Dr Uta Papen
Senior Lecturer in Literacy Studies
Degree: MA (Hamburg), PhD (King's College, London)
Associated research centres and groups: Lancaster Literacy Research Centre, Language, Ideology and Power Group (LIP)
Current Teaching
I usually teach the courses listed below:
Undergraduate teaching
I teach one term of LING 209 Language and Education. The ten sessions I offer are all concerned with literacy and the teaching of reading and writing to children and adults
MA teaching
LING 432 Introduction to New Literacy Studies
As part of LING 401 Research Methods, I offer a course on ethnographic research methods.
PhD teaching
Literacy Studies
Qualitative research methods for applied linguists
Faculty
FASS510 'Qualitative Methods in the Sociel Sciences'
FASS 506 'Designing and Undertaking Doctoral Research'.
FASS 522 Ethics in Research
Research Interests
Broadly speaking, my research belongs to the field of linguistic anthropology. Within this broad area, I focus on the role of literacy (i.e. reading and writing) in relation to the cultures and institutions of everyday life. I start from the idea that our contemporary world is 'textually mediated', to borrow a phrase coined by Dorothy Smith. Thus, I see literacy as a central aspect of many contemporary social practices and it is the role of reading and writing in these practices that I investigate. I am particularly interested in exploring how writing and texts are implicated in power relations between individual, individuals and groups as well as individuals, groups and institutions. In my research I explore the role written texts (and what people do with them) plays in relation to for example health care provision in England or local tourism in Namibia. In doing so, I use literacy as a lense to study cultures (as in local cultures or institutional cultures), social relations and power.
I use primarily ethnographic methods and I am interested in exloring a range of research tools, for example photographs. I have also experimented with the use of critical discourse analysis and visual analysis to complement ethnography.One of myrecent works wasan autoethnography of my own literacy practices in relation to pregnancy and ante-natal care. I later extended this research to include the views and experiences of other pregnant women.
My current research explores the multilingual cityscape of Berlin. I am interested in how writing (including public road signs, advertising billboards, commercial shop signs, public signs on buildings, posters on walls, graffiti, etc.) together with other semiotic resources shapes urban spaces and the practices and perceptions of those residing in or visiting these places. Ihave conductedfieldwork in Prenzlauer Berg, a neighbourhood in the former east of Berlin. A key theme is to develop ways of understanding the role of urban planning and development policies and wider political and social changes in shaping a neighbourhood's graphic environment. I also study the presence of different languages, including English, in the multilingual cityscape of Berlin.
Potential Doctoral Proposals
Linguistic landscapes
Ethnographic studies of literacy practices in various settings (e.g. institutions, workplaces, communities, etc.)
Cross-cultural studies of literacy
Electronic literacies
Health and literacy
Literacy in schools
Adult literacy education in the so-called developing countries
Administration
I am Director of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences' Research Training Programme (RTP).
Recent publications
Papen, U. 2012. Commercial discourses, gentrification and citizens' protest: the linguistic landscape of Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, Journal of Sociolinguistics, 16 (1): 56-80.
Papen, U. 2012. 'Informal, incidental and ad hoc: the information seeking and learning strategies of health care patients, Language and Education, 26 (2): 105-119.
Papen, U. 2010. Literacy mediators, scribes or brokers: the central role of others in accomplishing reading and writing, Langage et Societe, No 133, pp.63-82
Papen, U. 2007. Literacy and globalization. London: Routledge.
AND
The anthropoloy of writing, jointly edited by David Barton and me, is now out in paperback (Continuum, see also below).
Eprints Publications Repository and Bibliographic Database
Uta Papen has 11 selected publication records listed on this webpage. Use links to access abstracts and full text where available. View all records to sort by date, type and title. For all ePrints records go to http://eprints.lancs.ac.uk
Barton, David and Papen, Uta (2010) What is the anthropology of writing? In: The Anthropology of Writing. Understanding textually-mediated worlds. Continuum, London, pp. 3-33. ISBN 978-1441108852
Papen, Uta (2010) Writing in health care contexts : patients, power and medical knowledge. In: The Anthropology of Writing. Understanding textually-mediated worlds. Continuum, London, pp. 145-169. ISBN 978-1441108852
Papen, Uta (2009) Literacy, learning and health - a social practices view of health literacu. Literacy and Numeracy Studies, Vol 16 (No 2 &). pp. 19-35. ISSN 1441-0559
Papen, Uta (2009) New technologies : literacies in cyberspace. In: English Language : Description, Variation and Context. Palgrave, Houndmills. ISBN 9781403945891
Papen, Uta and Walters, Sue (2008) Literacy, learning and health : research report. NRDC, London. ISBN 978-1-906395-03-2
Papen, Uta (2008) Pregnancy starts with a literacy event : pregnancy and ante-natal care as texctually mediated social experiences. Ethnography, 9 (3). pp. 377-403. ISSN 1466-1381
Papen, Uta (2005) Adult literacy as social practice : more than skills. New approaches to adult language, literacy and numeracy. . Routledge, London. ISBN 0415353777
Associated Keywords: Adult literacy education in developing countries, Ethnography, Ethnography of literacy, Everyday literacy practices, Linguistic ethnography, Writing (general)
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