I am a social anthropologist whose research focuses on the role of written language in everyday life, work and education. I study literacy as a cultural and social practice, thus seeing it primarily as an activity people engage in and not just a skill individuals possess. Within this broad area, my research covers a variety of topics: literacy and health, digital literacies, writing in the public sphere and the role of writing in relation to citizens' engagement and protest, literacy and tourism and others. My second main field of research is looking at the role of literacy in relation to education. I understand teaching and learning to be cultural processes shaped by institutional practices and learner identities and requiring in-depth investigations through for example ethnography.

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

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?

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 urban studies and education. Within this broad area, I focus on the role of literacy (i.e. reading and writing) in relation to the cultures, places 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 (including spatial 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. More recently, I have looked at writing and texts (in the widest sense) in the context of urban spaces, looking at their role in the social production of spaces.More generally, I would summarize my interests by saying that 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 and participatory methods.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. As part of this research, I looked at the role writing, mostly through things like banners, posters and graffiti, plays in relation to citizens contesting the urban regeneration policies that affect the area they live in.

I am very interested in the development of new research methods, in particular ways in which ethnographic tools can be used in action research with communities and people of different backgrounds. I am part of an initiative, called LETTER, which introduces adult literacy teachers and curriculum developers to the use of ethnographic methods as tools to study learners' reading and writing practices and how these can be drawn on to develop curricula for adult literacy classes. We are currently planning a LETTER project with teachers in Kenya, to start in September this year. Previous LETTER projects were held in India, Ethiopia and Uganda.

Administration

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

Recent publications

Papen, U. 2013. Conceptualising information literacy as social practice: a study of pregnant women's information practices. Information Research 15 (2), http://informationr.net/ir/18-2/paper580.html#.Ub8tVOe-rwo

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