Our annual language competitions for schools are open for entries: choose between a French script, a short story in Spanish, or from a number of projects on the theme of ‘Freundschaft – Friendship’ in German.
The age categories are from Year 5 to Year 13, depending on the competition. Winning prizes include publication and monetary rewards.
Read all the latest news and upcoming events from the faculty on the main News page.
The Open Days for spring 2018 have now been announced! We welcome prospective applicants to meet our tutors and students, to have a look at libraries and classrooms, and to learn more about the admissions process and studying at Oxford.
The main Open Day at the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages is taking place on Saturday, April 28th, with additional language-specific days from February to March.

A new prize was established in 2017 as part of the Oxford German Olympiad: ‘A German Classic’.

Public Engagement with Research describes the many ways that members of the public can be involved in the design, conduct and dissemination of research.
If you, or any of your students, are interested in applying for 2018 entry, the Faculty is holding an information session on Modern Languages Masters courses.

As the exact date for the quincentenary of the publication of Martin Luther’s 95 Theses is approaching (published on 31 October 1517), there are a number of Reformation events which combine the three strands which have been explored throughout the year (cf. the events during Bonn Week): Translating – Printing – Singing. This might be of interest for anybody interested in the literature, history and music of Protestant Germany and England in the 16th century and its legacy. All welcome! For more information, go to the Reformation 2017 blog of the Taylorian.

The next conference of the International Walter Benjamin Society will be held in Oxford at Worcester College and the Taylorian Institute on 24th-27th September 2017. To coincide with the conference, there will be a small exhibition at the Bodleian Library on the theme of “Reading with Benjamin,” which will include Kafka manuscripts, and other Benjamin-related rarities.

We are delighted to announce the launch of a new prize as part of the Oxford German Olympiad: 'A German Classic: Goethe’s Faust, part I - Essay Prize for Sixth-Formers'
The Prize is designed to be the focus of an annual celebration of a classic text of German literature, providing resources that will remain available via our website for the future.

The Crisis, Extremes and Apocalypse research network at TORCH is delighted to host a workshop on 'Crises of Meaning and Political Theology' on the afternoon of 6 June. Speakers will include: All are welcome. Coffee, tea and biscuits will be provided.

To celebrate Oxford’s Bonn Week, Oxford's Chair of Medieval German Literature and Linguistics, Prof. Henrike Lähnemann, is looking for German speakers who would like to take part in a public reading of Martin Luther’s ‘Sendbrief vom Dolmetschen’ in German which is scheduled to take place on 25 May, 4-5:30pm, at the Taylor Institution Library, Oxford.

2017 sees the 500th anniversary of the German Reformation, a movement that shaped European history, and to mark Oxford's Bonn Week a series of events are taking place which mark both celebrations.

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.

"Walter Benjamin and Method: Re-thinking the Legacy of the Frankfurt School"
The conference, at the University of Oxford, 25th-27th September 2017, will be organized in six thematic strands with two convenors each. Panels in each strand will consist of three 20-minute papers. Proposals (250 words) for 20-minute papers in either English or German should be submitted by 7th April 2017.

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.

L'idée vient en parlant: These words will serve as a basis for exploring – in English and German – how the debate about knowledge is configured in literary texts, to what extent it determines the poetic reflections of specific authors, and what might be the methodological and theoretical implications.

A workshop in honour of T.J. Reed's 80th birthday, hosted at St John's College and The Queen's College from 18-19 April 2017.

Women in German Studies is a professional organisation for Germanists in Great Britain and Ireland which was founded in 1988 by Helen Watanabe-O'Kelly, Professor Emeritus at the Faculty of Medieval and Modern Languages. From 22 to 24 June 2017 the conference will come to Oxford for the first time, to explore the topics 'reform' and 'revolt' across German history, literature and culture.

Jan Wagner will now give the Annual Poetry Society Lecture at 7pm on Monday 20 February in the Shulman Auditorium, The Queen's College, High Street Oxford. This is a new venue because of demand.

The German-Japanese writer Dr Yoko Tawada will be visiting the University of Oxford from 17 February to 1 March 2017, on the invitation of DAAD-Lektor Christoph Held.

Professor Karen Leeder, Professor of Modern German Literature and Fellow of New College, has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.