2024 marks the 10th anniversary of the launch of Modern Languages Open (MLO.) Since its establishment in 2014, MLO has provided a platform for the Open Access dissemination of peer-reviewed scholarship from across the modern languages to a global audience. Marrying the editorial expertise and marketing capabilities of a publisher that has been active in the field for many decades with current digital technologies designed to facilitate pioneering Open Access content, MLO has published 281 articles, including 17 special collections over the past decade.
To celebrate this anniversary milestone, we have chatted to a selection of MLO’s Section Editors to reflect on the platform, its strengths and any key developments in their subject areas, with the aim of looking towards the future of Open Access modern languages publishing.
1. What have been some of the key changes and/or developments in your subject area within the last decade of scholarship?
“French studies has become increasingly attentive to its transnational, globalized scope, concentrating on the regimes of power that underpin the taxonomic borders that have separated French from Francophone scholarship. Like many disciplines across the humanities, there has been an increased reckoning with decolonising agendas and the urgent need to address epistemic justice, canon-making/breaking, and transcultural interpretations of the French-speaking world. Interdisciplinary and intermedial scholarship has also been foregrounded by recent publications. Cognate and interdisciplinary fields as diverse as migration studies, sound and music studies, ecocriticism and environmental justice, cultural multilingualism, and Afropean studies, have all taken on prominence in scholarship on the French-speaking world.”
Dr Joanne Brueton, University of London institute in Paris, French Studies Section Editor
“Portuguese studies have undergone several key changes in recent years, due to the broader societal and cultural transformations in the geographies that are the focus of its studies, as well as to the changes taking place in the academic institutions of these Portuguese-speaking societies. As a result, gender and queer studies have finally conquered a central stage in the field, albeit belatedly, in parallel with a focus on postcolonial and diasporic perspectives, which examine the legacies of colonialism, decolonization processes, and their impact on contemporary Portuguese-speaking societies. Portuguese studies have also become more open to interdisciplinary encounters, integrating a variety of fields in order to provide a broader understanding of the Portuguese-speaking world. Finally, as humanity faces the devastating effects brought about by climate change, Portuguese studies have intersected with environmental humanities in recent years, exploring themes such as ecocriticism, environmental history, and the representation of nature in Portuguese literature and culture.“
Dr Luisa Coelho, University of Oxford, Portuguese Studies Section Editor
2. If you can, please describe some of the advantages offered by a continuous publication format such as MLO to your field of research?
“MLO has reflected the changes visible in the field of Portuguese Studies and in turn has disseminated new approaches, which find in the journal a place for original and rigorous critical engagement. The scope of the journal is wide, promoting interdisciplinary thinking and a global perspective that recognizes the importance of Portuguese-speaking communities and their cultural influence beyond Portugal itself. Being Open Access, MLO increases the accessibility and inclusivity of Portuguese studies, at a time when learning new languages and cultures is increasingly seen as an elitist endeavour.“
Dr Luisa Coelho, University of Oxford, Portuguese Studies Section Editor
3. To what extent do you think Open Access has/will continue to change the landscape of modern languages research?
“There is an increased demand to create alternative vectors of knowledge dissemination, while showcasing research from spaces of complex social and linguistic diversity. Open Access publishing plays a leading role in democratising such ecologies of publishing. In the French and Francophone Section in particular, we have ambitions to foster, mentor, and collaborate with researchers in French Studies from the Global South on edited collections around theories of cultural encounter, decolonisation, and the creative critical. Similarly, we are interested in using the flexible word length of the journal to collate a repository of practical, pedagogical resources that could be used to inspire Modern Languages teaching in schools. Our ambition is to use Open Access not just to widen interpretations of French Studies, but to broaden the demographics, and subsequent citational practices, of those that create its scholarship.”
Dr Joanne Brueton, University of London institute in Paris, French Studies Section Editor
4. Looking ahead, what do you believe will be the biggest challenge facing the modern languages? How might we combat this?
“One of the challenges in modern languages research is overcoming the Anglocentrism of academic scholarship. To achieve meaningful and inclusive academic exchange, support for research in different languages is necessary. This endeavour necessitates support from academic journals, including editorial commitment and resources for copyediting and translation across languages. Modern Languages Open is at the forefront of addressing this challenge through its dedication to multilingual publishing and its open access approach, showcasing its important role in fostering inclusivity in modern language research.”
Dr Nicola Bermingham, University of Liverpool, Hispanic Studies Section Editor
“Artificial Intelligence poses a threat to all scholarship, but by using the format of the journal to invite more creative contributions, audio-visual material, embedded videos and commentary, and even xines, we may be able to circumvent some of the risks of repetition or non-originality. The diversity of cultural production being undertaken by postgraduate and early career colleagues is a productive demographic to harness here.”
Dr Joanne Brueton, University of London institute in Paris, French Studies Section Editor
“One of the biggest challenges is the perceived irrelevance of learning modern languages. This has had a detrimental effect in maintaining and increasing students’ enrolment in language classes at secondary schools and in university language degrees. In order to combat this state of affairs, we need a societal change that would recognise the wide-range benefits of language learning both on an individual and a collective level. This can only be achieved through new policies, which should involve curriculum innovation, professional development for language teachers and advocacy for language learning.”
Dr Luisa Coelho, University of Oxford, Portuguese Studies Section Editor
5. What would you like to see in the future of modern languages research and publication?
- “The creation of audiovisual spaces including podcasts, talking heads, round-table discussions, which could accompany and better disseminate textual scholarship
- Greater visibility for scholars hailing from the Global South, and informal mentoring schemes that could aid improved publication rates (to be modelled by one of the co-editors in a prospective special issue on Abdelkébir Khatibi)
- Special collections that showcase PG and ECR work, or which directly address how public policy decisions in the humanities impact research agendas
- Continued attention to minority languages and minor transnationalism, in order to reconceive of modern languages beyond geo-cultural, or chronological, coordinates
- A more varied creative critical format, and the inclusion of author-artist-academic interviews.“
Dr Joanne Brueton, University of London institute in Paris, French Studies Section Editor
Find out more about Modern Languages Open >
Notes for Early Career Researchers (ECRs)
MLO is partly supported by the Liverpool University Press Open Access Author Fund. This is used to support open access publication by early career researchers in the humanities and social sciences.
Find out more about the Open Access Author Fund here >
As part of this Fund, there are a small number of waivers available each year to cover publication fees for ECR authors. If you wish to apply for one of these waivers, please state this on the submission of your article and contact the relevant Section Editor to indicate your interest in an ECR waiver.
Find out more about waivers for ECRs here >
LUP is also celebrating its 125th Anniversary in 2024. Read all about it on the blog, Then & Now: 125 Years of Liverpool University Press.
Learn more about LUP and our history on our website.
Liked this? You might enjoy reading about the latest MLO Special Collection: Introducing ‘New Directions in Digital Modern Languages Research’: A Digital Modern Languages Open Special Collection.
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