix-Neuviémistes' 2017 Postgraduate Prize for her essay on 'The Decadent Ideal of Impenetrability'.
Professor Catriona Seth presents her forthcoming edition of Germaine de Staël's works in Gallimard's prestigious 'Pléiade' series on French television's 'Bibliothèque Médicis'.
Vittoria Fallanca (1st-year DPhil, Pembroke College) has been announced as the runner-up for the 2016 R. Gapper Postgraduate Essay Prize with her work 'The Design of the Essais: Montaigne and the language of ‘dessein’'.
The University of Oxford has been ranked 3rd in the prestigious QS World University Rankings for Modern Languages, just behind Harvard University and the University of Cambridge, with the coveted top five-star rating for research, innovation, and teaching.
All you ever wanted to know about Les Liaisons dangereuses in five short podcasts: now available here.
Professor Catriona Seth has been re-elected President of SFEDS (Société Française d’Etude du XVIIIe Siècle), the interdisciplinary association of specialists of the 18th century.
The journal Nineteenth-Century French Studies (edited by Faculty member Professor Seth Whidden) has been named the recipient of the 2016 Phoenix Award for Significant Editorial Achievement by the Council of Editors of Learned Journals.
Our school competitions are now open! Please click here for details of the annual French film competition, Oxford German Olympiad, and the NEW Spanish flash fiction competition.
Jack Flowers (Brasenose) has been awarded the Society for French Studies 2016 R.
The University of Oxford, founded some nine centuries ago, has enjoyed the closest links, throughout its long history, with the great centres of learning across Europe.
On June 25th the French Ambassador, Her Excellency Madame Sylvie Bermann made the posthumous award of the highest rank in the ‘Ordre des Palmes Académiques’ to the late Michael Sheringham, who was, until last year, Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature. Professor Michel Murat of the Sorbonne came over from Paris for the ceremony and gave the following address: