Professor Julia Gillen
Professor of Literacy StudiesProfile
I am Professor of Literacy Studies in the Department of Linguistics and English Language and Director of the Lancaster Literacy Research Centre. I am currently Associate Dean, Engagement in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences and the Institutional Academic Lead for Lancaster University in the North West Social Sciences Doctoral Training Partnership.
I am also a member of the Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning and the Centre for Mobilities Research.
Research Overview
I am exploring and expanding the boundaries of literacy studies.
I work with contemporary and historical topics. My main contemporary interests are related to the digital literacy practices of very young children in the home and research mobilities in primary literacy education.
I aim to expand understandings of the relationship of language with multimodality,including through combining study of contemproary media with early twentieth century literacy practices, especially writing on the Edwardian Postcard. I was recently Co-Investigator in two ESRC projects relating to deaf multiliteracies in India, Ghana and Uganda and am continuing to write up that work. I was formerly Co-Chair of Working Group 1 Children in Homes and Communities in the COST IS1640 Action The Digital Literacy and Multimodal Practices of Young Children (DigiLitEY), a member of the management committee and leader of the Day in the Digital Life of children aged 0-3 research strand.
I am the director of the Edwardian Postcard project, having held a FASS impact award and completed an AHRC Creative Exchange mini project. We are constructing a more interactive website and engaging in other activities to connect with family and local history audiences as well as museums and e-heritage users. I am currently completing a monograph.
See also the Day in the Life project website for my involvement with a continuing international programme of inter-generational research.
My (2014) book, Digital Literacies, consolidates empirical and theoretical interests in recent work including on Twitter as a professional practice and online ethnography. Earlier, my research on children and teenagers learning in formal and informal settings including in virtual worlds featured in this book and its associated ESRC seminar series.
External Roles
I review proposals for several different international funding councils and occasionally chair panels.
Member, AHRC Peer Review College, June 2014 - December 2021.
Co-editor, Journal of Early Childhood Literacy, 2007-present.
I was co-chair Working Group 1 (Digital Literacy in Homes and Communities) of the European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) Programme The Digital Literacy and Multimodal Practices of Young Children (DigiLitEY) June 2017 - April 2019 and led the "Day in the Digital Lives of Children 0-3" research strand of WG1.
Assessor for Learning Technologies Design for Impact SBRI competition with Technology Strategy Board (now Innovate UK). 2014
Honorary Research Associate, School of Graduate Studies, University of New Brunswick, Canada. (2011-2014)
Assessment and Qualifications Authority HE expert panel member advising on GCSE ‘A’ level: English Language and English Language & Literature. 2012-2014
Evaluator, Digital Futures in Teacher Education (DeFT) project - Sheffield Hallam & Sheffield Universities. (2011-2012)
External consultant, Mixed Reality Interactions Across Contexts of Learning (MIRACLE) project, InterMedia, University of Oslo. (2010-2014)
Selected Publications
Digital literacies
Gillen, J. 14/04/2014 Routledge. 190 p. ISBN: 9780415660891, 9780415660938.
Book
Cricket bats, #riotcleanup and rhubarb: everyday creativity in Twitter interactions around Test Match Special
Gillen, J. 01/2018 In: Language Sciences. 65, p. 37-47. 11 p.
Journal article
Negotiating citizenship: a young child’s collaborative meaning-making constructions of beavers as a symbol of Canada
Gillen, J., Cameron, C.A. 6/05/2017 In: Language and Education. 31, 4, p. 330-350. 21 p.
Journal article
The picture postcard at the beginning of the twentieth century: Instagram, Snapchat or selfies of an earlier age?
Gillen, J. 1/12/2016 In: Literacy, media and technology. London : Bloomsbury Academic p. 11-24. 14 p. ISBN: 9781474257992.
Chapter
Peer to peer deaf literacy: working with young deaf people and peer tutors in India
Gillen, J., Panda, S., Papen, U., Zeshan, U. 30/07/2016 In: Language and Language Teaching. 5, 10, p. 1-7. 7 p.
Journal article
‘I don’t see myself as a 40-year-old on Facebook’: medical students’ dilemmas in developing professionalism with social media
Curtis, F., Gillen, J. 7/02/2019 In: Journal of Further and Higher Education. 43, 2, p. 251-262. 12 p.
Journal article
Virtual spaces in literacy studies
Gillen, J. 25/05/2015 In: The Routledge handbook of literacy studies. London : Routledge
Chapter
“I should have wrote a letter tonight”: a literacy studies perspective on the Edwardian postcard
Gillen, J. 01/2018 In: Was ist ein Brief? - Aufsätze zu epistolarer Theorie und Kultur. What is a letter? - Essays on epistolary theory and culture. Würzburg : Königshausen & Neumann
Chapter (peer-reviewed)
All Publications
Research Mobilities in Primary Literacy Education
04/01/2022 → 03/01/2024
Research
CLAE II: Critical Literacies and Awareness in Education
01/09/2019 → 31/08/2022
Research
Storymakers: Deaf children’s multiliteracies
01/01/2019 → 03/03/2019
Research
Peer to Peer Deaf Multiliteracies: research into a sustainable approach to education
of Deaf children and young adults in the Global South
01/07/2017 → 31/12/2020
Research
Literacy development with deaf communities using sign language, peer tuition, and learner-generated online content: sustainable educational innovation
01/06/2015 → 31/07/2016
Research
Multimodality and Symbols of cultural identity: a literacy studies approach
03/11/2014 → 30/12/2016
Research
Digital Professionalism in Medical Education
16/01/2013 → 31/01/2014
Research
Digital Futures in Teacher Education project
17/10/2011 → 19/10/2012
Consultancy
Digital literacies as media ecology: a case study of communications around cricket.
30/07/2011 → 31/10/2013
Research
Mixed Reality Interactions Across Contexts of Learning
01/01/2011 → 30/12/2014
Consultancy
Edwardian Postcard Project
01/09/2009 → …
Other
Discourse of the School Dinners Debate
01/02/2007 → 31/01/2008
Other
Schome Park
01/02/2007 → 31/12/2009
Other
Day in the Life
01/01/2002 → 30/12/2016
Other
The Edwardian Postcard
01/01/1900 → …
Research
Edwardian Picture Postcard Project Lancaster Digital Collections Launch
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
Online webinar: “Early 20th century social media: writing postcards around Lancaster and Morecambe Bay.”
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
Designing new approaches to investigating primary literacy education research mobiliities in England
Invited talk
Establishing trusting relationships with international partners.
Invited talk
Literacy (Journal)
Editorial activity
Literacy Research: Theory, Method, Practice (Journal)
Editorial activity
Lancaster Literacy Research Centre
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Being Human Festival
Festival/Exhibition/Concert
Celebrating the successes and lessons of the Raising Learning Outcomes Programme
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
COVID-19: thinking differently about education research impact
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
All Party Parliamentary Group on Global Education
Other
UK Literacy Association (External organisation)
Membership of committee
All Party Parliamentary Group on Global Education
Other
Researching young children’s engagements with digital technologies in the home in Europe
Invited talk
“A day in the digital life of children aged 0-3"
Invited talk
I JORNADAS INTERNACIONALES:LA ALFABETIZACIÓN COMO PRÁCTICA SOCIAL
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
I JORNADAS INTERNACIONALES:LA ALFABETIZACIÓN COMO PRÁCTICA SOCIAL
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Writing Edwardian Postcards: a tale of three Londoners
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
American Educational Research Association (External organisation)
Membership of committee
Artistic Layers: The Umbrella Revolution in Hong Kong in 2014
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
Reconceptualising early childhood literacies: an international conference
Participation in conference
“We never teach her ….but she knows”: Young children’s engagement with digital media in homes in the UK and Finland
Invited talk
Enriching children’s learning and lives through multiliteracies
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
University of Helsinki
Visiting an external academic institution
The “letter of the poor?” Investigating writing and images on the Edwardian postcard
Invited talk
PhD examination
Examination
Writing on early twentieth century British picture postcards: through the prism of mentions of India
Invited talk
Exploring social media in the early twentieth century: the picture postcard
Oral presentation
The Edwardian Postcard: breathing new life into early twentieth century social media
Invited talk
PhD examination
Examination
AHRC (External organisation)
Membership of committee
Presenter at "What makes a successful online reader?"
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
Brighton Digital Festival
Festival/Exhibition/Concert
Valuing the Visual in Literacy Research
Participation in conference
The Digital Literacy and Multimodal Practices of Young Children DigiLitEY European COST programme (External organisation)
Membership of committee
Digital Literacies in Education
Participation in conference
Community Day
Festival/Exhibition/Concert
University of Roehampton London, University of Birmingham and The University of Edinburgh (External organisation)
Membership of committee
External examining
Examination
Struggle for the Text
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
New Literacy Practices
Invited talk
University of Stavanger
Visiting an external academic institution
“You might possibly say something…”: Medical students’ dilemmas in developing digital professionalism
Invited talk
Digital Humanities Research Forum
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Project meeting 3 of The Digital Literacy and Multimodal Practices of Young Children (DigilitEY) COST European Cooperation in Science and Technology
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) (External organisation)
Membership of committee
Twitter and humour: Test cricket, the BBC and Jonathan Agnew
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST) (External organisation)
Membership of committee
University of Stavanger
Visiting an external academic institution
Symposium on Language, Culture and Medicine
Participation in conference
The Edwardian Postcard Project
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
Edwardian Postcards to and from Lancashire
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
UK Literacy Associaton (External organisation)
Member of Advisory Panel
University of Stavanger
Visiting an external academic institution
Postcards to and from Lancashire - a presentation by Julia Gillen and Cael Rooney.
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
Writing postcards in early twentieth century Britain: a revolutionary social networking phenomenon.
Invited talk
Worlds of Literacy 2.0
Participation in conference
Explorations in Ethnography, Language and Communication 5
Participation in conference
AHRC (External organisation)
Membership of committee
The Edwardian Postcard Project: An illustrated talk about the people who wrote postcards during the Edwardian era, especially in Lancashire.
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
ESRC (External organisation)
Membership of committee
Technology Strategy Board (External organisation)
Member of Advisory Panel
Text trajectories
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
Language Learning and Teaching in the Digital Age: New Research Methodologies
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
The Edwardian Postcard Project
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
Invited lecture to the BA (Hons) Special Educational Needs students at Liverpool Hope University
Invited talk
Edwardian Postcards to and from Lancaster - a communications revolution
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
The Edwardian Postcard Project
Public Lecture/ Debate/Seminar
National Council for Teachers of English Annual Convention
Participation in conference
UK Literacy Association Annual Conference
Participation in conference
Enriching early childhood literacy curricula and practice - a dialogue with Canada
Participation in conference
Twitter and Microblogging: Political, Professional and Personal Practices
Participation in conference
Assessment and Qualifications Authority (External organisation)
Membership of committee
New Media, New Literacies and New Forms of Learning
Participation in workshop, seminar, course
A revolutionary multimodal communications technology: The Edwardian Picture Postcard
Invited talk
Digital literacies: children and teenagers learning in formal and informal settings including in virtual worlds.
Invited talk
Literacy History: pushing the disciplinary boundaries
Participation in conference
A learning community for teens on a virtual island.
Invited talk
Research in Education (Journal)
Editorial activity
Archaeology with teenagers in a virtual world.
Invited talk
ESRC (External organisation)
Membership of committee
Schome Park: exploring digital literacy practices in a Teen Second Life project.
Invited talk
Journal of Early Childhood Literacy (Journal)
Editorial activity
Award for the best poster given to “Attitudes and practices of medical students in relation to digital professionalism” by Fiona Curtis and Julia Gillen
Prize (including medals and awards)
- CeMoRe - Centre for Mobilities Research
- Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning
- Lancaster Literacy Research Centre