The Babel Laboratory was born out of collaboration within the Faculty of Languages, Literature and Humanities between different research disciplines: French and Francophone language and literature; comparative literature; languages, literature and cultures of the English-speaking, Spanish-speaking, Italian and Mediterranean worlds; humanities and social sciences.
Laboratory management
- Director: Laure LEVEQUE, University Professor
- Deputy Director: Arnaud RICHARD, university professor
Laboratory composition
The Babel laboratory has around sixty members, including 38 permanent teaching and research staff on site.
Research topics / teams
The multidisciplinary activity of the Babel laboratory is developing in the field of languages, literatures, civilisations and societies. It is structured around five research teams.
> “Body, Gender, Intimacy” team (Leaders: Annick JAUER, Professor, and Emelyne GROS, Senior Lecturer)
It addresses the issue of gender and/or medicine, favouring a resolutely interdisciplinary approach, comparing literature in particular with the various social sciences and humanities. This new team is the result of the merger of the “Mosaics” and “Women and Gender” teams in the previous “Body, Gender, Health” team.
> “Writings of Mediterranean Spaces” team (Leaders: Jacques-Emmanuel Bernard, Professor, and Laure Levêque, Professor)
The team works on exchanges, understood in the broadest sense, within the Mediterranean region and its sphere of influence.
It is particularly interested in modes of contact, cultural transfers, the representations that result from them, and the discourses – literary, historiographical, iconic, etc. – that they produce.
Researchers address these issues over the very long term, from the construction of the common space of Mare Nostrum to the impact of the colonial divide and, beyond that, to the reconfigurations reflected in Francophone literature.
> “Contemporary English-speaking World” team (Head: Karine TOURNIER-SOL, Professor)
It is made up of English-speaking researchers specialising in civilisation and working on political and societal issues in various cultural areas within the English-speaking world (the United Kingdom, Scotland, Ireland, the United States, Australia, and certain Commonwealth countries).
> “Semantics, Enunciation, Discourse” team (leaders: Bénédicte GUILLAUME, Professor, and Hélène LEDOUBLE, Senior Lecturer)
It studies languages and discourse in their interactions with societies. The research seminar brings together linguists working on French, English, Spanish and Portuguese. The work undertaken falls within the framework of discourse analysis (media, political, literary), the pragmatic-enunciative study of figurative meaning, cognitive semantics (interpretation of metaphors) and tool-based corpus analysis.
> “Texts and Books” team (Leaders: Salhia BEN-MESSAHEL, Professor, and José GARCIA ROMEU, Professor)
It focuses on the study of books and texts. It is aimed at researchers and research students interested in postcolonial theory and postmodernism, but also at any form of discourse that questions the imagined construction of spaces.
Scientific support for master’s programmes at the Faculty of Languages, Literature and Humanities
- Master's Degree in Languages and Societies
Specialisation: (1) Discourse, Politics, Media / (2) Information Processing, Linguistics, Translation - Master's Degree in Languages and Humanities
Course: Literature, Culture, Heritage - Master's Degree in Civilisations, Culture and Societies
Course: (1) International Political Studies: English-speaking World / (2) International Political Studies: Euro-Mediterranean World - Master of Arts, Literature and Civilisations
