Archived February 2003 ebulletin

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This bulletin contains information on the following:

1. LWULT - Languages Dissemination Project
2. SUBJECT CENTRE WEB SITE
3. INSTITUTIONAL VISITS
4. GOVERNMENT WHITE PAPER ON THE FUTURE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
5. LESS COMMONLY TAUGHT AREA STUDIES COURSES - OPEN MEETING
6. OVERSEAS FIELDWORK IN HE - NATIONAL CONFERENCE - GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, LONDON - 2 April 2003
7. LARA PROJECT "Well, tell me.." video
8. MARKETING LANGUAGES - careers factsheets available
9. 5th ALCS CONFERENCE - University of Sheffield
10. CRITICALITY PROJECT - announcement of new research project and related seminar series
11. 3 YEAR DEGREE PROGRAMMES IN ML

1 LWULT LANGUAGES DISSEMINATION PROJECT

We were overwhelmed by the response to our Call for Bids for the project 'Securing Dissemination in LWULT'. The bids were of a very high standard. We will be notifying all applicants in the next couple of days.

2 SUBJECT CENTRE WEB SITE

Thank you for the encouraging feedback that we have received since the launch of the new website. Please continue to send your comments.

3. INSTITUTIONAL VISITS

We are hoping to be able to visit institutions and organise a workshop tailored to the request of the department. If you are interested in this, please contact Liz Ashurst, Subject Centre Manager. (eja@soton.ac.uk).

4. THE GOVERNMENT WHITE PAPER ON THE FUTURE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

The Subject Centre would like to hear your views on the white paper so that any advice we give to decision-makers should reflect your views and experience. We would be grateful if you could write brief comments on the questionnaire and return it to the Subject Centre. The questionnaire can be accessed at: http://www.llas.ac.uk/news/1429

5. LESS COMMONLY TAUGHT AREA STUDIES COURSES - OPEN MEETING

The Subject Centre is holding an open meeting on 14 March at CILT, London to discuss issues for those teaching on less taught area studies courses. We are particularly interested in making contact with those teaching courses in African Studies, Latin American Studies, Middle Eastern Studies, Chinese/Japanese/ Korean Studies, other types of Asian Studies (e.g. Indian Sub-Continent Studies), Caribbean Studies, South Asian Studies and courses on Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union.

Topics of discussions may include, but are not limited to:

• Key issues in Area Studies in general (e.g. interdisciplinarity).
• Recruitment to courses.
• The role of language teaching on Area Studies programmes.
• Study abroad
• Supporting Area-based programmes

If you would like to attend, please contact John Canning, Academic Coordinator for Area Studies j.canning@soton.ac.uk by Monday 10th March 2003.

6. OVERSEAS FIELDWORK IN HE - NATIONAL CONFERENCE - GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, LONDON - 2 April 2003

This event aims to:

1. Bring together academics involved in HE overseas fieldwork from a variety of disciplines in order to share expertise, exchange ideas and good practice;
2. Raise awareness of the inter-disciplinary learning needs of students on degree programmes with overseas fieldwork components;
3. Provide opportunities to discuss the academic and the practical/logistical issues when designing and delivering overseas fieldwork;
4. Identify the needs of colleagues with respect to overseas fieldwork support and guidance;
5. Assist in the building of an area studies network to discuss inter-disciplinary issues such as overseas fieldwork and other generic issues

This event is free of charge, and you can register online now at: www.gees.ac.uk/osfw.htm Deadline for registration: Wednesday March 26th

7. LARA PROJECT : Language and Residence Abroad Project

"Well, tell me..." video is for all university language learners researching an ethnographic project in their year abroad. It accompanies LARA Introduction to Ethnography Units 9 & 11. The video shows language learners at Oxford Brookes University practise ethnographic interviewing in preparation for their year abroad.

If you would like a free copy of this video, please contact the Subject Centre (llas@soton.ac.uk). Additional copies of the LARA 'Introduction to Ethnography' teaching materials are available. If you are interested in receiving these, please contact the Subject Centre at the above email address.

8. MARKETING LANGUAGES

CILT and the LNTO have produced 3 factsheets:

• An adviser's guide to careers using languages
• A student's guide to careers using languages
• Why studying languages will get you places

Electronic PDF versions are available from: www.cilt.org.uk/languageswork.htm OR www.languagesnto.org.uk/careers/factsheets_menu.htm. For more information contact languageswork@cilt.org.uk

9. ALCS CONFERENCE - 8/10 January 2004

The Association for Low Countries Studies 5th Biennial Conference will be held at the Dept. of Germanic Studies, University of Sheffield. The focus of the conference will be the Low Countries - History, Society, Literature and Language - sincethe 2nd world war. Proposals for papers are invited, please send a short abstract (ca. 100 words) to the conference organisers Henriette Louwerse (h.louwerse@shef.ac.uk) or Prof. Michael Perraudin (m.f.perraudin@shef.ac.uk) or by post to Dept. of Germanic Studies , University of Sheffield, S10 2TN. Deadline for proposals is 1 April 2003.

10. CRITICALITY PROJECT - announcement of new research project and related seminar series

An ESRC-funded project "The development of criticality among undergraduates in two contrasting departments: Modern Languages and Social Work" has recently started at the University of Southampton. For further information about the project see: http://www.soton.ac.uk/~critical/

A series of seminars, arising out of the research project is taking place in the coming months. For further information, see http://www.soton.ac.uk/~critical/Events.htm The first seminar in the series will take place on 26 Feb at 4 pm. See the following web page for details. http://www.soton.ac.uk/~critical/Ron%20Barnett%20Seminar.htm

11. 3 YEAR DEGREE PROGRAMMES IN ML

We have received an enquiry about the number of three year ML programmes in UK HEIs. If such a programme exists in your institution, we would be grateful if you could email the Subject Centre (llas@soton.ac.uk) so that we can collate information on the extent of this type of provision.

We would be grateful if your would forward this bulletin to colleagues and relevant mailing lists. Please do not hesitate to contact the Subject Centre if you have any queries regarding this bulletin.

Sue Nash
Subject Centre Secretary
Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies
University of Southampton

Tel: 023 80 594814
Fax: 023 80 594815
Email: llas@soton.ac.uk