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 TBC | Presentation
|
Negotiating Academic Writing and Identities in an Anglophone Context: A Dialogic, Decolonising Case Study
|
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.
|
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