On November 5th I’ll be presenting my latest paper at a one day ESRC conference at Cambridge on ‘bridging the structure/agency divide’.

I’ll be presenting my latest paper and discussing how we adapt our interactions online based upon the design of the websites/apps/technology we are using, how we as researchers should really pay more attention to the nuances of social media rather than viewing it as a catch-all category, and how we can use an understanding of the importance of space and place online to understand and better interact with youth in educational settings.

The full details of the day are below the break, I’m sure it’s going to be a fascinating and interesting day; the conference is purposefully inter-disciplinary, with great speakers from around the world, and even a performance poet speaking!

Attendance is completely free, but limited, so Please email t.modha@ioe.ac.uk for further information and to book. Full details below the break

5^th November 2015, 11am – 5pm

University of Cambridge

Room:1S3, Donald McIntyre Building, 184 Hills Road, Cambridge UK, CB2 8PQ

Disadvantage and Education:

Rethinking language and communication in the classroom

This seminar is one of a series which aims to bring new insights from different fields and disciplines to often well-rehearsed and polarized debates about disadvantage and education. This event explores language and communication as a site of contest and conflict. Teachers working in areas of disadvantage often identify a tension between language as a means of formal academic communication and as an expression of identity and local connection. Academic debates in the field have over time explored anxieties about language and communication that relate to issues of difference and diversity, inclusivity (or perhaps exclusivity), of (un)fairness and (lack of) opportunity. This seminar aims to develop new perspectives for both practitioners and academics. How might we conceive language and communication in the classroom? And for what purposes? Are there conceptions that might liberate us from notions of elaborated and restricted language codes? From ideas of standard English and identities associated with accent/dialect? From the challenges of SMS language? How do others conceptualise language and communication in their domain? Contributions will include studies in linguistic ethnography, translation studies, the power of performance poetry and mobile communication technologies.

The event is aimed at teachers, academics, doctoral students, language and communication specialists, advisers and other educational professionals interested in disadvantage, education and the curriculum.

The event is FREE and there are a limited number of travel bursaries for early career researchers.

Confirmed Speakers:

Valerie Bloom, writer and performance poet

Harry Dyer, University of East Anglia

Alexandra Assis Rosa, University of Lisbon

Jo-Anne Dillabough, University of Cambridge