We are working on a new, international, edited book, Research Methods in Literacy Studies Research edited by  Julia Gillen and Uta Papen to be published in 2026.  We’ll release more details soon.

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.

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

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

We are closely linked with a variety of professional and academic organisations concerned with literacy. Julia Gillen edits the Journal of Early Childhood Literacy and is an AREA 12 (International) Chair of the Literacy Research Assocation. Karin Tusting was for six years convenor of the Linguistic Ethnography Forum, a SIG of the British Association of Applied Linguistics, which runs the biannual international conference Explorations in Ethnography, Language and Communication. Several of us are longstanding members of the UK Literacy Association, contributing in various ways.

Our history

The Literacy Research Centre was set up in May 2002, with significant funding from the then Department for Education and Science and the ESF as part of a national research and development centre. It built upon work at Lancaster by David Barton, Mary Hamilton and Roz Ivanič going back to the mid 1980s and is well known for its contributions to a distinctive ‘social practice’ approach to literacy which has been articulated through highly-cited books and articles over the past 35 years. Since that time the LRC has been involved in many publicly funded and other research projects and is well known nationally and internationally.

We have always had clear strategies for impact which permeate our activities, including publishing for a range of audiences and a long history of engagement with policy makers, practitioners and user communities. The Centre’s impact case study, ‘The impact of Literacy Research on informing policy-making and improving public services‘,  submitted to the REF2014, was selected as a national model. Julia Gillen’s work with DigiLitEY (The digital literacies and multimodal practices of young children) an EU COST Action 2015-2019 included an influential report and policy brief, consulted by the UK Cabinet Office and other governments and organisations overseas.  We have developed many networks and connections over the years, e.g. in 2019 and 2020 our theme was Brazil and included visits each way and many publications and other activities. For some years we blogged on the Literacies Log

Our approach

Rather than seeing literacy as primarily a set of cognitive skills, our research focuses on the uses and meanings of reading and writing in different contexts and cultures. We privilege the perspective of those who engage with literacy, the meanings they attach to this activity and the beliefs they hold about it, However, we do take account of the way literacy practices (uses and meanings of literacy) are shaped by the context they are part of and by wider social, cultural, political and economic factors that impact on people’s lives.

Our research themes

We have a changing portfolio of research projects and development activities. These encompass a range of themes, including; literacy & education; everyday learning & literacied,. academic literacies; multimodality; literacy & the media; literacy & multilingualism, digital technologies; literacy & the workplace; literacy and development; historical studies of literacy; literacy & inclusion (literacies and prison life/education; homelessness, refugees and migration) and methods for researching literacy – especially through a range of qualitative approaches, often ethnographic and including sociomaterial and posthuman.

We welcome collaborators and doctoral students in these areas.