Emmanuelle Labeau

News from ILCS

On behalf of the Institute of Languages, Cultures and Societies (SAS, University of London), we are pleased to share the following announcements:

Blog post on major current issues

The highly successful Durham conference (19-21 April) provided an excellent opportunity to reflect on the challenges facing Modern Languages and on the direction of travel of the subject area. In the interests of ensuring coordinated follow-up activity, we have prepared a blog post on some of the major issues that were discussed at Durham:

https://ilcs.sas.ac.uk/blog/where-are-we-now-and-where-do-we-go-here-reflections-durham-conference-19-21-april-2023

“Thinking Strategically” seminar series

ILCS, together with UCML, is also organising a new online seminar series entitled ‘Thinking Strategically’. The aim of the series is to consider issues that affect everyone working in the disciplinary field.

The first seminar, Acting on the Voices of the Research Community on 30 June, will look at the views on the nature of research that were gathered by the three AHRC Future of Languages Research fellows. More than 500 researchers participated in the exercise and their views are analysed in the article ‘Research in Languages, Cultures and Societies: Voices of Researchers in the UK‘, written by Katie Harrison and Nicola McLelland in Modern Languages Open (May 2023).

Thinking Strategically. Acting on the Voices of the Research Community

30 June, 2-4pm

https://ilcs.sas.ac.uk/events/thinking-strategically-acting-voices-research-community

Chairs: Charles Burdett (ILCS) and Liz Wren-Owens (UCML)
Nicola McLelland (Nottingham)
Liam Lewis (Liverpool)
Naomi Wells (ILCS)
Emanuelle Santos (Birmingham)
Becky Muradás-Taylor (Leeds)
Abir Hamdar (Durham)

The event will be followed in the autumn by a seminar on ‘Building Collaborations between Academics and Policymakers’ (18 October) and by the AMLUK conference on Impact and Future Research Directions (3 November): https://ilcs.sas.ac.uk/events/amluk-conference-impact-and-future-research-directions-subject-area

Call for mentors

Call for mentors: mentoring schemes to support early-career academics in UK HE

We are currently seeking new mentors to add to our database in all disciplines covered by UCML – and in particular Hispanic Studies and Italian Studies.

Further details of the schemes below – please contact the coordinator Dr Kate Foster (ecasn.contact@gmail.com) with any queries.

What we do:

The increasingly precarious nature of career paths in Higher Education, particularly Modern Languages, means that many early-career academics find themselves adrift from mentors able to provide the guidance and feedback so essential for developing a professional profile and navigating the myriad experiences which characterize the initial years of an academic career. UCML’s ECA Support Network (ECASN) seeks to alleviate these obstacles through academic mentoring.

We currently run two schemes:

1) Individual requests: this connects researchers at the start of their career who have standalone projects on which they need advice with more experienced peers and colleagues who can provide constructive feedback: for example, article submissions, plans for events and public engagement, book proposals, CV design, and bids for research-council fellowships/grants.

2) Year-long Mentoring Partnerships: this pairs an ECA with a more established and experienced colleague for monthly online meetings to support their general career development over the course of one academic year.

Mentors are welcome to volunteer for one or both of the two schemes – and can always opt in or out when requests for support come through according to availability at any one time. We are mindful of the pressures facing experienced colleagues: the flexible nature of these schemes make it possible for the mentor to choose how often and when they feel able to offer their time and support.

Further details available here: https://university-council-modern-languages.org/early-career-academics/eca-support-network/

Who can be a mentor?

Colleagues with approximately 5 or more years of experience post-viva are encouraged to send their details to the list moderator Dr Kate Foster – ecasn.contact@gmail.com) to be added to a closed database of mentors. Mentors may be colleagues with a current institutional affiliation and on a stable academic career trajectory, as well as those navigating multiple temporary contracts.

UCML Executive: New Representative for Early Career Academics

Following the call for nominations published on 17 March 2023, we are pleased to announce that the new Executive Committee member representing Early Career Academics is Dr Ashley Harris of the University of Stirling. Ashley has previously been involved with UCML’s activities as the co-chair of the UCML Early Career Academics Special Interest Group.

Ashley takes over this position from Dr Liam Lewis, who is now the UCML Project Coordinator.