A symposium in honour of Professor Michael Kelly will be held Friday 20th January 2017 at Europe House, London.

Mike has recently retired after a long and distinguished career as Professor of French at the University of Southampton. He has published widely in the area of French Studies and more recently in the field of languages in times of conflict and war. He has also been influential in the area of public policy and languages in Europe and the UK for many years.  At European level this has included being a board member and former Secretary of the European Language Council, initiating and directing a number of European funded projects (teacher training, language and quality) as well as chairing a working group on the future of language degrees. In the UK he has been a major contributer to a number of national initiatives such as the Nuffield Inquiry (1998-2000) and the Languages National Steering Group (2001-2002). He is also chair of the national campaign Speak to the Future, which aims to keep language learning on the public agenda. He is one of the founding members of the University Council for Modern Languages and has chaired or directed a number of major initiatives for languages such as the FDTL language projects (1996-2000), the HEA Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies (2000-2011) and the Routes into Languages  programme (2006 – 2016).

In recognition of the range and breadth of his achievements we are devoting the first part of the symposium to the field of French Cultural Studies while the second half will consider policy-related topics relating to languages. We will close the day with a panel discussion on the topic of Languages post-Brexit.  Attached is a draft programme for the event.

Please see Prof Mike Kelly’s Symposium Programme for more information about the speakers, talks and schedule.

If you would like to register, please book via our Eventbrite page. The event is free of charge with lunch and refreshments included.