Our history
The Department of European Cultures and Languages represents a new departure for Birkbeck, even while French and German and their associated cultures have long been the object of teaching and research at the college.
The department not only continues a long tradition of teaching French and German at Birkbeck, but also formalises links in research and teaching that have existed for some time, for example in the MA European Cultures, BA Modern Languages, as well as in our close co-operation with the Institute of Germanic and Romance Studies (University of London).
We provide language teaching in French and German from beginners' to near-native level, and we offer a wide range of BA and MA degrees in German and French Studies.
At undergraduate level, these are also taught in combination with Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese, and in combined degrees with linguistics, management, humanities; and (from 2010) history, history of art, philosophy or film.
As practitioners of the languages we offer, we provide the opportunity to study texts, theories and historical and documentary sources in the original language.
