Pansieri, a fluent speaker of English, German, French, Spanish and Chinese, in addition to her native Italian, holds doctorate degrees in philosophy from Milan University and in Chinese language and literature from Venice University.

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That possibility inspired Ms. Dai, the translator, an associate professor and vice dean of the department of Chinese language and literature at Fudan University in Shanghai.

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Professor Nigel Leask, regius professor of English Language and Literature at the University of Glasgow, said Burns read widely in the contemporary literature on the subject while he was being trained.

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Miriam Udel-Lambert, a professor of Yiddish language, literature and culture at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, says she had an active spiritual life before she got married and had two sons.

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Oxford came top for English language and literature, philosophy, modern languages and geography in the QS World University Rankings by subject.

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