Lancaster Literacy Research Centre

The Literacy Research Centre at Lancaster University works to better understand the role of literacy in all areas of social life.

For the timetable for upcoming talks see the Discussion Group page.

Latest news!

We are working on a new, international, edited book, Research Methods in Literacy Studies Research.  Julia Gillen and Uta Papen have recently signed a contract.  The book will be published in 2026.  We’ll release more details soon.

We have just started a BlueSky account, Lancaster Literacy Research Centre @LancasterLiteracy.bsky.social

Our aims are to:

  1. Conduct leading research on authentic literacy practices, whether by children, young people or adults, and in a range of settings such as homes, communities, in education and in the workplace.
  2. Investigate the uses of digital technologies, which we perceive as part of everyday literacies for many people, rather than a realm apart.
  3. Support access to high quality, multimodal literacy practices by marginalised communities, in a variety of international settings;
  4. Extend the Literacy Studies approach to multidisciplinary work, for example working with Cultural Psychology, History and Sociology.
  5. Stimulate communication and collaboration between researchers, educational practitioners, and policy makers who have a keen interest in literacy and language education
  6. Engage in conversations which influence the study of literacy in multilingual contexts, digital environments, and spanning different geographical areas.

If you follow the links above you will find out more about our projects, people and events. We publish a huge range of publications, including academic monographs, edited books, journal articles, chapters in edited books, policy briefs and much, much more. Some of these are available through the publications links above but most are visible through our members’ pages. We welcome visitors to our Literacy Research Discussion Group and also longer term academic visitors, via the visitors’ scheme in the Department of Linguistics and English Language.

Uta Papen and Julia Gillen jointly co-edit two book series: Literacies (Routledge, UK) and Research in Literacy (Routledge, NY).

Visit the Literacies Log and read about a few of the topics we are interested in. We welcome your comments.

To find out more about our individual areas of research follow the Members link.

If you would like to join us as a guest on our email list, or apply to be an affiliate member listed on this website, please write to k.tusting@lancaster.ac.uk .

Join our Literacy research network for PhD students and ECRs, set up by PhD students, for PhD students.

Header image by ibrar bhatt ©