Forum for Language and Literature
Do you love languages? We do! Welcome to the Forum for Language and Literature – a ground-breaking initiative where education meets research. With us, you can explore new perspectives, enrich academia, and make an impact on society. Immerse yourself in the captivating world of languages and literature and discover how they shape everything from art to science!
Tower of Babel. By DALLE after AI prompt by Laura Álvarez López.
Here, we gather everything related to language and literature within education and research at the Faculty of Humanities, Stockholm University.
We offer one of Sweden’s most extensive language selections! You can choose from nearly 600 courses and programmes in language and literature, at basic and advanced level, with many also covering the cultures related to each linguistic area. You can study most languages as independent courses or opt for one of our numerous bachelor’s, master's and doctoral programmes. The majority are conducted in Swedish, but some are available in English as well.
If you are aiming for an academic career, you can pursue research-level studies and earn a PhD in one of our 16 doctoral disciplines within language and literature. You can write your thesis in Swedish or English, or any of the subject languages.
The field of research is broad and diverse, often interdisciplinary. There are 18 research disciplines within the Language research area, and Literature is also available within the Humanities research area.
Education
Curious about studying a language? At Stockholm University, our language programmes go beyond fluency – immerse yourself in the culture, literature and history of languages too. Dive into courses that bring to life different eras, exploring texts from past to present while refining your speaking, comprehension and writing skills. Experience language in depth!
If you are interested in languages, literature and culture, Stockholm University offers flexible paths tailored to your needs. Choose a structured programme or design a unique degree by mixing courses across 34 language subjects, as well as the subjects Literature, and Language Informatics, at both undergraduate and advanced levels. Already working? Expand your professional development with our convenient options for continuing education, including evening and online courses.
With over 50 specialisations, there’s something for everyone. What’s more, you can explore practical experience through internships, enrich your studies with summer or international courses and seize the chance to study abroad for a truly global perspective on language and culture. See each section below for details.
Courses
Our courses offer a flexible approach to your studies, allowing you to create a personalised programme, advance your education if you already hold a degree, or gain specialised skills for career development. Each course ranges up to 30 ECTS, and subjects cover a variety of areas to deepen your knowledge and broaden your expertise.
The courses are offered in the following subjects or course specializations (subject then in brackets). Some courses are only offered in Swedish.
*Summer course also available.
**Summer course only. See the section "Summer courses" below.
- Arabic
- Asian Languages and Cultures
- Baltic Languages
- Bilingualism
- Central Asian Studies
- Chinese
- Classical Greek
- Classical Languages
- Czech
- Danish* (Scandinavian Languages)
- Dutch
- English
- Faroese** (Scandinavian Languages)
- Finnish*
- French*
- German
- Gothic Language (Scandinavian Languages)
- Greenlandic** (Scandinavian Languages)
- Icelandic** (Scandinavian Languages)
- Indology
- Interpreting in Spoken Languages (Translation Studies)
- Italian*
- Japanese
- Korean
- Language Education
- Language Informatics
- Languages of Europe (Linguistics)
- Latin*
- Latvian (Baltic Languages)
- Linguistics
- Literature in Old Swedish (Scandinavian Languages)
- Literature Studies
- Lithuanian (Baltic Languages)
- Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures
- Modern Greek
- Norwegian* (Scandinavian Languages)
- Old Gutnish Language (Scandinavian Languages)
- Old Icelandic Norse (Scandinavian Languages)
- Old Norse (Scandinavian Languages)
- Polish
- Portuguese
- Romance Languages
- Russian*
- Scandinavian Languages
- Scandinavian Languages Historical Profile (Scandinavian Languages)
- Sign Language (Linguistics)
- Sign Language Interpreting (Translation Studies)
- Slavic Languages
- Spanish*
- Swedish*
- Swedish as a Second Language*
- Swedish as a Foreign Language* (Swedish)
- Swedish Language in the Middle Ages (Scandinavian Languages)
- Swedish Literature in Old Swedish (Scandinavian Languages)
- Swedish in Finland** (Scandinavian Languages)
- Translation (Translation Studies)
- Ukrainian (Slavic Languages)
- Viking-Age Texts (Scandinavian Languages)
Internship courses and programmes
Photo: Boggy, MostPhotos.
Many of our language programmes offer you the chance to gain real-world experience through internships that directly connect to your studies. Imagine interning for a few weeks at a company, government agency or organisation where you can refine your language skills and develop professional skills like interpreting or communication strategy. Some departments even offer international internships, allowing you to immerse yourself in a country where the language you are studying is spoken.
Internship placements can either be arranged by the department or by students themselves with support available throughout. You will be guided by an on-site supervisor to ensure a meaningful experience and some departments allow you to join research projects led by faculty members, providing valuable exposure to academic research.
Popular programmes with internship options include the Bachelor’s Programme in Linguistics, the Swedish Language Consultancy Programme, the Bachelor's Programme in Professional Communication, and the Master's Programmes in Asian Studies and Middle Eastern Studies (the first three are conducted in Swedish, and the latter two programmes in English). Studying German? You can do an internship in Germany! Plus, students and doctoral candidates can apply for an Erasmus+ scholarship to support internships abroad. See our "Study abroad" section further down this page for more details.
Embrace the opportunity to learn beyond the classroom and kick-start your career with hands-on experience! See the respective department’s website under Education > Courses and programmes, for their selection of internship courses or contact the relevant study counsellor.
Summer courses
Photo: Branislav Bédi.
Summer courses are offered both on campus or online. In the Nordkurs summer courses, you travel to one of the neighbouring Scandinavian countries for a three-week course in language and literature – knowledge in Swedish or another Scandinavian language is required.
There are several subjects at Stockholm University that provide summer courses abroad, which are accessible through different departments but not organised by Stockholm University. For example, there are summer courses for teachers aimed at enhancing language teaching skills.
For detailed information about summer courses, please visit the respective department’s website via the links on our Swedish page or contact the relevant study counsellor.
Forum för språk och litteratur > Utbildning > Sommarkurser (Education > Summer courses)
International courses
In our international courses, you study parts of or the entire course in another country. The course content is the same as the corresponding course in Sweden and you apply to Stockholm University via antagning.se as usual. Some courses do not require knowledge of Swedish.
See the respective department’s website under Education > "Study abroad" for their selection of international courses or contact the relevant study counsellor. See links to the departments under the "Find courses and programmes" section below.
If you prefer to study abroad through an exchange agreement, see the "Study abroad" section below.
Study abroad
Photo: Angel Nieto.
Studying abroad for one or two semesters opens doors to unique experiences, allowing you to dive into new academic environments, expand your cultural horizons and advance your language skills – all while earning internationally recognised qualifications. It is also a perfect way to conduct field studies in preparation for your degree project, gaining insights and perspectives that enrich your research.
At Stockholm University, you have several options for exchange studies to suit your goals and interests. You can join an exchange through your department’s agreements, take advantage of the University’s central partnerships or explore studying abroad independently as a "free mover." Additionally, students can apply for Erasmus+ scholarships to support international internships through the Erasmus+ programme.
Whichever path you choose, studying abroad offers a chance to connect with people from around the world, enhance your learning and take your studies in a global direction.
Find courses and programmes
Search the digital course catalogue
In the digital course catalogue on the University's main site, you can search for all courses and programmes offered by Stockholm University, regardless of the subject or department that offers them. You can sort by interest area, such as Languages and Linguistics (language subjects), Arts and Humanities (with Literature), and Computer and System Sciences (with Language Informatics).
The department websites also have a search function solely for their courses and programmes – see department links further down this page.
Subject pages in the digital course catalogue
On the subject pages in the digital course catalogue on the University's main site, you will find information about the subject, job market and career, education offered in the subject with links to course and programme pages, as well as subject research, responsible department and contact persons.
Language and Linguistics: All language subjects
Arts and Humanities: the subject Literature
Computer and System Sciences: the subject Language Informatics
Department websites
Each department has information on its own website regarding the courses and programmes they provide under the section Education: Study with us, Courses and programmes, New student, During your studies, Study abroad, Incoming exchange students, Degree, and Contact (e.g. study counsellors, course administrators, directors of studies).
Each department has a search function for its own courses and programmes under the section Education > Courses and programmes.
Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies > Education
Department of Culture and Aesthetics > Education
Department of English > Education
Department of Linguistics > Education
Department of Romance Studies and Classics > Education
Department of Slavic and Baltic Studies, Finnish, Dutch and German Education > Education
Department of Swedish Language and Multilingualism > Education
PhD studies
Installation and promotion ceremon i City Hall.
At Stockholm University, PhD studies in language and literature are offered at eight departments within 16 doctoral subjects, as well as the Doctoral School in the Humanities. See the sections below.
Doctoral School in the Humanities
Photo: Niklas Björling.
The Faculty of Humanities at Stockholm University offers doctoral-level courses, opportunities to undertake projects within PhD studies, and a Doctoral School Programme consisting of three, two-day conferences.
Research
High-quality research is conducted at the Faculty of Humanities across a wide range of disciplines and interdisciplinary fields. There are 18 research subjects within the Language research area and subjects such as Literature Studies are included within the area of Humanities. Many researchers are involved in different projects in collaboration with other departments at Stockholm University, with other national and international schools and institutions, and with companies, authorities or organisations.
Find research by area and subject
You can either go directly to the overview page listing all research subjects at Stockholm University (where you will need to actively select the Language tab or Humanities tab) or use the links below to go directly to each main research area page. They provide information about the research area, research subjects, research projects, researchers, research groups and networks associated with the subject, as well as news and events related to it.
All Research subjects at Stockholm University (the research catalogue)
Area of Language
The different research areas (research subjects in parentheses):
Asian Languages and Cultures
(Japanese Language and Culture, Chinese Language and Culture, Korean Language and Culture)
Baltic Languages
(Baltic Cultural Heritage Studies, Baltic Sociolinguistics, Baltic Language History)
Bilingualism
(The Bilingual Individual, Multilingualism and Society, Swedish as a Second Language)
Classical Languages
(Greek Literature, Greek Linguistics, Latin Literature, Textual Criticism/Philology in Classical Languages)
Dutch
(Second and Third Language Acquisition in Dutch, Children’s and Young Adult Literature in Dutch, Dutch Linguistics, Dutch Translation Studies)
English
(English-Language Literature, English Linguistics)
Finnish
(Multilingualism, Finnish Linguistics, Finnish Literature Studies, Minority Language Research, Finnish)
French
(Second Language Acquisition in French, French Discourse Analysis, French Philology, French Historical Linguistics, French and Francophone Literature, French Cultural Studies, French Linguistics, Canadian Studies)
German
(Second and Third Language Acquisition in German, Multilingualism in German, Culture, Politics, and Society in German, German Literature Studies, Language Didactics in German, German Linguistics)
Italian
(Second Language Acquisition in Italian, Italian Philology, Italian Historical Linguistics, Italian Literature, Italian Linguistics)
Linguistics
(General Linguistics, Child Language Development, Computational Linguistics, Phonetics)
Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures
(Middle Eastern and North African Studies)
Portuguese
(Second Language Acquisition in Portuguese, Portuguese Sociolinguistics, Portuguese Literature, Portuguese Linguistics)
Sign Language
(Multilingualism among the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, Sign Language Linguistics)
Slavic Languages
(Bohemistics, Polish Studies, Russian Studies, Slavic Linguistics)
Spanish
(Second Language Acquisition in Spanish, Spanish Discourse Analysis, Spanish Philology, Spanish Literature, Spanish Linguistics)
Swedish and Scandinavian Languages
(Interaction in Multilingual Sweden, Structure of Swedish and Scandinavian Languages, Swedish as a Second Language, Swedish and Scandinavian Language History, Text and Discourse in the Swedish Language Community)
Translation Studies
(Interpreting, Translation)
Human Sciences
Literature
(Children’s and Young Adult Literature, Early Modern Literature, Gender Perspectives on Literature, Comparative and Transnational Perspectives in Literature, Historicity and Historiography of Literature, Literature and Philosophy, Media, Materiality, and Literature, Modern and Contemporary Literature, Posthumanism and Ecocriticism)
Find research at the department websites
The links below lead to the research pages of each department, featuring their specific research areas and subjects, research projects, researchers, research groups and networks, publications, conferences, seminars and colloquia.
Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies > Research
Department of Culture and Aesthetics > Research
Department of English > Research
Department of Linguistics > Research
Department of Romance Studies and Classics > Research
Department of Slavic and Baltic Studies, Finnish, Dutch and German > Research
Department of Swedish Language and Multilingualism > Research
Publications
Photo: Stockholms Stadsmuseum.
Publications are registered in the publication database DiVA and are sometimes available as full text/downloadable PDFs. The links below lead to the publication pages of each department (which retrieve information from DiVA):
Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies > Publications
Department of Culture and Aesthetics > Publications
Department of English > Publications
Department of Linguistics > Publications
Department of Romance Studies and Classics > Publications
Department of Slavic and Baltic Studies, Finnish, Dutch and German > Publications
Department of Swedish Language and Multilingualism > Publications
Career opportunities
Strong language skills are essential for professions such as interpreter, translator and language teacher. Being able to speak multiple languages provides a significant competitive advantage in various fields including journalism, political science, economics, museums, libraries, publishing, media, culture, public administration, industry, trade, and tourism, among others.
Language skills are especially important for those considering an international career. Lawyers, economists, doctors and journalists are also expected to use English. However, English alone is often not enough—adding additional languages gives you an edge in any field.
Knowledge of language didactics is beneficial for teachers, and anyone involved in pedagogical tasks related to language in government or the education sector can also gain from learning more about language didactics.
With language technology, you learn theories, technologies and methods to analyse, process, understand and generate human languages. Thanks to the rapid advancements in AI, this field is highly relevant for research and development in industry and organisations, benefitting society as a whole.
Understanding bilingualism and multilingualism is valuable across most sectors of the job market, including schools, universities, businesses, government agencies, and organisations, particularly for roles related to recruitment, administration and human resources.
Hear from our alumni (all subjects)
Conferences and seminars
Photo: Gabby Baldrocco, Mostphotos.
Stockholm University hosts national and international conferences in language and literature research. The departments offer seminars and colloquia for researchers, PhD students and master’s students. These sessions allow researchers to present and discuss their work, often together with invited researchers from other universities, companies, organisations, and government agencies with whom we collaborate.
Networks
Many of our researchers are involved in networks at Stockholm University as well as other universities, government agencies, companies and organisations.
These networks are usually found under Research Groups in the research catalogue. See the section below titled “Find the networks.”
Resources and infrastructure
The language and literature/culture departments at Stockholm University provide resources for staff including libraries, laboratories, studios and more. For both students and staff, resources include the Language Learning Resource Centre, Stockholm University Library and the Academic Writing Service.
Academic Writing Service
The Academic Writing Service provides English-language support for writing and study skills. They give talks and seminars and offer individual guidance. Their services are available free of charge to all students at Stockholm University.
Libraries
The language departments have their own libraries, which primarily serve as a resource for researchers and teaching staff. Only employees of the respective department can borrow books from these libraries.
Stockholm University Library
Stockholm University Library provides resources for students, researchers and other interested parties, regardless of subject.
Språkstudion Language Learning Resource Centre
Språkstudion Language Learning Resource Centre is the place to practise, teach and research languages at Stockholm University. The centre collaborates with all language departments to ensure the right materials, media tools and environments for language practise and linguistic analysis. It is open to students and staff at the Faculty of Humanities.
Språkstudion Language Learning Resource Centre is an independent unit within the Department of Linguistics.
Stockholm University Brain Imaging Center (SUBIC)
SUBIC is a multidisciplinary infrastructure dedicated to research on brain structure and function, as well as other fields benefitting from imaging microstructures. SUBIC’s infrastructure supports Swedish research with state of the art imaging technologies, including MRI, EEG, TMS, and X-ray microscopy. SUBIC's equipment is valuable for fundamental and applied academic research within humanities, social sciences, law and natural sciences.
SUBIC is an independent unit within the Department of Linguistics.
Swedish Sign Language Dictionary
The Swedish Sign Language Dictionary is the largest, research-based lexical database of Swedish Sign Language. The database is continuously updated with new signs, example sentences and descriptions.
Swedish Sign Language Dictionary
The Multilingualism Laboratory
The Multilingualism Laboratory at the Centre for Research on Bilingualism (Department of Swedish Language and Multilingualism) has space and equipment for experimental and other data collection through behavioural experiments, electroencephalography (EEG) and event-related potentials (ERP), and eye tracking.
The Multilingualism Laboratory
The Phonetics Laboratory
The Phonetics Laboratory of the Department of Linguistics provides facilities and equipment for experimental studies in speech acoustics, production and perception.
The Sign Language Studio
The Sign Language Studio at the Department of Linguistics is a recording studio used to film sign language in use. One of the aims is to capture the three-dimensional nature of the language. The studio is used to film paired conversations and signs for sign language dictionaries. Both researchers and higher education students can book the studio. Collaborations are also sometimes initiated with parties external to the university.
There are five cameras in the studio where participants can be filmed separately – from the front, the side and from above, or both participants can be filmed together. A green screen is available for filming signs for sign language dictionaries.
Responsible for the Sign Language Studio is Joel Bäckström, Department of Linguistics.
Tower of Babel. By DALL·E after AI-promt by Laura Álvarez López.
Do you want to read the latest research news on the theme of language, literature and culture? Or see films and read about ongoing research projects? Perhaps you would like to learn about the latest findings in education? Check out the theme page "Language, Literature, and Culture," featuring news articles, films, stories and events.
The European Day of Languages is celebrated on 26 September every year. The aim is to promote the importance and fun of language skills and that linguistic diversity is worth celebrating. The day has been celebrated annually since 2001 at the initiative of the EU and the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France.
Call for funding
The Forum for Language and Literature announces funding once a semester for interdepartmental courses and programmes as well as qualified research and collaboration initiatives.
Information about calls for proposals can be found on the Swedish staff website (Medarbetarwebben) and in the news section of the Swedish theme page Language, Literature and Culture (Språk, litteratur och kultur). Calls for funding are also published in our newsletter (see the Contact section below).
See the Swedish page of Forum for Languages and Literature > Calls for fundings:
The Board of Human Science will receive SEK 2 million annually for five years (2024–2028) to strengthen languages at the Faculty of Humanities within the framework of the Forum for Language and Literature (LinguaLitForum), which was established in spring 2024.
- The primary focus will be on operational development and measures that provide synergies and promote a comprehensive approach to languages.
- The funds are intended to create new collaborations and synergies in education and research.
The decision was taken by the University Board and then President Astrid Söderbergh Widding for the 2024 financial year.
Last updated: 2026-03-03
Source: Forum for Language and Literature