A consortium led by the MOSAIC Centre for Research on Multilingualism (Professors Angela Creese and Adrian Blackledge) based within the School of Education, has been successful in its bid for a large grant as part of the AHRC Translating Cultures theme. The 4-year research project, Translation and Translanguaging: Investigating Linguistic and Cultural Transformations in Superdiverse Wards in Four UK Cities, is a collaboration between academic researchers, non-academic partners, and community stakeholders. It is also a partnership between four UK universities and the private, public, and third sectors. The interdisciplinary research programme will develop new understandings of multilingual interaction in cities in the UK, and communicate these to policy-makers and communities locally, nationally, and internationally.
The research team will conduct detailed linguistic ethnographic investigations in selected wards in Birmingham, Cardiff, Leeds, and London. The researchers will focus on multilingual interactions between people in contexts of business, legal advice, community sport, and libraries and museums and analysis will provide detailed evidence of how people communicate across languages and cultures. The award is for £1,973,527.
The interdisciplinary project will involve academic researchers from a broad range of subject areas, including Business and Entrepreneurship, Cultural Heritage, Education, Law, Sociolinguistics, Sport and Exercise Sciences, and Social Policy and the interdisciplinary work will be co-ordinated by University of Birmingham’s Institute for Research into Superdiversity (IRiS).
Principal Investigator Professor Angela Creese welcomed the award, saying , saying “This award gives researchers at the University of Birmingham the opportunity to lead a major, ground-breaking study of multilingualism in superdiverse cities across England and Wales. The research will make a significant contribution to knowledge about the potential of multilingualism as a resource for communication, creativity, and civic participation”.