April – July 2026
Theme: Critical Approaches to Creativity in Literacy as Social Practice
Creativity is a vast and ideologically varied area of research. In this next series of talks, we will discuss critical approaches to creativity within Literacy Studies, especially via ethnographic and social practice perspectives. Although there are important antecedents, the first examples of New Literacy Studies (NLS) to explicitly adopt and analyze ‘creativity’ as a lens appeared at the same time as a broader turn towards creativity within UK applied and sociolinguistics from around the mid-2000s onwards. One point of departure became a critique of traditional ‘high cultural’ understandings across the arts and humanities, where exemplars of artistry used to distinguish creativity within those fields were demonstrated as prominent and playing important roles within everyday language and literacies too. Via ethnographic and social practice perspectives, the values and power relations supporting what counts as creativity in different settings, for whom, and with what effects also became increasingly considered.
In the first session of this series, two introductory readings are put forward for group discussion. One summarizes this turn to creativity, provides critical definitions of the term, and recalls important cultural and literary influences which both inform and become contested by sociolinguistic and anthropological research on literacy. The other article contains early examples of NLS ethnographic research on everyday literacies which argue for the need to locate creativity more within ‘the practices of making and engaging with texts’ rather than ‘aesthetic features of language.’ The guiding questions for this session concern how creativity has and could be used in research on literacy as social practice and what does that offer?
In the second session, we will be joined by Kate Pahl, Professor of Arts and Literacy at Manchester Metropolitan University. From her extensive body of ethnographic work on literacies and creativity across community and educational settings, in this talk on the ‘literacy event as a creative act,’ Professor Pahl connects the prior foundational work on creativity into more contemporary perspectives by discussing two of her recent books. These concern: i) ‘Creating’ as one of six strands of her and colleagues’ new Living Literacies framework for research, which builds upon the NLS, Multimodality, and many other approaches. ii) Social ‘Poetics’ as a newly proposed set of guiding principles for undertaking Collaborative Research in Theory and Practice.
In the third session, we welcome Julia Gillen, Professor of Literacy Studies and Co-Director of the Literacy Research Centre, Lancaster University. Professor Gillen has researched creativity across a wide range of literacies, from children’s language play to historical epistolary writing and contemporary digital practices. Turning towards the latter for this talk, Professor Gillen will explain her experience and process of carrying out a ‘Virtual Literacy Ethnography’, where she analyzed literacy practices and creativity within an innovative virtual world and online learning environment named ‘Schome Park’. Approaches from the NLS, Mediated Discourse Analysis, as well as related ethnographic perspectives on digital literacies are discussed.
The last session offers group discussions of recent papers by two Literacies Network members. Both concern ethnographic perspectives on poetry and art within community education and language learning settings in the Americas. The first is from Julianne Burgess, Postdoctoral Fellow at Western University in Canada. Dr Burgess’ paper on ‘Poetic Inquiry…’ presents a contemporary and philosophically sophisticated account that combines theories on Translanguaging, Affect, and the Post-Structuralism of Deleuze and Guattari. The second is from Jamie Duncan, Co-Convenor of the Literacies Network. This paper on ‘Poetic Trajectories…’ summarizes some basic ways NLS work can combine with creativity as a research lens, especially through diachronic or long-term ethnographic perspectives, in this case based on fieldwork in an arts-education project in the Brazilian Amazon realized over 10 years.
Please feel free to come along if you have not had time to do the readings. Everyone is welcome to join in the discussion in any way they care to, and we look forward to seeing you there.
All the best,
Jamie and June
Day and time: Usually Wednesday 4 pm to 5 pm UK time but check the schedule below (e.g., Thursday May 14).
Meeting link: Join Teams Meeting
Access code: literacies
April to July 2026 Schedule
Readings:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1OgR217rfzipu28h2ZiLG6B9TmjfrdOvX?usp=share_link
| Date | Session Format | Title / Topic | Suggested Readings | Speaker / Facilitator |
| April
15 Wed. 4-5pm GMT |
Readings and group discussion | Critical Approaches to Creativity in Literacy Studies and Beyond | Tusting, K., & Papen, U. (2008). Creativity in everyday literacy practices: the contribution of an ethnographic approach. Literacy and Numeracy Studies, (16)1, 5-24. https://doi.org/10.5130/lns.v16i1.1945
Background: Pope, R., & Swann, J. (2011). In J. Swann, R. Pope, & R. Carter (eds.), Creativity in language and literature (pp. 1-22). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. |
Facilitators:
Jamie Duncan & Junaity Sine |
| (NB)
May 14 (NB) Thurs. 4-5pm GMT
|
Presentation/ conversation about recent books and research frameworks | The Literacy Event as a Creative Act / Poetics of Collaborative Research | Pahl, K., Pool, S., & Rasool, Z. (2020). Creating: a living literacies approach. In K. Pahl, J. Rowsell, et al. (eds.), Living literacies: literacy for social change (pp. 126-146). Cambridge: MIT Press.
And/or… Pahl, K., Steadman-Jones, R., & Vasudevan, L. (2022). Poetics. In K. Pahl, R. Steadman-Jones, R., & L Vasudevan, Collaborative research in theory and practice: the poetics of letting go (pp. 29-45). Bristol: Bristol University Press. |
Speaker:
Prof. Kate Pahl (Manchester Metropolitan University)
|
| June
17 Wed. 4-5pm GMT |
Presentation/ conversation about a research project and ethnography in virtual worlds | Creativity in Virtual Worlds / Virtual Literacy Ethnography | Gillen, J. (2014). Archaeology in a virtual world: Schome Park. In R. Jones (ed.), Discourse and creativity (pp. 191-211). Abingdon: Routledge.
Background… Gillen, J. (2009), Literacy practices in Schome Park: a virtual literacy ethnography. Journal of Research in Reading, 32, 57-74. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9817.2008.01381.x |
Speaker:
Prof. Julia Gillen (Lancaster University)
|
| July
15 Wed. 4-5pm GMT |
Discussion of Literacies
Network members’ research on creativity and related topics
|
Poetic Inquiry / Poetic Trajectories across Communities and Education
|
Burgess, J. (2021). Translanguaging and wonder: a poetic inquiry into newcomer belonging. In F. Blaikie (ed.), Visual and cultural identity constructs of global youth and young adults: situated, embodied and performed ways of being, engaging and belonging (pp. 246-267). Abingdon: Routledge.
And/or… Duncan, J. (2026). Poetic trajectories: Ethnographic accounts of art, literacies and education from an Amazonian archipelago. Literacy, (60)2, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1111/lit.70024 |
Facilitators:
Julianne Burgess, Jamie Duncan & Junaity Sine
|
November 2025 – February 2026
Theme: Academic Writing as Social Practice
| In this upcoming series of talks, we will begin with a discussion of how Brian V. Street’s foundational Anthropological work on literacy as social practice came to be further developed within the field of academic writing studies. Street’s work was closely tied to partnerships at the Lancaster University Literacy Research Centre (LRC), and in the subsequent session in conversation with Karin Tusting, we will cover a recent research project realised through the LRC, The Dynamics of Knowledge Creation: Academics’ Writing Practices in the Contemporary University Workplace. As a part of that talk, autoethnographic approaches will be explained and explored. In the following session, a presentation on another recent albeit more pedagogically focussed research project will be offered by Melinda Whong, Director of the Center for Language Education at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, and an assessor for BALEAP (the British Association of Lecturers in English for Academic Purposes). Based on The Good Writing Project tracing trends in ESAP (English for Specific Academic Purposes) teaching, this talk will address the question of ‘What is Good Academic Writing?’ by drawing on disciplinary-specific insights across a broad range of fields, including, art, music, digital media, linguistics, dentistry, and more. Professor Whong will also discuss how academic writing as social practice is conceived within BALEAP frameworks used to inform and evaluate English for Academic Purposes courses. In the last session, we will turn more closely to questions of identity that have always been central to research on literacy as social practice. Junaity Sine will facilitate a presentation on a new article by Mehui Wang and Graham Parr (both Monash University, Australia), offering decolonial perspectives on ‘Chinese international students negotiating their academic writing and identities in an Anglophone context…’. |
Register: You can sign up for our mailing list to receive announcements, including meeting links, by emailing us at: LITERACIES-NET-REQUEST@JISCMAIL.AC.UK or using the web link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa-jisc.exe?A0=LITERACIES-NET. This JISCmail list lets you easily opt in or out of announcements, so you won’t receive unwanted emails!
Day and time: Usually Wednesday 4 pm to 5 pm UK time, but check the schedule below
Meeting link: Join Teams Meeting
Access code: literacies
Readings: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1hdQVhbceBEaU1_yNjh5IhIz7KouyGoLW?usp=share_link
| Date | Session Format | Title / Topic | Reading / Abstract | Speaker / Facilitator |
| 19 November 4-5 pm, Wednesday | Reading & group discussion | Academic
Writing: Theory and Practice by Brian V. Street. |
Street, B. V. (2015). Academic Writing: Theory and Practice. Journal of Educational Issues, 1(2), 110-116.
|
Facilitators:
Junaity Sine & Jamie Duncan |
| 17 December
4-5 pm, Wednesday
|
Conversation about recent book, research project, and autoethnography | Academics Writing:
The Dynamics of Knowledge Creation
Auto-ethnography |
Tusting, K., McCulloch, S., Bhatt, I., Hamilton, M., & Barton, D. (2019). Academics Writing:
The Dynamics of Knowledge Creation. Abingdon: Routledge.
(Suggested reading: e.g., ‘Introduction… Theories and Methods of Studying Academics Writing’ pp 1-26, ‘Autoethnography’ p. 26) |
Speaker:
Prof. Karin Tusting (Lancaster University)
Facilitator: Jamie Duncan
|
| 21 January
*10-11 am (early start due to HK time difference) |
Conversation about recent book, research project, and academic writing as social practice in BALEAP | What is Good Academic Writing? Insights into Discipline-Specific Student Writing | Whong, M., & Godfrey, J. (2020). What is Good Academic Writing? Insights into Discipline-Specific Student Writing. London: Bloomsbury.
(Suggested reading: e.g., ‘Introduction: The Good Writing Project’, pp. 1-11, and/or ‘A Collaborative Scholarship Model of EAP Research and Practice’, pp. 9-26).
|
Speaker:
Prof. Melinda Whong (Hong Kong University of Science and Technology / BALEAP: British Association of Lecturers in English for Academic Purposes)
Facilitator: Jamie Duncan
|
| February 25th
4-5pm |
Presentation
|
A Chinese doctoral student’s experience of L2 English academic writing in Australia: Negotiating practices and identities
|
Wang, M., & Parr, G. (2025). Chinese International Students Negotiating their Academic Writing and Identities in an Anglophone Context: A Dialogic, Decolonising Case Study. International Journal of Educational Research, 131, 102588.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijer.2025.102588
|
Speakers: Dr Meihui Wang (Monash University),
Prof. Graham Parr (Monash University)
Facilitator: Junaity Sine |
Register: You can sign up for our mailing list to receive announcements, including meeting links, by emailing us at: LITERACIES-NET-REQUEST@JISCMAIL.AC.UK or using the web link: https://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/wa-jisc.exe?A0=LITERACIES-NET. This JISCmail list lets you easily opt in or out of announcements, so you won’t receive unwanted emails!
Are you interested in sharing your work in progress, or leading a text-based discussion for us in the next series? Drop us an email at jdiduncan@gmail.com or j.sine@lancaster.ac.uk