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Studying at LAEL and interesting in going abroad in 2018/2019?

The International Office is organizing their annual briefing sessions on the dates below. he International Office manages the details of studying abroad (grade conversion, allocation of places, Erasmus grants, etc.), so it is very important that you attend one of these sessions if you are interested in spending time at one of our partner universities in 2018/2019. (The sessions are the same so you only need to attend one of them to get all the relevant information.)

Wednesday 17th October – 1-2pm, Faraday Lecture Theatre
Wednesday 24th October – 4-5pm, Faraday Lecture Theatre
Wednesday 31st October – 3-4pm, Faraday Lecture Theatre

Undergraduate students can either spend their 2nd year abroad or Michaelmas term of term 3. Postgraduate students can generally spend any time between 3 and 9 months abroad (since they don’t take classes and just visit labs usually.) Available places change from year to year; the International Office will communicate numbers of places and partners during the briefing sessions.

The application deadline is January 2, 2019.

Last April, RTP (the Portuguese national broadcaster) sent a team to cover the heritage language symposium that I organized with the financial support of the FASS Internationalization Fund. The event was a joint initiative between Lancaster University and PARSUK, the association of Portuguese scientists and students based in the UK. It brought to Lancaster policy makers, leading researchers, parents and educators in order to discuss challenges and opportunities associated with heritage language education. We were particularly pleased to welcome the Portuguese Secretary of State for Education (Professor João Costa) as our distinguished keynote speaker.

You can see the clip produced by RTP by clicking on the video below. For more information on our symposium, please drop me a line or visit our symposium website.

Coverage of Saturday’s symposium with Portuguese Secretary of State Joao Costa on Lancaster University website:

Lancaster’s historic links with Portugal, dating back to John O’Gaunt, were rekindled at the weekend.

The Portuguese Secretary of State for Education, Professor João Costa, visited Lancaster University on Saturday (April 8) to take part in a conference on bilingualism and heritage language learning.

The event, opened in fluent Portuguese by Professor Sharon Huttly, the Pro-Vice-Chancellor Education at Lancaster University, focused on Portuguese heritage language education across Europe.

It brought together policy makers from the Portuguese Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Education, leading academics, journalists, school teachers and parents to discuss current trends and challenges in fostering bilingual competence in English and in the heritage language (the language spoken at home).

The event, supported by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences ‘Impact and Engagement Fund’ featured the presentation of successful case studies, including the innovative and award-winning Native Scientist project and the new Anglo-Portuguese School.

Portuguese national TV (RTP) sent a team to cover the event for a popular early evening news programme which is broadcast worldwide.

Event organiser Dr Patrick Rebuschat, from the University’s Department of Linguistics and English Language, said: “The conference was a big success. It is very rare for parents, teachers, researchers and policy makers to be sitting in the same room and engaging in a very constructive dialogue about education. The event demonstrates again the University’s commitment to both engaging with our local communities and to maintain a strong international outlook.”

Lancaster University is renowned for its research in the language sciences and is currently ranked 19th in the world for linguistics according to the 2017 QS Rankings.

In his keynote speech, Portuguese Secretary of State João Costa emphasized the importance of this initiative and outlined future challenges and opportunities in heritage language education.

The conference continued Lancaster University’s long-term links with Portugal.

In 1986 the then President of Portugal, Dr Mário Soares, who died earlier this year, received an Honorary Doctorate from Lancaster University. The occasion served to celebrate 600 years of the Treaty of Windsor between England and Portugal, the oldest diplomatic alliance in the world still in existence.

President Soares’ visit was seen as a big event for the City because it marked the first time Lancaster had received a foreign head of state. It was widely covered in the media in the UK and in Portugal.

“Professor João Costa’s visit on Saturday provided an opportunity for us to remember this event 31 years ago and to honour one of our Honorary Graduates,” added Dr Rebuschat.

For more information, please visit the Lancaster University website or email Dr Patrick Rebuschat, p.rebuschat@lancaster.ac.uk

We are pleased to announce that Ruth Wodak has recently been awarded the Austrian Book Prize for the 2016 German translation of The Politics of Fear – Politik mit der Angst. Ruth’s award is in the category of Humanities and Social Sciences. The official ceremony will take place on February 20, 2017, in the Austrian Ministry of Science and Research.

Ruth Wodak’s book The Politics of Fear – What Right-Wing Populist Discourses Mean (Sage 2015) was published October 2, 2015. In it, she focusses on the discourse, rhetoric, performance and argumentation of populist right-wing politicians across Europe (compared with the “tea-party/ies” movement in the US) on the front- and back-stage. Specifically, she elaborates on the (inter)dependencies between politics and the media in several case studies. The recontextualisation and glocalisation of images and posters across several European right-wing political parties also form a relevant focus of this book.

Ruth’s award was reported in the following media outlets:

• Die Presse
• Der Standard
• Tiroler Tageszeitung
• Kleine Zeitung Steiermark + Graz

This University-wide event took place on Nov 10, 2016, and brought together over 50 colleagues from across all Faculties and Central Services. It featured short presentations by Professor Robert Geyer (AD International, FASS), by colleagues from the International Office and by FASS, LUMS and FST academics who have recruited overseas in the past (see schedule below).

The purpose was to identify colleagues (academics and professional services) who might be interested in recruiting overseas (agents, fairs, etc.) and to provide them with an idea of what makes a good recruitment trip. It was also an opportunity to share best (recruitment) practices across the University’s many departments and service units.

The presentations and the discussions on the day demonstrated the impressive range of experience available across Lancaster University, and it clearly demonstrated that a forum for sharing this experience within the institution could improve our recruitment efforts.

We are grateful to all speakers and delegates, and especially to Robert Geyer, Claire Astle and Lindsey King for support in the organization of the event. The event was supported by the FASS Internationalization Fund.

Schedule

1.00 to 1.15: Buffet lunch

1.15 to 1.20: Robert Geyer (FASS, AD International): Welcome, then: Why is international recruitment so important?

1.15 to 1.20: Annie Brunt (Head of International Office): The International Office – Its function within University

1.30 to 1.40: Jamie Vegad (Regional Manager, Africa, Middle East and Indonesia, International Office): Working with agents (including how to train agents)

1.40 to 1.50: Emma Carline (International Partnerships Manager, International Office): Recruitment fairs – The top 10 questions (and how to best answer them)

1.50 to 2.00: Alice Callaghan (Regional Manager – Europe, Russia & South America, International Office): Typical recruitment trip: From agreeing to go to back

2.00 to 2.30: Experienced academic recruiters share their recruitment experience
•       Astrid Nordin (FASS)
•       Phil Benachour (FST)
•       Danny Soetanto (LUMS)

2.30 to 3.00: Q&A with panel

A warm welcome to our new undergraduate and postgraduate students!

Our 198 new students come from 38 different countries, reflecting the global reputation of Lancaster’s Department of Linguistics and English Language and the international dimension of research in the language sciences.

Where do your students come from?

Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Cyprus, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kenya, Kuwait, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Norway, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan and Vietnam

A truly international community of students!