The Language Based Area Studies pathway focuses on studies of one or more areas of the world, for which a modern foreign language (i.e. a language other than English) is key to the success of the study. Studies can be confined to one country or deal with two or more countries, and may relate to particular regions or sub-regions, such as the Arab World, East Asia, Latin America, or Russia and Eastern Europe. It will normally be expected that research conducted under this pathway will be centrally concerned with geographical areas outside the U.K.; research which is centrally concerned with the activities of U.K. nationals or entities within the U.K. but also requires some foreign-language research, will not normally fall under this pathway. Area studies research under this pathway involves subjects and approaches that are within the domain of social scientific fields (broadly conceived), such as those covered in other NWSSDTP pathways.

Programmes eligible for NWSSDTP funding

The list below includes all Master’s programmes that are eligible for NWSSDTP funding and the typical PhD programmes that are supported under this pathway. Other PhD programmes within these universities may be considered – please reach out to the relevant Pathway Representative (see contact details below) or the NWSSDTP Office if the PhD programme you are interested in is not listed here. Please note that the NWSSDTP does not fund standalone Master’s programmes – these can only be funded as part of a Master’s + PhD Studentship.

Lancaster University

• MA by Research Languages and Cultures
• PhD Languages and Cultures

University of Liverpool

• PhD Latin American Studies

University of Manchester

• MA Modern Languages and Cultures
• MA Anthropological Research
• MSc Sociological Research
• PhD Latin American Studies
• PhD Arab World Studies
• PhD Middle Eastern Studies
• PhD East Asian (Chinese and Japanese) Studies
• PhD Russian and East European Studies
• PhD Social Anthropology

For information on how to apply for funding, please visit our How to Apply page.

Pathway Representatives

Contact details for Language Based Area Studies Pathway Representatives can be found here: https://nwssdtp.ac.uk/about/contact-us/pathway-leads/

Current Language Based Area Studies Pathway Students and Alumni

Sounding between Argentina and Wallmapu: Aural Media, National Imaginaries and Mapuche Identities in Modern Argentina

This research focuses on the cultural politics of sound and indigeneity in modern Argentina. Using a combination of archival, ethnographic and art-based methodologies, I explore the role aural media and sound technologies have played in the interaction between Argentine and Indigenous Mapuche identities, since the consolidation of the Argentine national territory in the late nineteenth century until the present day.

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Renewable Energy Transformations and Sustainable Development in Ecuador

This research will explore the impacts of energy projects promoted under the banner of buen vivir development on local communities in Ecuador, including attempts to diversify the country’s energy matrix away from traditional fossil fuels, within the context of sustainable development and climate mitigation policies. This research will contribute to the academic debates surrounding the socio- environmental and human rights implications of neo-extractivist policies in Latin American and to international investments in natural resource exploitation.

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Opposing Pinochet: The causes and consequences of protest in Santiago de Chile in the 1980s

My research focuses on the socio-political history of southern Latin-America. I am examining the response of younger Chileans to the Pinochet Government in the 1980s and the complex social networks that underpinned their vigorous opposition.

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