LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies

Embedding global learning through in-country study
Event date: 14 May, 2009
Location: George Eliot 219 (ICAN) (pdf), Clifton Campus, Nottingham Trent University

Globalisation: a conference for undergraduate students
Event date: 4 March, 2009
Location: Loughview Suite, Jordanstown Campus, University of Ulster

Global perspectives in Area Studies: a complacent or creative response?

Higher Education is under pressure to produce graduates with the knowledge and skills for working in a globalised world and with the values and attitudes to behave as global citizens. Are Area Studies students developing these 'global perspectives' through their studies? A scoping study at the Royal Geographical Society (with with the Institute of British Geographers) has investigated the current status of the global dimension. The research project examined how global perspectives are manifest at three different levels within Higher Education: disciplines/subject areas, departments/teaching teams and institutions. In Area Studies, the picture is generally encouraging, with many of the building blocks for developing and strengthening global perspectives already in place. The long-term objective is for a holistic approach where all the components contributing to global perspectives are integrated and embedded into the ethos, structures, activities and daily life of Higher Education institutions.

An introduction to South Asian Studies in the United Kingdom
The efflorescence of South Asian Studies in Higher Education is evident in the range and number of taught and research degrees, the number of language courses, and the popularity of South Asian options within other courses that are offered by Colleges and Universities in the United Kingdom. This article gives an overview of the range of options available to a student at the undergraduate, postgraduate and research degree level, lists the major centres of teaching and research on South Asian Studies, indicates the range of resources available for research and highlights the principal networks of academic exchange and research in the United Kingdom and the world.

Canadian Studies teaching in the UK
An overview of the nature and content of Canadian Studies (including Québec Studies) teaching and research in British and Northern Irish universities, with sections on each designated centre, their specialist disciplines and the courses they offer. These are mainly in history, politics, literature, geography, film, and aboriginal studies, often as part of a comparative programme.

Assessing risk for residence abroad
Risk assessment is a commonly used technique in preparing for fieldwork in the Earth Sciences. The technique can be adapted for use by students going on Residence Abroad. By identifying potential hazards and the likelihood of them occurring, students can be better prepared for their year abroad and decrease the possibilities of problems occurring or ensure that they are better prepared when difficulties arise.

New Zealand Studies Teaching in the UK
The content of New Zealand Studies teaching in the UK is outlined in sections covering Literature, Film, Geography, Social Sciences, History, Tourism and Sport. Links to resources available in print and on the Internet are provided.

Education for Sustainable Development: Human Geography (Agriculture and Rural Development)
A relflective article by Guy Robinson, Kingston University, as part of the Subject Centre's Education for Sustainable Development Project.

Eighteenth Century Collections Online (ECCO)
ECCO is an on-line multi-disciplinary research database which consists of a library of nearly 140,000 digitised titles and editions, published in the United Kingdom between 1701 and 1800. Full-text searching of more than 32 million pages takes the user directly to primary source material in facsimile copy of its original. ECCO is of universal appeal to Classicists, Medievalists, Renaissance scholars and students of the early modern period, as well as the later period of the Enlightenment. The project is based on Thomson Gale's microfilm library. Registration required for trial access.

Mapping the World: collaborative support for research on overseas mapping
The aim of this project is to open up a major under-used resource for research in a wide range of disciplines in the Humanities and Social Sciences by targeted series-level cataloguing of post-1850 overseas mapping. This will facilitate remote access to key materials by converting map library catalogue records, which at present are held on cards and accessible only to researchers visiting the libraries in person. The areas of coverage include Africa, North and South America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand as well as much of Asia and the Middle East. The individual countries covered range from the tiniest Pacific islands to the vast areas of British Antarctica, from Mediterranean islands such as Cyprus and Malta to countries the size of Nigeria and Canada. Initially, different areas of the world were allocated to each partner but now each institution can also derive CURL records for areas already covered. For example, six libraries have completed work on Australia, Iran, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and South Africa.

AIM25 - Archives in London and the M25 area
AIM25 (Archives in London and the M25 area) commenced in January 2000 and is supported by two rounds of funding from the Research Support Libraries Programme. The principal objective of AIM25 is to prove a single point of networked access to descriptions of the archives of AIM25 consortial partners. These comprise more than fifty institutions, consisting of the principal colleges and schools of the University of London, other universities and Higher Education institutes in the area, and some of the most important royal colleges and societies of medicine and science based in London. The website allows researchers to browse ISAD(G) descriptions by repository and to conduct searches using two types of text search engine or the indexes of personal, corporate and place names and a subject thesaurus based on the UNESCO Thesaurus.

Charting the Nation: widening access to maps of Scotland and associated archives 1550-1740
Charting the Nation is a collaborative digital imaging and cataloguing project funded by the Research Support Libraries Programme (RSLP), with additional support from the Scottish Cultural Resources Access Network (SCRAN) and the National Library of Scotland. The primary aim of the project is to provide on-line access to maps of Scotland and their associated archives dating from 1550 to 1740.

Knoop Far East Photographic Collection
The collection is a photographic record of places visited during a 'world tour' undertaken by Knoop in the academic session 1913-1914, mainly in the Far East. The images cover natural features, human interest such as street scenes, and major events such as earthquakes, in the countries visited, as well as incidental events on the tour.

Call for papers: Teaching across cultures: interdisciplinary thinking and student diversity in an international context

Unfortunately this event has been cancelled. The Subject Centre and the School of Art, Media & Design, University of Gloucester are looking for contributions to our forthcoming event on 1st November 2003. This conference is aimed at those who teach cultural material as part of Anglophone Area studies programmes in the Higher Education sector (particularly American, Australian and Canadian Studies) as well as those involved in teaching elements of Anglophone cultures in Education, Film, History, Media/Media Communications, Human Geography, Postcolonial Studies and Sociology courses. The focus of the conference is on classroom practice.