Public engagement
The School of Languages and Cultures reaches further than just the student and staff community.
We consider it part of our mission to maintain an ongoing dialogue with the wider public through projects that involve staff and students of the School. We are committed to engaging with a broad range of audiences and communities in creative and constructive ways, according to our particular strengths and interests.
Our activities are diverse; they draw on traditional academic activities of teaching and research, yet reach far beyond. Some projects involve performances for the general public or presentations of specific research, but many have a broader and more general scope and involve collaboration with cultural organisations within or beyond the City of Sheffield.
Whatever shape our activities take, they are all part of the same ambition: to foster a dialogue with and to make a contribution to local, national and international society.
Some current and recent projects:
Dr Pete Watt is a leading authority on the history of narcotrafficking in Mexico. He writes on related cultural problems for Mexico that are of relevance to today's fragile world: human rights abuses, corruption, and the security crisis. He regularly speaks on Sky News and has appeared on the pan-Latin American station Telesur. He helps charities in the region. And together with his doctoral student, Watt observed Mexico’s 2018 presidential election, leading an international delegation.
Professor Lauren Rea leads the Great Latin American Women Project, working across the creative industries, education and policy sectors with partners in Latin America. In 2024 she published the Spanish version of her monograph on Argentina’s Billiken magazine resulting in significant media and public interest in that country.
Dr Rebecca Ogden's research on young parenthood in Latin America seeks to illuminate the cultural and social forces which affect young people's reproductive health and decision making, and, alongside political and community leaders, to better understand the experiences of young mums in Mexico, Cuba and Colombia. This work has involved running creative workshops with young mums, has enhanced dialogue between stakeholders and resulted in the production of a report for national and regional policymakers and a toolkit for practitioners working in adolescent sexual health. Rebecca is collaborating with Colombian reproductive rights organisation Profamilia, the state ministry of public health in Morelos, Mexico, and several government ministries in Cuba.
Dr Wendy Michallat has discovered and translated a hidden perspective on the Nazi occupation of Paris. Madeleine Blaess was a French-born but British-raised young woman studying at the Sorbonne when the Nazis took control of the city. Madeleine wrote a daily diary, in French, which Wendy dusted off in Sheffield University's archives and which is now free to download from White Rose University Press.
Dr Seán Williams works on cultural history, especially of Germany, and compares this to the British context in regular radio work. He can often be heard talking and even presenting on BBC Radio 3. He has spoken on Swiss national radio, and on the World Service. He's appeared on BBC TV. Seán also writes for trade magazines such as History Today and BBC History, as well as newspapers from The Guardian and to Neue Zürcher Zeitung. He has spoken at events across Sheffield, at national festivals (such as Hay), and at the Proms.