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Postgraduate Study

About the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics

Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics is the home of language and linguistics teaching and research at the University of Cambridge. With more than 770 undergraduate students, approximately 100 MPhil students and 190 PhD students we are one of the largest humanities Faculties in the University and one of the largest languages Faculties nationally. 

The Faculty comprises of six sections, which cover a range of languages and subject areas, and is also home to the Centre for Film and Screen Studies. The Faculty regularly tops a number of university and research rankings, and is home to a number of groundbreaking projects and initiatives.

Listed numbers of staff and students are approximate as numbers fluctuate.

7 courses offered in the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics

The MPhil in European, Latin American, and Comparative  Literatures and Cultures (ELAC) provides students with the critical and theoretical tools to enable them to undertake an in-depth study of specific aspects of European literatures and cultures and/or Latin American and Francophone contexts. The course introduces students to a broad range of critical theory concepts, allows for in-depth study of specific cultures and contexts, and includes the writing of a dissertation based on original research.

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The MPhil in European, Latin American, and Comparative  Literatures and Cultures (ELAC) by Thesis provides students with the critical and theoretical tools to enable them to undertake an in-depth study of specific aspects of European literatures and cultures and/or Latin American and Francophone contexts. The core course introduces students to a broad range of critical theory concepts and methods of textual analysis (and, if relevant, paleography). The course as a whole allows for in-depth study of specific cultures and contexts and includes the writing of a thesis based on original research.

The MPhil in ELAC by Thesis is for students who already have a substantial level of familiarity with the study of literary texts or other material in the relevant culture; who already know the area they wish to research for their thesis; and who wish to focus their studies in that area for the entire year. To be eligible for consideration, a student will need (a) an appropriate level of linguistic and/or cultural expertise; (b) a clear idea of the field in which the thesis will be written; and (c) a documented record of undertaking long independent research and writing projects.

The MPhil in ELAC by Thesis is not a more prestigious version of the MPhil in ELAC by Advanced Study, nor does it better prepare students for PhD study. Students from both the 'Advanced Study' course and 'By Thesis' course have been accepted into top PhD programmes. The difference between the two courses is simply one of scope and focus, with 'By Thesis' course involving very circumscribed research and the 'Advanced Study' course establishing a broader foundation for future study and involving more space for exploration.

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Cambridge offers the opportunity to pursue doctoral study in a specifically designated programme in Film and Screen Studies situated in the University's rich interdisciplinary research culture. Students on the programme join the vibrant Centre for Film and Screen and participate in our annual research seminar series. Opportunities to teach on undergraduate film studies papers are made available to PhD students from their second year onwards. Students also take leading roles in organising research events, including an annual postgraduate conference.

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The MPhil in Film and Screen Studies at Cambridge provides advanced training in the study of the theory and history of film and other screen media in a vibrant interdisciplinary context. The moving image is explored in relation to the development of modern and contemporary culture, and to the history and theory of other media (literature, music, the visual arts, architecture, the digital). Students are immersed in a research environment that emphasises work on geopolitics, early cinema, art cinema and the avant-garde, theory, aesthetics, and gender and sexuality.

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The MPhil in Film and Screen Studies by Thesis at Cambridge provides an opportunity to study the theory and history of film and other screen media in a vibrant interdisciplinary context. The moving image is explored in relation to the development of modern and contemporary culture, and to the history and theory of other media (literature, music, the visual arts, architecture, the digital). Students are immersed in a research environment that emphasises work on geopolitics, early cinema, art cinema and the avant-garde, theory, aesthetics, and gender and sexuality.

The MPhil in Film and Screen Studies by Thesis is for students who already have a substantial level of familiarity with the study of film and literary texts in the relevant culture, and who already know the area they wish to research for their thesis. To be eligible for consideration, applicants will need (a) an appropriate level of linguistic and/or cultural expertise and (b) a clear idea of the area in which the thesis will be written.

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The German Section is one of the very few departments in the United Kingdom that can offer postgraduate supervision in literary and cultural topics across the full historical range from the medieval period to the present day, as well as significant coverage of topics in intellectual, social and political history, and in the history of the German language.

Many members of the section also have comparative and interdisciplinary interests, and combinations of German studies with other disciplines are welcomed. The section has a dynamic research culture, with lecture and seminar series, many invited speakers, and a lively postgraduate research seminar.

The section also has partnerships with the Friedrich Schlegel Graduate School (Freie Universität, Berlin) and the German department of the University of Chicago, with joint events and exchanges. And it offers generous funding for postgraduate research travel, conference participation, and the organisation by its postgraduate students of research activities and events.

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The MSt in English Language Assessment is aimed at English language teachers and other educational practitioners, civil servants, and other professionals seeking to enhance and consolidate their knowledge in English language assessment. The University of Cambridge offers world-class graduate education in this domain. The course is delivered jointly by Cambridge Language Sciences IRC and by Cambridge University Press & Assessment, and therefore offers a unique combination of cross-disciplinary expertise. 

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9 courses also advertised in the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics

From the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics

The PhD in Computation, Cognition and Language is a PhD track for students who conduct basic and applied
research in the computational study of language, communication, and cognition, in humans and machines. This
research is interdisciplinary in nature and draws on methodology and insights from a range of disciplines that
are now critical for the further development of language sciences, including (but not limited to) Linguistics,
Cognitive Science, Computer Science, Engineering, Psychology and Neuroscience.  Irrespective of the discipline from which the applicant is progressing into the PhD in CCL, substantial background in linguistic theory is required. 

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From the Department of French

The French Section offers PhD supervision in an exceptional range of areas of French and francophone studies. It contains world-leading researchers in the literature, thought, and culture of the Middle Ages, the early modern period, the 19th century, and the 20th and 21st centuries, as well as in cinema and linguistics. There is usually more than one specialist in any given field, which helps to broaden the PhD student’s approach to and understanding of his or her topic. There is a dynamic culture of research seminars, and the postgraduate students themselves run their own seminar and arrange an annual postgraduate conference.

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From the Department of Italian

The Italian Section in Cambridge has seven full-time faculty members available to supervise doctoral research. Their research interests span a broad range of topics in the languages, literatures, visual cultures and history of the Italian peninsula, from the medieval period to the present day.

Details of individual specialisms can be found on the section’s webpages. We have a lively group of doctoral students in the section at any one time working across periods and topics, supported by careful one-on-one supervision and mentoring, in the context of a rich research culture of seminars, symposia, conferences, lectures, and postgraduate training. Visiting scholars and students from other institutions regularly contribute to the section’s research culture. Students are also free to undertake comparative work across languages and national boundaries, supported by the wide range of expertise within the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Cambridge as a whole.

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From the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics

The Linguistics Section is unique in the UK in that it integrates theoretical and applied linguistics in a single academic department. The Linguistics Section provides great variety and flexibility in course contents as well as subject-specific training and diversity of intellectual interactions. PhD topics in the range of research specialisms represented in the Section and beyond the Section in the MMLL Faculty are accepted. Students may choose to focus on a theoretically oriented study of the language sciences (e.g. interest in the syntactic organisation or sound structure of different languages or in the analysis of meaning in semantics and pragmatics), but may also be interested in a more applied direction of Linguistics (e.g. language acquisition, language processing, data mining of language corpora) or may choose to look at Linguistics from a specific language point of view (e.g. Italian linguistics). 

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From the Department of Spanish and Portuguese

The Spanish and Portuguese Section offers undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan. It is unique in its commitment to exploring the trans-historical and cross-cultural interrelations between all these language areas and their corresponding cultural formations. The research interests of its academic staff thus span a wide range of areas including Medieval and Golden Age Spanish cultures and their consolidation in dialogue with the diverse cultures and faith systems of Africa and the "New World"; the literature, art and cinema of Portugal, Brazil and Lusophone Africa; the literature of modern Spain and its relationship with the Enlightenment, colonialism, and modernity; the cinema of the Ibero-American world from early silent film through to its avant-garde, indigenous, popular and transnational dimensions today; and the culture of Catalonia from its rebirth in the Renaixença, through its resistance to Franquismo in literature and film, to its vibrant contemporary artistic, architectural and cinematographic expressions.

The Section also has one of the largest contingents of Latin American specialists in the United Kingdom, whose interests span the poetry and chronicles of the colonial period; the formation of national cultures in post-Independence Spanish America and Brazil; the experimental literatures of the Spanish American "Boom"; and the literature, cinema, and visual art produced in the interlocking contexts of post-dictatorship, mass urbanisation, narcotráfico and neo-liberal globalisation. The intellectual vitality of the Section is further evidenced by a dynamic research culture of public lectures, section seminars, postgraduate workshops and conferences, all of which add to a close-knit system of postgraduate supervision and mentoring that encourages both individual and collective endeavour within the section. 

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From the Department of Slavonic Studies

The Slavonic Studies Section at Cambridge is unique in the UK in offering postgraduate opportunities for the advanced study of Poland, Russia and Ukraine, with an emphasis on cultural history from the medieval period to the present day.  The intellectual vitality of the Slavonic Studies Section is particularly evident in the fields of medieval Rus culture;  early-modern Ruthenian culture; Russian, Polish, and Ukrainian literatures of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries; Slavonic linguistics; nationalism studies; memory studies; film and visual culture; the history of science and medicine; print and media culture; and sensory history. Applications are welcome in any of these areas.  Students taking the PhD in Slavonic Studies may focus on a single national or linguistic tradition, or they may pursue comparative research across languages and national boundaries. A dynamic research culture of public lectures, seminars and conferences, together with a close-knit system of supervision and mentoring, encourages individual and collective endeavour within the Section.

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From the Department of Spanish and Portuguese

The Spanish and Portuguese Section offers undergraduate and postgraduate teaching in Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan. It is unique in its commitment to exploring the trans-historical and cross-cultural interrelations between all these language areas and their corresponding cultural formations. The research interests of its academic staff thus span a wide range of areas including Medieval and Golden Age Spanish cultures and their consolidation in dialogue with the diverse cultures and faith systems of Africa and the "New World"; the literature, art and cinema of Portugal, Brazil and Lusophone Africa; the literature of modern Spain and its relationship with the Enlightenment, colonialism, and modernity; the cinema of the Ibero-American world from early silent film through to its avant-garde, indigenous, popular and transnational dimensions today; and the culture of Catalonia from its rebirth in the Renaixença, through its resistance to Franquismo in literature and film, to its vibrant contemporary artistic, architectural and cinematographic expressions.

The Section also has one of the largest contingents of Latin American specialists in the United Kingdom, whose interests span the poetry and chronicles of the colonial period; the formation of national cultures in post-Independence Spanish America and Brazil; the experimental literatures of the Spanish American "Boom"; and the literature, cinema, and visual art produced in the interlocking contexts of post-dictatorship, mass urbanisation, narcotráfico and neo-liberal globalisation. The intellectual vitality of the Section is further evidenced by a dynamic research culture of public lectures, section seminars, postgraduate workshops and conferences, all of which add to a close-knit system of graduate supervision and mentoring that encourages both individual and collective endeavour within the section. 

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From the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics

The course integrates the study of linguistic theory, broadly understood, and applied linguistics, in a single programme. It provides great variety and flexibility of content, with subject-specific training and the opportunity for diverse intellectual interactions. These can occur across the wide range of research specialisms represented in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics (TAL) and beyond - especially elsewhere in the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics (MMLL). Students can explore a variety of areas of theoretical and descriptive linguistics, such as syntactic structures, sound structure and phonetics, approaches to meaning and communication (semantics and pragmatics),  or the principles that govern the historical development of languages. Applied linguistics includes language acquisition and language processing in the areas of psycholinguistics and computational linguistics. Students can also choose to look at linguistics from the point of view of a specific language or language family, e.g. Romance linguistics or Germanic linguistics. 

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From the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics

The MPhil by Thesis allows students to carry out focused research on a specific topic in a way that foreshadows a potential PhD. The area can be chosen from a wide range within linguistics or overlapping with other areas of the language sciences. Students are provided with subject-specific training and the opportunity for diverse intellectual interactions. These can occur across the wide range of research specialisms represented in Theoretical and Applied Linguistics (TAL) and beyond - especially elsewhere in the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics (MMLL) and within the Language Sciences community. Students can research a topic chosen from a variety of areas of theoretical and descriptive linguistics, such as syntax, sound structure and phonetics, approaches to meaning and communication (semantics and pragmatics),  or the principles that govern the historical development of languages, most of which are offered in a given year (depending on staff availability). Applied linguistics includes language acquisition and language processing in the areas of psycholinguistics and computational linguistics. Students can also choose to look at linguistics from the point of view of a specific language or language family, e.g. Romance linguistics. 

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Department Members


Prof Geoffrey Kantaris and Prof Ianthi Tsimpli
Co-Chairs of Faculty

  • 82 Academic Staff
  • 18 Postdoctoral Researchers
  • 290 Graduate Students
  • 770 Undergraduates

http://www.mmll.cam.ac.uk/

Research Areas