The scale of the cull is appalling.

Je découvre Yann Paranthoën 'sculpteur de sons' breton: www.radiofrance.fr/francecultur...

Christopher’s paper, ‘The Allegorical Architectures of Pleasure and Joy in Émile Zola’s Pot-Bouille and Au Bonheur des Dames’, was judged to be ‘a model of concision that wears its erudition lightly’ that embedded itself ‘impressively within the discourse of Zola criticism’.

Congratulations to Christopher Goring (Cambridge) who is this year’s winner of the SDN Postgraduate Prize 🎉🎉🎉 The prize is awarded for the best postgraduate conference paper submitted for the Society’s Annual Conference (#SDNCardiff2026).

“what happens at the BL is, mostly, the wrong kind of research. It’s about the dull old humanities, not the cutting-edge sciences. It mostly looks backwards, not forwards. So it’s regarded, not least by our political leaders, as a backwater.”

“The coming redundancies will officially be called ‘voluntary’ but this is the equivalent of giving a condemned man a pistol in his cell prior to being led to the gallows and classifying him shooting himself as suicide.” Grim and stark. The human faces of the UK university omni-crisis. 1/3

Higher Education in the 2020s, ladies and gentlemen. No one will save us. We have to save ourselves.

We have two SDN Publication Prize winners this year! Claire Dupin de Beyssat, Musée d'Orsay, and Rachel Coombes, Downing College, Cambridge. We also awarded a Highly Commended to Zofia Litwinowicz-Krutnik. See uksdn.co.uk/sdn-publicatio… for article titles and references.

“Decapitating God: Revolution in Victor Hugo’s Le Livre des Tables and Dieu” by Katherine Lunn-Rockliffe of Oxford University, which appeared in volume 29, issue 2: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

'The number of English language and literature academics fell by 8 per cent to 4,680 – among the largest decrease of all disciplines. And the number employed in modern languages dropped 7 per cent to 4,890. This is 17 per cent below peak levels in 2015-16.' 1/3

Yr Athro Heather Williams (@heatherhmw.bsky.social) sy’n codi cwr y llen ar y cysylltiadau agos rhwng Cymru a Llydaw ar ddechrau’r ugeinfed ganrif 👇 golwg.360.cymru/gwerddon/219...

Pwy oedd Cochfarf? – @golwg.360.cymru golwg.360.cymru/gwerddon/219...

There’s one week left to register for our annual conference! Register now and get ready to talk all things health and happiness in 19th century French and Francophone studies 😁

To showcase research projects at Master’s and PhD level, we are pleased to invite expressions of interest in this year’s Postgraduate Poster Competition, which will be held at this year's annual conference in Leicester. See link below for more info: www.sfs.ac.uk/prizes/postg...

OOOOH Researchfish Is going extinct 🐡🐟🐠 help.researchfish.com/en_US/resear...

Find out what French and German travel writers made of the Menai Bridge when it was new footsteps.bangor.ac.uk/en/location/...

Diddordeb mewn cysylltiadau Cymru-Llydaw? Erthygl yn Saesneg am Joseph Loth a Chymru gan Elisabeth Chatel: journals.openedition.org/lbl/11477

Interested in Pan-Celtic relations? My article on Cochfarf and Brittany is out here: journals.openedition.org/lbl/11337

Cyhoeddiad newydd sy’n ffrwyth y gweithdai ar brosiect archifau Cymru-Llydaw. New publication from the Wales-Brittany Project @heatherhmw.bsky.social @crbcbrest.bsky.social 👇 journals.openedition.org/lbl/?lang=en

The proceedings of the DreAM project www.openedition.org/47425 on Welsh-Breton archives are out, and available here open access: journals.openedition.org/lbl/index.ht...

Submissions for the Society of Dix-Neuviémistes Publication Prize 2026 close this Friday! This is our annual prize for the best journal article published by a postgraduate student, or an early-career researcher in the 2025 calendar year. More details below:

💫 Mentorship opportunity 💫 After great feedback from our 2025 cohort, we welcome expressions of interest for our 2026 Mentorship Scheme. The scheme seeks to establish a supportive network for PG & early career researchers by connecting them with mid- and late-career scholars.

Important interview free to read here. Congratulations to both Martin and Dave @frenchstudies.bsky.social liverpooluniversitypress.co.uk/doi/10.3828/...

The Society for French Studies is now on LinkedIn! 🖇️ You can find us and join our new SFS LinkedIn Group via the link below. We will post SFS news on LinkedIn as on here, but you can also use the group to advertise events and opportunities related to the discipline. www.linkedin.com/groups/16713...

Our ECR workshop will now take place on Friday 23rd Jan at 3pm! It is open to all SDN members. Join Professor Helen Abbott (Birmingham) and Dr Hannah Scott (Newcastle) who will discuss their experience of working outside the ivory tower and reaching a much broader audience.

Not just a national asset but an international asset. Trashed, ignored, diminished.

Congratulations Max and Michael. I would love to get my hands on this one!

Calling all of our members interested in women in/and musical history! This promises to be a very exciting few days!

If confirmed, this is great news, offering thousands of young people in the UK and EU the life-changing opportunity to immerse in the language and culture of another country by studying there. Would make good a highly damaging consequence of Brexit. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

'I am less inclined to call on the Government for a solution to the British Library’s ongoing issues since, despite repeated calls for action, the UK Government has largely ignored the similar crisis within UK Higher Education.' 1/3

The CFP for the 2026 Society for the Study of French History conference has just been launched. Come join us in Groningen! frenchhistorysociety.co.uk/conference2/

Today is the deadline! Send us those last minute abstracts!

Anonymised submissions should be sent by email by 5pm on Friday 30 January 2026 to Heather Williams ([email protected]). Full details are available on our website: uksdn.co.uk/sdn-publicat...

💫SDN Publication Prize 2025 💫 The 2026 SDN Publication Prize is now open for entries. The Society awards an annual prize for the best journal article published by a PG student, or an early-career researcher who has not yet entered her or his first permanent full-time post.

We would be particularly delighted to see Postgraduate and Early Career colleagues submitting abstracts for this conference - from training sessions to a specific reception and just good company, there is plenty for you at SDN!

Only a few days till the deadline! Still time to get your proposal in...

The SDN has written to Senior Management at the University of Leicester to urge them to reconsider their threatened closure of Modern Languages. #SaveLeicesterML. Please consider signing this petition shared by a member of our nineteenth C19 French studies community: www.change.org/p/save-moder...

What makes historic collections difficult? And how do researchers work with “difficult” collections? New CFP from Paper Trails here: blogs.ucl.ac.uk/special-coll... Deadline for proposals 31/1/2026 🗃️

The procession of university language closures will trip up UK diplomacy www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/proc...

The SDN has written to Senior Management at the University of Nottingham to urge them to reconsider their threatened suspension of Modern Languages. #SaveNottinghamLanguages #WeAreUoN @uniofnottingham.bsky.social Please sign, comment on, and share, the linked petition: x.com/uk_sdn/statu...

🚨 One week until the deadline! 🚨

I’ve written a piece on the curious lack of media and political interest in the issues faced by our national @britishlibrary.bsky.social. This is strange given we live in a world where ideas, knowledge and research are a long-term source of innovation and insight www.cityam.com/the-british-...

'Nottingham will be the only Russell Group university not to teach modern foreign languages degrees if it approves plans to close a swath of courses including Spanish and French as well as music and dozens of others.' 1/3

I am beyond thrilled to announce that my first solo article has just come out in French History! The article can be accessed in open access using the link below: doi.org/10.1093/fh/c...

Submissions for this year's R. Gapper Postgraduate Essay Prize – awarded to an essay of outstanding academic merit at postgraduate level – will open tomorrow, 1 November 2025. For more information about eligibility and how to submit an entry, see the link below: www.sfs.ac.uk/prizes/r-gap...

Times Higher article out today explains the folly of yet more proposed closures in languages (also music, film, philosophy, and others). This time at the Universities of Leicester and Nottingham. Oversight of the changing UK HE landscape for our disciplines has never been more needed or vital.

🚨 Postponed 🚨 Unfortunately we have to postponed this afternoon’s ECR training session. A new date will be circulated in due course.

The latest threat to UK modern languages is yet another faux pas www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/late...

Every university should renovate the disciplinary framework of its courses and ask whether it is responding to its global responsibilities. But no university should recognise any merit in withdrawing from the study of other languages, cultures & societies www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/late...