TRANS: The Centre for Transnational Literary and Cultural Studies

TRANS (the Centre for Transnational Literary and Cultural Studies) is a collaborative interdisciplinary research centre set up to examine the transnational phenomena of migration, mobility, travel and diaspora.

Drawing on academic expertise in literary and cultural studies, languages and translation studies, the Centre engages in comparative, qualitative and historically driven research, as well as providing cultural insights on pertinent issues in the world today.

Transnationalism in literary and cultural studies is a vital tool for unravelling the profound yet still unexplored implications that derive from the vast movement of people, texts, languages, translations, art forms and objects across the world. Through the study of transnationalism we are able to examine and highlight the flows, interchanges and multi-stranded connections between textual and cultural movements across and between borders, boundaries, regions, nations, countries and continents.

Transnationalism does not only encompass the movement of people; it also has a profound impact on ideas of cultural exchange, citizenship, multinational literature, linguistic and cultural translations, and the transnational impacts in the cultural industries. Thus, we also interrogate the prefix ‘trans’ in relation to transnational sexualities, transgendered subjectivities, transsexuality, queer nationhood and post-queer theory.  

TRANS provides a rich environment of research collaboration, graduate study, cross-faculty dialogue and international collaboration, with scholars working in postcolonialism, travel writing, cultural geography, comparative and world literatures, transnational cultural histories and cultural studies within the arts, humanities and social sciences. Research activities include the sponsoring of lectures, workshops, colloquia and conferences, as well as participation in the English literature ‘Cultures in Contact’ research seminar series.

Through our activities we offer a focus for innovative and important graduate and faculty research in local, national and international contexts. Seated in the School of English and Languages, TRANS adds to the University of Surrey’s national and international reputation, and draws on our geographical location in close proximity to the transnational cultural centre of London.