A welcome message from our Co-Leads
Welcome to the Manchester Centre for Research in Linguistics at Manchester Metropolitan University. Our scholarship and activities are rooted in a commitment to producing research that changes lives and contributes to society, not only locally but also internationally.
We take language work seriously because we see language not only as a tool for describing the social world, but also as a form of social action that can transform the world. Through an expansive lens on language and communication, we research a range of social, cultural, political, and institutional domains and contexts. We work with communities and partners on diverse struggles, challenges, realities, and opportunities, all of which continue to demonstrate the depth, breadth, and potential of linguistic research.
We welcome you to our website, which takes you on a journey through some of our current projects, activities, and events.
We also invite you to reflect on these words of wisdom and poetry from Komska, Moyd, and Gramling (2019, p. 140), from their book Linguistic Disobedience (Palgrave Macmillan).
Make a decision
To care for language
As it is used
In human and nonhuman interaction
In complex, multilayered ways
In times of great need
And spaces of great suffering
Whether this language
Is an act of labour, work
Leisure, pleasure
Or something else
Care for this language
Always in its recursive relation
To reality
With care for language, and with commitment to all those harmed by linguistic discrimination, marginalisation, othering and dehumanisation, we work with linguistics research to explore worlds, presents and futures otherwise.
Dr Khawla Badwan and Dr Ian Cushing
Our Vision
To cultivate a supportive and inclusive research environment where researchers feel empowered and valued as part of a cross-disciplinary critical collective, situated within a dynamic structure internationally recognised for research excellence and innovation
Our key research areas
Broadly, we see our work as a form of Linguistics in Action, guided by our aims of affecting change and leading developments in social justice. In response to these aims, our work addresses a number of key research areas through a linguistic lens:
| accents | artificial intelligence |
| climate change | cognition |
| communication | corpus linguistics |
| education | gender |
| global crises | identity |
| knowledge construction | language variation |
| linguistic diversity | manipulation and deception |
| methodology and theory | neurodiversity |
| place | politics |
| pragmatics | raciolinguistics |
| social justice | sociolinguistics |
| TESOL | translation |
Our work in these areas is underpinned by expertise in sociolinguistics, critical applied linguistics, intercultural communication, pragmatics, discourse analysis, contrastive linguistics, corpus linguistics, Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, psycholinguistics, and literacies including digital literacies.
Want to know more about our team? Click below to learn about MCRL members.