The Literacy Research Centre at Lancaster University works to better understand the role of literacy in all areas of social life. Some of our core members are in Linguistics and English Language which is situated in the School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, Lancaster University. Literacy Studies often reaches into humanities and other areas. We welcome others in the School, Faculty, elsewhere in the Universit,y and externally. We have always benefited from our external membership.
We are relaunching the Centre, having gained Faculty support as a recognised Research Centre for 2025-2028, so will be gradually improving this website. We will be creating more meetings during the year, some hybrid, some online and possibly one or two in person only. At present, our PhD and ECR network, currently convened by Junaity Sine and Jamie Duncan, have organised a programme of talks with the theme Academic Writing as Social Practice so please see their page here for further details.
Please contact Co-Directors, Julia Gillen j.gillen@lancaster.ac.uk or Uta Papen u.papen@lancaster.ac.uk with any enquiries or to be added to our mailing list.
Recent Lancaster Literacy Research Centre events 2025-2026
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Thursday 30 October evening |
Julia Gillen
External talk |
The Edwardian Postcard Project: Lancaster and the Region.
Lancaster Archaeological and Historical Society Julia Gillen gave a talk to 75 members and guests of the society in St Paul’s Parish Church, Scotforth. This included an introduction to the project’s open access main collection now hosted by Lancaster Digital Collections. |
| Wednesday 22 October 12.00-13.00
FHASS Meeting Room 1 (A008) online: teams link |
Oksana Torubara
LLRC meeting |
Writing Through Exile: A Researcher’s Journey into the Literacy Needs of Displaced Ukrainian Scholars
This presentation traces the personal and professional journey that led me to explore the academic literacies of displaced Ukrainian researchers. As an English lecturer from Ukraine, I found myself struggling to publish in English after arriving in the UK on a Researchers-at-Risk fellowship. This experience prompted me to question how other scholars like me were coping with the demands of academic writing in exile. What began as a study of English language proficiency and national language policy evolved into a broader inquiry into scholarly identity, voice, and agency. Drawing on data collected from 125 displaced Ukrainian scholars, I explore how war, displacement, and institutional inequality shape research literacy practices. I also reflect on emerging themes such as the use of AI as a self-directed tool for academic empowerment. This biographical talk offers insights into how literacy research can emerge from lived experience, shift alongside the researcher, and contribute to more equitable academic spaces for marginalised scholars. It invites reflection on how we understand and support scholarly writing in contexts of crisis, transition, and transformation. Short Bio Dr Oksana Torubara is a Visiting Researcher in Linguistics and English Language at Lancaster University and an Associate Professor at Taras Shevchenko National University “Chernihiv Collegium” in Ukraine. With over 20 years’ experience teaching English for Specific and Academic Purposes, she is currently conducting the SURE project (Supporting Ukrainian researchers in Exile), which investigates the language needs, writing trajectories, and identity shifts of displaced Ukrainian scholars. Her work draws on survey, interviews, and case study data to explore how academic literacies are shaped by conflict, policy, and global publishing norms.
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Working with Rosie Flewitt, MMU the project PI, and fellow co-investigators Lorna Arnott, Strathclyde, Janet Goodall, Swansea and Karen Winter, Queens University Belfast, Julia Gillen has been working on the Toddlers Tech and Talk project, funded by the ESRC. Besides an ever-growing range of academic outputs, the team are also producing infographics. Here is the latest.
Infographic from the Toddlers Tech and Talk project