The Literacy Research Centre at Lancaster University works to better understand the role of literacy in all areas of social life. We have always benefited from our external membership. 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 University and externally.
We are a recognised Lancaster University Research Centre for 2025-2028.
This year our Literacies Network is again being coordinated by Dr Jamie Duncan and Junaity Sine. Originally created especially for PhD researchers and Early Career Researchers, its scope has expanded so is worth checking out by all Literacy Studies scholars. From October 2026-March 2027 the theme is Collaboration in Academic Writing and Research – Ethnographic Approaches. See all details of the Literacies network programme.
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.
Research methods in Literacy Studies co–edited by Julia Gillen and Uta Papen, in production
In this edited collection, to be published by Routledge, we showcase and explain the range of research methods that Literacy Studies researchers employ to study reading and writing. Over the past 40 years, since what was often called New Literacy Studies was established, there has been much development and innovation in terms of the research methods used by literacy researchers. Yet discussion of methods has always been subsumed within specific projects. This is a particularly welcome time to publish a book on methods in Literacy Studies. Sparked by changes in society, education and technology, for example the rise of AI, and closely linked to new theoretical ideas that have been continuously nourishing the field, Literacy Studies researchers continue to experiment with new methods, including technology-based means to data collection, participatory and practitioner research, policy research and arts-based methods. Including contributions from researchers in Canada, Chile, Malawi, the UK and the US, the aim of this book is to comprehensively introduce this repertoire of methods and approaches. We will shortly be able to share our table of contents.
Lancaster Literacy Research Centre events 2026- 2027 (academic year)
| 22nd October 2026,
1pm – 5pm BST 8am-12pm EDT online |
Virtual Symposium for the Study of Generative AI and Literacy This collaboration between the Institute for the Study of University Pedagogy (University of Toronto) and the Lancaster Literacy Research Centre (Lancaster University) aimed to take the next step in understanding literacies and literacy practices that account for generative AI’s influence in secondary and undergraduate contexts. Presenters shared data- and theory-informed conversations that build on related literacy traditions (e.g., New Literacy Studies, Academic Literacies, Multiliteracies, etc.) to consider what experiences, perspectives, knowledge, and pedagogies are needed now that generative AI is a prominent influence in our classrooms. We had an exciting assemblage of presentations scheduled from a diverse group of scholars and ended the event with an exciting conversation with discussant Prof. Kevin Leander. See our dedicated page here for the full symposium schedule.
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| 12 November 1.30pm-2.30pm | Online via Teams
Meeting ID: 331 799 707 646 790
Passcode: np9Zu6K8
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Stavroula Kontovourki, University of Cyprus
Literacy/ies across Time: Insights from Researching Primary School Teachers’ Life Hi/stories (1950s-2010s) This talk explores how biographical research contributes to contemporary understandings of literacy as a theoretical construct and schooled practice. To do so, I utilize data from a life history study that examined primary school teachers’ constructions of school knowledge and teacher professionalism. The study involved 30 Greek-Cypriot teachers, who entered the profession from the mid-1950s to the mid-2010s. Teachers’ hi/stories were elicited through multiple life history interviews and analyzed thematically with a focus on the emergence of literacy/ies in given material-discursive conditions. Focusing on the materiality of school literacy, my talk foregrounds dis-continuity and disruption in meanings of literacy over time and suggests that life history research offers tools to engage with such complexity by de-constructing histories of the present. Stavroula Kontovourki is an Associate Professor in Literacy and Language Arts Education in the Department of Education at the University of Cyprus. Her research focuses on literacy and language arts education, literacy studies, embodiment, multimodal and digital literacies, and the enactment of literacy curricula, teachers’ professionalism, and educational change. |
| 19 November 1pm-2pm | County South D72 and online via Teams
Meeting ID: 350 998 224 255 927 6
Passcode: PV2ey9VZ
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Joe Noteboom, Lancaster University
The student as user: mapping student experiences of platformisation in UK higher education In this talk I explore the experiences of students as ‘users’ of digital platforms in UK higher education, and the implications of dynamics of platformisation for student agency. Drawing on qualitative research with students at a Scottish university, I analyse ‘platform maps’ created by students and related interview material to show how students make use of the affordances of an array of platforms in their academic work and everyday lives to learn, socialise, entertain themselves, shop, work and more. In doing so, their practices are shaped by structural dynamics of the platform economy, which manifest in feelings of distraction and overwhelm, pressure to be available and divisions between groups of students spread across different platform ecosystems. The analysis highlights complex relations of agency and dependence between students and platforms, as student agency is enabled, constrained and modulated by platform affordances. In conclusion, I consider how this analysis might inform contemporary discussions around student GenAI use by orienting our attention to the embeddedness of GenAI systems in students’ wider platform ecologies, as well as to the infrastructural and political economic dimensions of GenAI as a platform technology.
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