Centre for Multilingual Research

The Centre for Multilingual Research at the University of Aberdeen (CMLR) promotes and disseminates interdisciplinary and transnational research carried out across a range of language disciplines including but not limited to Arabic, Chinese, Francophone Studies, Gaelic, German, Spanish and Latin American Studies and Translation and Interpreting Studies.It invites languages staff at all stages of their careers and postgraduate researchers from and beyond Aberdeen to share their research on any aspect of multilingual research by hosting regular research seminars, workshops and networking events. The Centre  also contributes to the University’s Interdisciplinary Challenge area of Social Inclusion and Cultural Diversity.

Directors:
Professor Nadia Kiwan
Dr Maria Sanchez-Ortiz

Aberlangs – Aberdeen City of Languages

Aberlangs is a partnership initiative supporting multilingualism and the presence of home, heritage and community languages in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.

Mission statement: Aberlangs is an initiative promoting Aberdeen as a City of Languages, that celebrates multilingualism as a positive force within the city and its broader surroundings. The initiative aims to bring together researchers in languages, linguistics, cultures and societies from the University of Aberdeen with a broad range of local and regional stakeholders and rightholders. Cities of languages build on the idea that languages learning and the value of home, heritage and community languages (of Scottish as well as wider origins) are an asset to both individuals and collectives. We aim to work with councils, schools and the broader public to raise awareness of the value of languages, and offer a platform to celebrate multilingualism in our communities, building on the unique cultural and international heritage of the North East of Scotland.

Contact: Nadia Kiwan, Dawn Leslie, Fransiska Louwagie, Michelle MacLeod

X (formerly Twitter): @Aberlangs

Upcoming Event:

• Meeting with Dr Rachel Shanks, Interdisciplinary Director for Cultural Diversity and Social Inclusion, 6 November 2-4pm
• Workshop on Literary Translation (March 2025)
• Joint workshop with SGSAH on Space, Territory, Planning, Culture: Interdisciplinary Methodologies (May 2025)

Past events: 

• Islamophobia Beyond Borders Workshop, 22nd-24th July 2024. Speakers including:
  • Zara Mohammed (Muslim Council of Britain)
  • Salman Sayyid (University of Leeds)
  • Mame-Fatou Niang (Carnegie Mellon University)
  • Fraser McQueen (University of Bristol).
• Professor Nicki Hitchcott, Dr Alice Urusaro Uwagaga Karekezi, Professor Lewis Gordon, Dr José Lingna Nafafé and Professor Jane Gordon. CMLR and CISRUL Symposium: Decolonial Approaches to Languages and Cultures, 25th October 2023, 2-5pm 
• Professor Geneviève Haroche-Bouzinac, Université d'Orléans. CMLR and CEMS Seminar: 'A Portraitist in Europe: Louise Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun', 27th September 2023, 1-2.30pm 
• Professor Eleonora Belfiore, Interdisciplinary Director of Social Inclusion and Cultural Diversity, University of Aberdeen: CMLR Grants session, 2nd November 2022, 1-2.30pm
• Dr Dawn Leslie and Professor Michelle MacLeod, LLMVC: 'A response to the AHRC’s call on the Future of Language Research', Wednesday 28th September 2022, 1-2.30pm
• Dr Ina Linge, University of Exeter: Gender and Sexuality Studies: 'Frames of Liveability: Sexual-scientific Encounter in Queer German Life Writing', 23rd February 2022 1-2.30pm
• Dr Sarah Pogoda, University of Bangor: 20th and 21st century Avant Garde, 30 March 2022, 1-2.30pm.
• Dr Toby Wikström, University of Iceland: ‘Before Sentimental Empire: Slavery, Genre and Emotion on the Seventeenth-Century French Stage’, 9 March 2022, 1-2pm - Joint with CEMS.
• Professor Laurence Grove, University of Glasgow: ’The Comics Canon’, 4 May 2022, 1-2.30pm 
• Dr Claire Nance, University of Lancaster, ‘The Role of language professionals in minority language revitalisation: Users and shapers of Gaelic’, 18 November 2021 (more info here)
• Dr Alasdair C Whyte, University of Glasgow: 'The importance of song in place-name studies, linguistic research and research impact', 8 December 2021 (more info here)
• Dr Laura Martin, University of Glasgow: ‘Imagination and the Collective Unconscious as Gift: CG Jung in the Anthropocene’, 24 February 2021
• Prof Nina Paris, University of Stirling: 'The UNREST project: War, Museums, Memory and Interpretation.' 17 March 2021 
• Dr Eve Hayes, Centre for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, University of London, School of Advanced Study: ’Legal Identity, Race and Belonging in the Dominican Republic’, 6 October 1-2.30pm.
• Dr Fraser McQueen, University of Aberdeen/Stirling: 'Literary grands remplacements in French and eco-fascism', 20 October, 2-3.30pm.
• Professor Laurence Grove, University of Glasgow: ’The Comics Canon’, 26 January 2022, 1-2.30pm.
• Dr Peter Baker, University of Striling: 'Theory and Practice of a Cinema of the Peoples: The Films of Alberto Muenala and Rupai', 9 February 2022, 1-2.30pm.
• Affiliated events: Scotttish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities Workshop: Decolonizing Methodologies and Approaches: The Modern Languages Perspective (7 May 2021) with Prof Nadia Kiwan; Prof Ed Welch (Aberdeen), Prof David Murphy (University of Strathclyde), Dr Rachel Douglas (University of Glasgow). This workshop explored how work in Modern Languages engages with current debates on decolonizing academic research and practice. It will consider the contribution of Modern Languages to date, in terms of the critical and theoretical paradigms developed within its disciplines, and what further questions need to be asked. In particular, it will explore what it might mean to decolonize research methodologies in Modern Languages, from the formulation of research questions to the use and critical interrogation of archives.