Theresa Lillis

Profile

I am a Senior Lecturer in the Centre for Language and Communication at The Open University and a member of the Applied Language and Literacies Research Unit, one of the research groups in the  Centre for Research and Educational Technology. I am currently  Visiting Professor at Edge Hill University and co-convenor of an AILA (Association Internationale de Linguistique Appliquée) research network: Academic Publishing and Presenting in a Global Context.

My main research area is writing. I have been researching writing for some 18 years from a perspective that can be summarized as the politics of access, location, production and participation. I’m committed to using ethnography as a research methodology and have an ongoing interest in developing ‘text oriented ethnographic approaches’. I have four main areas of interest:

1. STUDENT WRITING IN HIGHER EDUCATION. My research in academic writing developed out of a concern to explore the experiences and practices of ‘non traditional students’- students from social groups historically excluded from higher education. I’m interested in exploring which particular rhetorical and semiotic practices are valued in higher education and why, and in opportunities for transforming these.

Some related publications:

Lillis, T. (2001)Student writing: access, regulation, desire. London: Routledge.

Lillis, T. and Scott, M. (2008) (eds) Special Issue of Journal of Applied Linguistics. New Directions in Academic Literacies. 4.1.

Lillis, T. (2011) Legitimising dialogue as textual and ideological goal in academic writing for assessment and publication, Arts and Humanities in Higher Education. 10, 4: 401-432.

2. ACADEMIC WRITING FOR PUBLICATION IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT. With Mary Jane Curry, (University of Rochester US)  I have been involved in a 10 year study of the writing for publication practices and experiences of  scholars working outside of the ‘Anglophone centre’ (Hungary, Slovakia, Spain, Portugal). I have also worked with Ann Hewings (Open University) and Dimitra Vladimirou (Hellenic American University) on building and analyzing a corpus of articles published in English medium ‘national’ journals. For details of teh project see http://creet.open.ac.uk/projects/paw/

Some related publications:

Lillis, T. and Curry, M.J. (2010) Academic writing in a global context. London: Routledge.

Lillis, T., Hewings, A., Vladimirou, D. and Curry, M.J. (2010) The geolinguistics of English as an Academic Lingua Franca: citation practices across English medium national and English medium international journals. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 20,1: 111.135.

Lillis, T. (publication date June 2012) Economies of signs in writing for academic publication: the case of English Medium “National” Journals. Journal of Advanced Composition.

3. WRITING IN SOCIAL WORK EDUCATION AND PRACTICE. With Lucy Rai (Health and Social Care, Open University) I have been working on writing in social work. We have been exploring and tracking the writing carried out in everyday social work practice (in both adult and children’s services) and working with local authorities to explore how recording practices might be improved (as well as exploring the implications of our findings for university based pedagogy and professional training).

Some related publications:

Lillis, T. and Rai, L. (2011) A case study of a research based collaboration around writing in social work, Across the Disciplines ISSN: 1554-8244. Available at: http://wac.colostate.edu/atd/clil/lillis-rai.cfm

Lillis, T. and Rai, L. (forthcoming 2012) Quelle relation entre l’écrit académique et l’écrit professionnel? Une étude de cas dans le domaine du travail social. Pratiques.153/154.

4. WRITING WITH OLD AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES FOR POPULAR POLITICAL ACTIVITY IN THE 21C.This is a recent research focus of mine which grew out of my interest in the range of writings being used in political demonstrations in Spain 2011 <<15-M>> including banners, Facebook, flipcharts, notebooks, texting, leaflets.

Some related publications:

Lillis, T. (forthcoming).The sociolinguistics of writing.Edinburgh: EUP.

Teaching Interests

My teaching at the Open University is at undergraduate, masters and doctoral levels and draws on works in applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, New Literacy Studies, linguistic ethnography and language and globalization.  I have taught English as a second language in primary, secondary, adult and higher education, as well as courses in academic writing and writing for publication.

Current Doctoral Supervision

PhD, Sally Baker  ‘Emerging writing practices in post-compulsory secondary education’.

EdD, Adele Creer ‘Multimodal literacy and education in the context of new technologies’.

PhD, Margaret Hamilton ‘Widening participation for women: are non- traditional educational routes truly empowering for women seeking professional qualification through the social work degree?’.

PhD, Jenny McMullan ‘Gender in a study of academic writing: An exploration into the writing practices and experiences of women enrolled in research courses in UK universities’.

EdD, Gillian Wilson ‘Is academic writing an appropriate complementto art students’ practice?’

PhD, Jackie Tuck ‘An investigation into UK HE tutor-student dialogue and its impact on student writing using an academic literacies approach’

Supervised doctoral students to completion

PhD, Mabelle Victoria  ‘How do individuals from different cultural and linguistic backgrounds negotiate communication in an employment preparation program for Canadian immigrants?’ 2011.

EdD, John Player  ‘Glory and Dismay’: Exploring adult literacy practices through the story of Scottish football’. 2010.

PhD, Lucy Rai ‘Academic writing in social work education’. 2009.

PhD, Lia Blaj 'Research training cultures and writing practices at doctoral level in the Humanities in the UK’. 2008

MPhil, Gab’sile Lukhele  ‘Academic writing in global open distance learning: A case  study of an MBA course’. 2004.

PhD, Sarah North,‘Emergent disciplinarity in an interdisciplinary course: theme use in undergraduate essays in the history of science’. 2003.

Examined doctoral students

PhD, A Bangeni, ‘Exploring the transition experiences of a group of social science ESL graduates to professional disciplines in marketing and law: A case study’. University of Cape Town, SA. 2012.

EdD, Clare Furneaux, ‘Master’s level writing in a university context: Developing writers’. Institute of Education, London. 2012.

EdD, Margaret Cargill,‘Collaborative Interdisciplinary Publication Skills’Education: Implementation and implications in international science research Contexts’. The University of Adelaide, Australia. 2012.

PhD, Carole Sedgwick‚ ‘Crossing borders: An academic literacies approach to the study of thesis writing on English Studies programmes in an Italian and a Hungarian university’. Lancaster University. 2011.

PhD,Simon Green, ‘The construction of academic literacy: process case-studies from a TESOL context in Oman’. Leeds University. 2011.

PhD, Eamonn McCafferty,‘Claiming the right to write: the writing practices of TESOL practitioners’, Lancaster University. 2011.

PhD, Boitumelo Tiny Ramoroka, ‘Textual and contextual comparison of voice in student writing in the EAP preparatory course and two undergraduate courses at the university of Botswana’. University of Warwick. 2010.

PhD, Kasper Juffermans, ‘Local languaging: literacy products and practices in Gambian society’. University of Tilburg, Holland. 2010.

PhD, Andreia Santos, ‘The Discourses of Teaching and Learning Online’. The Open University. 2010.

PhD, Kwok Kuen Lau, ‘Learning to become a professional in a textually-mediated world: Placement as a site of negotiation, re-contextualisation and hybridisation practices’. University of Lancaster. 2009.

PhD, Annamaria Phillips ‘The significance of sociocultural differences in the academic teaching and learning of transnational Masters students’. Macquarie University, Australia.2009.

PhD, Lucia Thesen ‘Lectures in transition: A study of communicative practices in a South African University’,University Cape Town, SA.2009.

EdD, Elayne Fowler, ‘Exploring the situated literacy practices involving email in a further education college’. The Open University.2008.

PhD, Richard Bailey, ‘Student writing and academic literacy in higher education from a social practice perspective’, University Northumbria. 2008.

PhD, Ann Pegg, ‘Boundaries, Spaces and Dialogue: Learning to Lead in an English primary school’. The Open University. 2008

PhD, Eugenia Mihaela Tlinca, ‘Academic literacy and the construction of symbolic power: a study of one academic community’. Lancaster University. 2007.

PhD, Cathy Kell, ‘Moment by moment: contexts and crossings in the study of literacy in social practice’. The Open University. 2006

MPhil, Hilda Hidalgo Aviles, ‘Students’ and lecturers’ beliefs and expectations regarding essays and essay introductions: a genre-analytic qualitative study of academic literacy’, University of Essex. 2006.

PhD, Sylvia Jones, ‘Arguing on-line and off: A study of students’ argumentation in the context of computer mediated discussion and individually written  assignments’. The Open University. 2005.

PhD, Timothy Deignan, ‘Transferable people: reframing the object in post-compulsory education and training’. University of Manchester. 2005.

PhD, Moragh Paxton, 'Intertextuality in student writing: the intersection of the academic curriculum and student voices in first year economics assignments'. University of Cape Town, SA. October.2004.

PhD, Diana Ridley,‘The PhD literature review: a journey of discovery’. University of Sheffield’. 2004.

PhD, Christine Sinclair, ‘Acquiring academic discourse practices’.The Open University. June.2004.

EdD, Helen Peters, ‘Cracking the code: accreditation of prior experiential learning and the discourses of higher education’. The Open University. 2003.

Research Interests

Funded Research Projects 

June 2009             Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC RES-063-27-0263) £228,296.61.Research Fellowship. The sociolinguistics of writing in a global context. (End of Award Report, April 2012)

March 2009         Action research Project with North East Derbyshire (NED) Adult Services £2000  Case notes in social work practice. (With Lucy Rai, HSC).

March 2009         PBPL/CETL funding of pilot project. £6000.Getting it write/right: Professional writing in social work. ( With Lucy Rai, HSC).

January 2007        Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC RES-00022-2234) £98,796. Principal Investigator. Trajectories of knowledge production: English medium academic writing for national, transnational and international contexts. Final report/outcomes awarded ‘Outstanding’ by ESRC.

April 2006            British Academy. £800. Travel grants to Hungary and Slovakia for project field work.

April 2004            British Academy. (SG38601) £4,863. Principal Investigator. Small grant. The impact of ‘literacy brokers’ on the production of academic texts in a global context.

January 2004      British Academy. £800. Travel grants to Hungary and Slovakia for project field work.

October 2002      Economic and Social Research Council(ESRC RES-000-22-0098): £40,677 Principal investigator. Professional academic writing in a global context (sites in Hungary, Slovakia, Spain and Portugal).

August 2002        British Academy. £800. Travel grants to Hungary and Slovakia for project field work.

March 2001         Open University Research Development Fund: £22,196. ‘Professional academic writing in a global context’ project (with M. J. Curry).

Publications