Language Based Area Studies

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

N.B. Master’s programmes can only be funded as part of a 1+3/2+2 Studentship

Lancaster University

University of Liverpool

University of Manchester

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 at each institution can be found here

Current Language Based Area Studies NWSSDTP students

Joanna Morley (2017 Cohort)

University of Liverpool
Website: https://www.liverpool.ac.uk/modern-languages-and-cultures/research/phd-research/joannamorley/
Email Address: joanna.morley@liverpool.ac.uk
MethodsX Stream: Interview-based Qualitative Research

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.

Richard Smith (2018 Cohort)

University of Liverpool
Website: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richgsmith/
Email Address: r.g.smith@liverpool.ac.uk
MethodsX Stream: Interview-based Qualitative Research

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.

Dylan Diego Bradbury (2020 Cohort)

University of Manchester
Website: https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/dylan.bradbury-postgrad.html
Email Address: dylan.bradbury@postgrad.manchester.ac.uk

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.