Professor Catherine Davies, Director of the Institute of Modern Languages Research (IMLR), is interviewed by the Argentinian newspaper, Pagina 12 . In the Spanish-language article, she discusses the importance of language skills for effective cross-cultural communication and diplomacy, the falling numbers of modern languages students in the UK and the IMLR’s conferences in Spain on British-Argentine relations, one in Seville this week, one in Salamanca in October (part-funded by the AHRC's Open World Research Initiative [OWRI]).

Grace Moran has been named as the winner of the Alice Emily Bithell Prize for 2017.  The Prize, established in memory of Dr Alice Emily Bithell of Birkbeck College, is awarded annually for the best performance in modern literature papers in German at BA level.

The Institute is delighted to announce that Andrea Capovilla has been appointed as Director of the Ingeborg Bachmann Centre for Austrian Literature and Culture at the IMLR. Dr Capovilla read German, History and Philosophy at the University of Vienna, graduating with an MA dissertation entitled ‘Irmgard Keuns Romane im Kontext der Neuen Sachlichkeit’. Her doctoral thesis, Der lebendige Schatten. Film in der Literatur bis 1938 was published by Böhlau in 1994.

Shutterstock/Elena Dijour/2 Chairs in the Tuilleries The winners of the 2017 German writing competition, organised by the IMLR and the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) have just been announced. 1st prize in the Secondary Schools category went to Victoria Adjei (North London Collegiate), with 2nd being awarded to Panayotis Galatis (City of London School) and 3rd to Alex Davies (King’s College School, Wimbledon).