Language Debates: Theory and Reality in Language Learning, Teaching and Research

Ana de Medeiros is Director of the Modern Language Centre at King's College London. In 2017 she was elected Vice-Chair of the UK Association of University Language Communities (AULC). Ana co-leads the research strand 'Language Transitions' with Debra Kelly as a member of the Centre for Language Acts and Worldmaking at King's College London. In 2020 she was invited to join the scientific board of the Language Learning in Higher Education Journal.Throughout her academic career she has studied the lifewriting of women writers. She has published in English, French and Portuguese on, Francophone and Lusophone literary and cultural studies, focusing primarily on questions of identity in the work of a number of authors including Marguerite Yourcenar, Assia Djebar Amélie Nothomb and Marie Nimier. Debra Kelly is Professor Emerita in Modern Languages, School of Humanities, University of Westminster, London. In 2005 she received the award of Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Palmes Académiques from the French Government in recognition of her services to French language, literature and culture. She has published widely in French and Francophone literary and cultural studies. Her research now focuses on the historical and contemporary French and Francophone communities in London, and she recently authored Fishes with Funny French Names: The French Restaurant in London from the 19th to the 21stCentury (2021). Since 2008, she has been Co-Director of Routes into Languages London, a programme which supports and encourages language learning from primary through to higher education with a focus on access and widening participation. She is also Visiting Senior Research Fellow at King's College London working with the Centre for Language Acts and Worldmaking in King's Art and Humanities Research Institute and co-leads the research strand 'Language Transitions' with Ana de Medeiros.