The Centre for Transnational Studies is an interdisciplinary research centre based in the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics at the University of Southampton.
Our members’ work spans a wide range of fields and disciplines, including literary and cultural studies, critical and cultural theory, history, anthropology, linguistics and visual studies, and we work closely with our colleagues in the departments of History, English, Film, Archaeology and Social Sciences.
We share a keen intellectual interest in understanding, critiquing and challenging social and cultural understandings of ‘the national.’ In so doing, we explore global phenomena that call into question straightforward ideas of ‘nation,’ ‘nationhood,’ and ‘nationality,’ such as colonialism, migration and diaspora, cultural encounter, globalisation, conflict and inequality. Our particular regions of specialisation include Europe, the Americas and Africa.
Our centre places a particular emphasis on working with the postgraduate student community of Modern Languages and Linguistics. We offer both postgraduate taught (MA) and postgraduate research (MPhil/PhD) programmes that give students the chance to study world cultures and societies in depth and to be taught and supervised by our world-leading scholars. Further details can be found on our Postgraduate study page.
In addition to creating an intellectually stimulating environment for our staff, our events are designed to support and challenge our students, and to allow them to meet external scholars from a range of areas of expertise. Our programmes are developed in consultation with postgraduate research students, and include workshops and masterclasses in addition to traditional research seminars. You’ll find details of past and forthcoming events on our Events and seminars page.