Staff Profiles

Modules taught

 Undergraduate

• Culture, Language and Society
• Business Environment in Europe
• Applied Languages Research Project

Postgraduate

• EU institutions and Policies
• Business Research Methods

Supervision

MA in International Business, Culture and Languages

• Work-Placement and Project
• Dissertation

Irène Hill is particularly interested in Politics and the Business Environment in France and in a European context. She is the Course leader of the MA in International Business, Culture and Languages.

Research interests

• European Union – Institutions and Policies
• Contemporary French and British politics / business studies
• Employment in France

Immediate research projects

Her current interest is to look at the cohesion of the European Union in the current global environment.

She continues to previously examine the 35-hour working week in France, project originally financed by the Leverhulme Trust.

Knowledge Transfer and Consultancy

Editor of the Let's Read Japanese series

Cross-cultural training for companies.

Organiser and trainer of short courses in Brookes Modern Languages Unit.

Research grants and awards

2012-17: was awarded £92,360 from the  Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF5) for the Let's Read Japanese Project

2011: was awarded £7,500 Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF4) for a Mandarin Chinese Market Research

2008-2016: received £15,500 from HEFCE Routes into Languages to organise events

2008: received £10,000 from the EU-Leonardo da Vinci programme to deliver translations for the European Arts Management project

2001: was awarded a Research Fellowship of £17,500 from The Leverhulme Trust for the 35-hour working week Project

Research impact

Editor of the Let’s Read Japanese - providing graded stories for all learners of Japanese, allowing them to practise the language at different levels, and also learn about Japanese culture and society. The six graded levels are in accordance with the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR)  and the US framework of Reference (ACTFL) for learners of Japanese.

Further information

https://www.brookes.ac.uk/lets-read-japanese/

 

Areas of expertise

European Union - Institutions and Policies

Business Environment in Europe 

Cross-cultural training 

Consultancy

Cross-cultural training for companies relocating between the UK and France

Organiser and trainer of short courses in Brookes Modern Languages Unit

Conferences

 Conference papers 

• The European Union – United or pluralistic?, invited guest speaker at Communication University of China, Beijing, China, 25 September 2015.

• L'Etat français grève-t-il l'environnement entrepreneurial?, Conference organised by the Société québécoise de science politique, Montreal, Québec, 8-9 May 2008.

• The Presidential and Legislative Elections: the Party Political Broadcasts,Towards the Sixth Republic?, Conference on The Elections of 2002, Maison Française, Oxford, 9 June 2002.

• L’application des 35 heures en France : les lois, les défis et les problèmes, Association of the Study of Modern and Contemporary France, Maison Française, Oxford, 25 October 2002. 

• Flexibility at work: The 35-hour week in France, International Conference on Diversity, Honolulu, Hawaii, U.S.A., 14-16 February 2003.

Conferences organised 

• Co-organiser of the 4th EU conference of Gender Equality in Higher Education held at Oxford Brookes University, 31/8-3/9/2005.
• Organiser of the Journée d’étude : La réduction du temps de travail en France: du principe à l'application for the Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France, Maison Française, Oxford, 25 October 2002.
• Co-organiser of the 3rd EU conference of Gender Equality in Higher Education held at Geneva, Easter 2003.

 

Dr Irène Hill worked in accountancy and taught in secondary schools in Oxfordshire before joining Oxford Brookes University. She studied French and Politics and focused on the Circulation of Elites in her Doctorate, completed in 2001 at the University of Paris III – Sorbonne Nouvelle with Mention Très Honorable à l’unanimité. She is a commentator on French legislation, political campaigns and elites whose work is enriched by gender analysis. An important part of her teaching and research activity is more recently focused on the European Union Institutions and Policies.