Hilary Footitt

Research Professor in Modern Languages, University of Reading
I am committed to four areas of research:

– I have worked on women in the European Parliament ( Women, Europe and the New Languages of Politics, London: Continuum International, 2002), and participated in a nine country European project on 'Media representation of women in the European elections of 2004'. I have also published on the first women politicians in the post-war period in France ('les 33 Glorieuses'), and on French female candidates in the Presidential elections.

– War and liberation in France – the politics of French-Allied relationships at the Liberation (France, 1943-45, with JC Simmonds, Leicester University Press, 1988), and in the nature of relationships 'on the ground' between the French and the Anglo-Saxon liberators (War and Liberation in France. Living with the Liberators, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004). I am a member of the EURO-HISMEDIA Réseau européen de recherche: 'Médias, guerre et imaginaires en Europe' and am on the Editorial Board of the 'Journal of War and Culture Studies'.

– Development of language policy. I authored the government report on HE and the National Languages Strategy (Research Report 625, DfES, 2005), and have written on international languages policy and on academic mobility.

– Languages in zones of war, conflict and development. I was the PI for a major AHRC project, Languages at War, which explored the ways in which foreign languages became part of the institution of war, in intelligence, in military-civilian relations, and in displaced communities. The project looked at official narratives of policymakers and stakeholders, and at the participant narratives of individuals and groups involved. I was the PI for the Translating Cultures network Languages and International NGOs: Cultural Knowledge in Communities in Crisis. I am currently PI for the AHRC project The Listening Zones of NGOs . This project examines the role that languages and cultural knowledge play in the development programmes of major UK-based NGOs.