It is proposed to develop a genre studies network which will stimulate new debate across disciplinary, theoretical, methodological, and international boundaries via a series of six workshops. This project is conceived as a stepping stone towards developing the first UK Centre for Genre Studies. Since antiquity the concept of genre which was first developed by Plato and Aristotle has gone through numerous translations from one culture to another, one medium to another, or from one discipline to another. In the process of translation, genres can transform, mutate, adapt to new conditions. Sometimes it leads to the emergence of new genres which usually appear as a result of cross-fertilisation and hybridisation. However, the relevance of the concept has never disappeared and if anything it has grown, especially in the context of new media in which humans have to process information faster than ever before. Genre, as taxonomy, is a helpful tool for creating meaning and making sense out of reality. Hence, the notion of genre needs to be reviewed in light of recent technological developments and the advent of Twitter, facebook, the blogosphere and other media. Since the classic triad of genres was defined (epic, tragic, comedy), the number of genres has grown exponentially to include new literary, music, cinematic, television, media, and other genres. Genre is a fundamentally cross-disciplinary category, which needs to be studied with the help of disciplinary and inter-disciplinary approaches. The pilot workshop Genre in Contemporary Russian Culture, which was funded by CEELBAS and held at the Centre for Russian and East European Studies, the University of Birmingham (27 June 2011) has successfully demonstrated the fruitfulness of genre studies when applied to the study of one culture. The current project aims to extend genre studies approaches to European cultures. The six proposed workshops will focus on six main themes: theories of genre and methodologies applied to the study of genre, genre in translation, genre and new technologies, genre and gender, genre and the canons of representations, communicating the genre (the author, the text and the audience). All workshops will draw on the expertise of leading UK and international scholars from across the fields of modern foreign languages, literary, cultural, media, film and gender studies, the arts and visual culture. Academics will be encouraged to develop multidisciplinary approaches to genre in broader cultural contexts and to work in cooperation with practitioners who will contribute to discussion of genre at roundtables. To attract broader public interest, the series will be opened by the talk given by Sam Leith, an award-nominated UK writer and columnist, who, in his recent book You Talkin' to Me? Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama (Profile Books, 2011) touches on the issues of genre in an enlightening and humorous fashion. The guest speaker at the last workshop will be the eminent Russian detective writer and translator Boris Akunin whose recent novel Quest was written in the new genre of an online book or a 'book-game', as the author calls it (see http://www.elkniga.ru/akunin/). The project will have a dedicated webpage which will promote all events organised as part of the project and provide links to other relevant activities. All project developments will also be disseminated via Twitter. Among other project outputs, there will be the selected podcasts of academic papers and talks given by guest speakers, a special issue on genre studies in an academic refereed journal, 'Notes for Teachers on Genre' disseminated via the webpage, and a conference paper written by the principal investigator and published on the project webpage. Among potential beneficiaries of the project there will be library professionals and readers (workshops 1,2,6), school teachers (1) and gallery professionals (5), translators (4), new media practitioners (3), and the Russian Diaspora (6).