Dr Uta Papen

PhD Supervision Interests

The role of written texts in health care contexts (including studies of patients' information searching and learning strategies via for example websites)

Ethnographic studies of literacy practices in various settings (e.g. institutions, workplaces, communities, etc.)

Linguistic landscape research: the role of writing and visual in the cultural production of space

Literacy teaching and learning in schools

Academic literacies

Adult literacy education in the so-called developing countries

Current Teaching

In 2012/13 I teach the following modules:

Undergraduate teaching

I convene the LING 209 Literacy and Education.

MA teaching

LING 432 Literacy Studies (together with David Barton)

I contribute to the MA Research Methods module (LING 401)

PhD in Applied Linguistics by Thesis and Coursework

Qualitative Methods for Applied Linguists

Language, literacies and digital communication (with K.Tusting)

Faculty

FASS 506 Designing, undertaking and surviving doctoral research

FASS510 Qualitative Methods in the Sociel Sciences (+510d)

FASS 522 Ethics in Social Science and Humanities Research

FASS 617 How to get the most our of your supervision

FASS The PhD viva: tragedy or triumph?

Research Interests

My research is interdisciplinary, located at the boundaries between social anthropology, medical anthroppology and applied linguistics. I sometimes label myself as a linguistic anthropologist who does, however, pursue work in several areas, including health and health care as well as education. 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 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.One of my recent studies was an 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, looking specifically at pregnant women's practices and experiences of searching for knowledge about pregnancy, labour and child care.

My current research explores the Linguistic Landscape (LL) 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. I have conducted fieldwork in Prenzlauer Berg, a neighbourhood in the former east of Berlin. Since reunification, Prenzlauer Berg has turned from a neglected area into a popular middle class neighbourhood. This change is reflected in the linguistic landscape. But the LL is also motor contributing to the changes the area has experienced.

A further project I am currently developing is looking at the intersections between health care documents such as patient education leaflets, medical and health-related websites and the institutional practices of health care. This study will use ethnographic methods, including participant observation and interviews with patients and doctors, to understand the role of written information in health care. A particular focus is on the role of what is called authoritative knowledge, knowledge that counts in terms of health care decisions, and how patients' own information strategies and knowledge fares in the wake institutionally valued knowledge and practices. For this study I collaborate with colleagues in Scotland.

Profile

Administration

I am Director of the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences' Research Training Programme (RTP).

Additional Information

Recent publications

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. (2012) 'Commercial discourses, gentrification and citizens' protest: the linguistic landscape of Prenzlauer Berg, Berlin, Journal of Sociolinguistics 16 (1): 56-81

• PROFI Improving workplace adult basic education

  01/10/2013 → 01/10/2015
  This porject, initiated and managed by the bbb Buero fuer berufliche Bildungsplanung (a german based training organisation for workplace education), involves 6 European countries. Lancaster Literacy R ... Read more»

• The role of written texts in doctor-patient interaction

  01/02/2013 →
  This study looks at the role written texts such as patient education leaflets play in interactions between doctors and patients. In this project, we are looking at 'health literacy' from the perspecti ... Read more»

• Linguistic landscapes: the cultural production of urban spaces

  01/10/2010 →
  Drawing on fieldwork in Berlin (October 2010 to June 2011) this project examines the role of writing and visuals in the cultural production of urban spaces. Cultural production here refers to the way ... Read more»

• Conceptualising information literacy as social practice: a study of pregnant women’s information practices

  01/05/2009 → 31/12/2011
  In this interview-based study I examined the information practices of pregnant women. The study suggested that information searching and use are best conceptualised not as cognitive skills but as soci ... Read more»

• Pregnancy starts with a literacy event: pregnancy and ante-natal care as textually-mediated experiences

  01/01/2006 →
  This research started as an autoethnographic study of my recent experience of pregnancy. The purpose of this study was to explore the role of reading and writing in relation to pregnancy and ante-nata ... Read more»

• Phonological influences on children's spelling mistakes

  01/07/2005 → 31/07/2006
  In this small scale research project, we aim to investigate the connection between UK children's spelling and their speech and its implications for teaching and learning in primary schools. Accordi ... Read more»

• Lynde Tan's PhD

  21/03/2011
  Lynde Tan was today awarded a PhD subject to corrections for her thesis: Adolescent literacies, multimodal textual repertoires, and digital media: exploring sites of digital literacy practices and le ... Read more»