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The latest edition of Codex has been published . Are you interested in riots in South Shields or Turkish Gothic literature? If so, visit Codex for top work from our class of 2017 undergraduates at the School of Culture.

Research on language attitudes and perceptual dialectology has shown that north-east English is one of the most widely recognized and positively evaluated varieties in Britain. There is also a rich tradition of dialect writing associated with the region, and a long history of both ‘folk’ and scholarly attention to local forms of language – for example, it is the only part of England to have a major corpus devoted to it – the Diachronic Electronic Corpus of Tyneside English. However, one element is missing from the otherwise well-charted dialectological terrain. Dr Michael Pearce has addressed this gap in a chapter published in Perspectives on Northern Englishes (Mouton de Gruyter, 2017), which gives an account of localized forms in the ‘linguistic landscape’ (that is, the public display and representation of written language on road signs, advertisements, house names, vehicles, and so on). This first foray into an under-researched aspect of the region’s local linguistic ecology d...

Dr Mike Pearce has joined the Editorial Board of the prestigious Cambridge University Press journal English Today . The journal provides accessible cutting-edge reports on all aspects of the language, including style, usage, dictionaries, literary language, Plain English, the Internet and language teaching, in terms of British, American and the world’s many other Englishes. Now in its third decade, English Today remains unique in its scope and style.

The new edition of the Journal of Intercultural Inquiry edited by Drs Geoff Nash and Michael Pearce is out now. Its diverse articles (by authors based in India, Romania, Germany and Saudi Arabia) cover Don DeLillo and Martin Amis on 9/11, gender and translation, English in India, and the German poet Holger Benkel. Enjoy it here .

Several members of the School of Culture will be taking part in the Sunderland Literature and Creative Writing Festival this autumn. Click on the links below to find out who will be doing what and where. The festival starts on September 30th (the full schedule is here ). Spectral Visions book launch Against the Grayne: Learning about your Reiver ancestry Witchcraft and wizardry in Wearside Northern Gothic: Jane Harvey's The Castle at Tynemouth (1806) Eternity in an hour: William Blake and popular music Gothic Wearside World books to read before you die Apples and Snakes performance poetry Flash Fiction in a flash: how to write it and how to get it published Reading philosophy to lose weight The terrorist novel from Joseph Conrad's The Secret Agent to Hamid Mohsen's The Reluctant Fundamentalist Of Peter and Jemima: An introduction to the extraordinary life of Beatrix Potter 'Not quite a Geordie': The ethnonyms of North East England Wizards, goblins and forbidden l...

Dr Mike Pearce has been invited to give a talk at the Centre of Research in Linguistics and Language Sciences at Newcastle University . His topic is the linguistic landscape of North East England. Research on language attitudes and perceptual dialectology has shown that North East English is one of the most widely recognized and positively evaluated varieties in Britain. There is a rich tradition of dialect writing associated with the region, and a long history of both 'folk' and scholarly attention to local forms of language - for example, it is the only part of England to have a major corpus devoted to it: the Diachronic Electronic Corpus of Tyneside English at Newcastle University. However, one element is missing from the otherwise well-charted dialectological terrain: an account of localized forms in the 'linguistic landscape' (that is, the public display and representation of written language on road signs, advertisements, house names, vehicles, and so o...

Some are widely-known and have a long history; others are rarer and were coined more recently, but if you're from the North East you will have an opinion about them. In an article published in Nomina (the journal of the Society for Name Studies in Britain and Ireland ), Dr Mike Pearce explores the history of North East ethnonyms, focusing on Geordie, Mackem, Sand Dancer, Smoggie, Pit Yacker and Monkey Hanger. Combining newly unearthed evidence from historical research with folk-accounts from surveys and online discussion forums, the article offers the most complete account of these fascinating and culturally significant terms yet published (for more on ethnonyms, click here ). Pearce, M. 'Not quite a Geordie': the folk-ethnonyms of North East England. Nomina Vol. 37 .

Geoff Nash and Mike Pearce are pleased to announce that the first issue of the Journal of Intercultural Inquiry   has been published online. It presents the work of scholars from the USA, Russia, Hungary, Lebanon and the UK. Readers will encounter a variety of articles on intercultural themes, including a study of a Neo-Latin inscription on a gravestone on Lindisfarne, an essay about a community of poets based in the Faculty of Asian and African Studies at the State University of St. Petersburg, and an analysis of linguistic codeswitching between Mandarin and English in a US university. The journal has received generous financial support from Scientia Educational Services .

The New North East one-day symposium took place on 13th July at St Peter's campus. The day - hosted by the Department of Culture and convened by Mike Pearce - saw people from all walks of life attend a wide-ranging programme of talks organized around the theme of culture in the region. Topics covered included the role of archives and museums, dialect, arts policy, and journalism. Landscape photography and poetry was also on the menu. The full programme can be found here .

Mike Pearce has written a comment piece for the website of The Northern Correspondent . You can read it here .

In an article published in the journal Sociolinguistic Studies, Dr Michael Pearce   considers how the technological advances associated with Web 2.0 allow people to interact in online ‘communities’ built around shared interests and concerns. Michael's article examines an online messageboard virtually located in North East England, and explores the ways in which participants’ beliefs about and attitudes towards sociolinguistic variation emerge through discourse. He focuses on a single ‘conversation’ about the sociolinguistic variable mam/mum , revealing the language ideologies which inform the sociolinguistic awareness of participants, and concludes by using the concept of ‘late modernity’ as an interpretive frame to help understand what is happening as people appropriate a global technology for local social action. Pearce, M. 2015.  Mam or mum? Sociolinguistic awareness and language-ideological debates online . Sociolinguistic Studies , 9 (1): 115-135.

Dr Mike Pearce has been invited to speak at 'The North and Northness: Ideas of Place, Locatedness and Regions.' This half-day event organized by the Cultural Significance of Place (CSoP) interdisciplinary research group at Newcastle University, takes place on Friday 29th May 2015 . Mike's paper is entitled 'Anyone from the north east who says 'Mum' should be shot'.  The event will explore varying understandings of the North, as constructed and applied over a range of disciplines, and consider the role ‘Northness’ has played in the evolution of ideas of place, locatedness and regions. Further details can be found here .

What are the origins and history of the ethnonym Geordie in North East England? How does this history – which according to some authorities has never adequately been explained – help us to understand its current usage and meanings? In an article published in Names: A Journal of Onomastics , Dr Michael Pearce attempts to answer these questions by drawing on evidence from a range of sources (including newly-available material in the British Newspaper Archive). Pearce, M. 2015. 'The Ethnonym Geordie in North East England.' Names: A Journal of Onomastics 63 (2): 75-85.

On Monday 13th July 2015 the Department of Culture will be hosting a one-day symposium focused on our region entitled ‘ The New North East ’. This interdisciplinary gathering - which takes place in the Prospect Building, St Peter's Campus - will bring together scholars and practitioners working in the field of ‘cultural studies’ (broadly understood to include history, literature, linguistics, visual arts and media studies). It is hoped that the forum will allow participants to share developments in their disciplines, especially those which have opened up new avenues of research and/or shed new light on more traditional objects of enquiry in the study of North East England and North East Englishness. We hope the exciting range of talks will attract interest from academics, students and members of the public from across the region. The confirmed speakers are: Professor John Tomaney (Bartlett School of Planning, University College London) Dr Adam Mearns (School of Englis...

The Department of Culture, in conjunction with Scientia , is pleased to announce the launch of a new academic journal. The Journal of Intercultural Inquiry , which is edited by Drs Geoff Nash and Mike Pearce , is a refereed, peer-reviewed publication for scholars, researchers, students, and teachers who are interested in intercultural engagement in a globalized world. The journal offers a forum for critical debate and publication of research in the expanding field of intercultural inquiry. We see the concepts underpinning this area of study as fluid, dynamic and diverse, enlisting a variety of views and perspectives. The approach is interdisciplinary and its remit widely construed to include: language and communications, foreign languages, applied linguistics and translation, literary, historical, cultural and sociological studies, law, political science and international relations. For further information, visit the website or email jiiscientia@sunderland.ac.uk.

The Department of Culture is teaming up with the ‘Canny Space’ at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Sunderland to launch 'Canny Culture' - a series of events organized by academics and students in the department. The inaugural event, which will take place on Friday 26th September 2014 between 6-10 pm., sees the launch of Spectral Visions: The Collection (ed. Colin Younger ), an anthology of short stories and poetry written by our own students, staff, academics from other institutions and local (and not so local) writers. There will also be talks by Professor John Strachan (Bath Spa University) and Dr Mike Pearce (Sunderland University) on aspects of the history and dialect of the region. The evening also includes live music, a light buffet and a wine reception. Limited copies of the book will be available at the event but it can also be purchased on Amazon here .  All are welcome and admission is free. RSVP to colin.younger@sunderland.ac.uk. The Canny Space Church of ...