About us

Aims and history

The UK Linguistic Ethnography Forum (UKLEF) was initially constituted in 2000 by David Barton, Angela Creese, Janet Maybin, Ben Rampton and Karin Tusting. It has the following aims:

- to bring together UK-based researchers conducting linguistic ethnography (LE) here and abroad
- to explore a range of past and current work
- to identify key issues and to engage in methodologically and theoretically well-tuned debate
- to explore the extent to which linguistic ethnography in the UK resembles or differs from LE elsewhere
- to explore the feasibility of setting up a UK Linguistic Ethnography Forum.

Our first activity was to set up a meeting of people engaged in Linguistic Ethnography in the UK, which took place as a BAAL/CUP funded seminar in Leicester in spring 2001. The interest generated by this made it clear that there was a place for ongoing discussions of this kind, and we have since set up a schedule of regular meetings (a seminar in Spring and a colloquium at the BAAL Annual Meeting in Autumn) and an email list for ongoing discussion.

We have been active in setting up a Special Interest Group structure within the British Association for Applied Linguistics and were constituted as BAAL's first SIG in 2003.

Officers and organisation

UKLEF is governed by the SIG guidelines of the British Association for Applied Linguistics. It is administered by a small co-ordinating committee.

Convenor and secretary: Ben Rampton ben.rampton@kcl.ac.uk
Meetings secretary: Angela Creese a.creese@bham.ac.uk
Treasurer: Richard Barwell richard.barwell@bristol.ac.uk
Communications secretary (email list and website): Karin Tusting k.tusting@lancaster.ac.uk
Ordinary member: Janet Maybin j.maybin@open.ac.uk
Ordinary member: Vally Lytra Vally.Lytra@pobox.com

Click here to download a .rtf file describing officers' roles and responsibilities.

Membership of the SIG is currently understood to include participants at previous Linguistic Ethnography Forum events and subscribers to the email list.

The group's formal procedures are outlined in our constitution which can be downloaded in .rtf format here: UKLEF Constitution.

Reports and business meetings

The annual reports and minutes from previous business meetings of the group can be downloaded in .rtf format from this page by clicking on the appropriate link.

AGM held at BAAL Annual Meeting, Bristol University, 16th September 2005:
Agenda and officers' reports
Minutes

Business meeting held at BAAL Annual Meeting, King's College London, 10 September 2004

Financial strategy, May 2004

Business meeting held at UKLEF Spring Seminar, King's London, 19 April 2004

Business meeting held at BAAL Annual Meeting, Leeds, 4 Sept 2003

Annual report 2003

Business meeting held at spring seminar, Edge Hill, 7-8 April 2003

Business meeting held at BAAL Annual Meeting, Cardiff, 2002

Business meeting held at the second LEF research seminar, Gregynog, 27-28 April 2002

Business meeting held during BAAL Annual Meeting, Reading 2001

Report from first Linguistic Ethnography Forum meeting, Leicester