Dr Rosemary Hall

Profile

I joined the University of Leeds in January 2021 as Research Assistant for the Dialect and Heritage Project.

Having completed a BA in English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford, I continued to study there for an MPhil and PhD in Linguistics, supported by an ESRC Doctoral Award. I gained my PhD from the University of Oxford in 2018. I then joined the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, where I taught courses in Sociolinguistics and World English before returning to the UK to complete an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at Queen Mary, University of London.

Research interests

As a sociolinguist, I am interested in linguistic practice, variation, and change, and how these both represent and construct our societies and individual identities.

More specifically, I am interested in variation and change in English dialects around the world, and attitudes towards these dialects. Before joining the Dialect and Heritage Project, my work centred on the variety of English spoken in Bermuda. My doctoral thesis gave an overview of the history and phonology of Bermudian English, and examined the social meaning of dialect parody in Bermudian society. I have an ongoing interest in stylistic variation in small island settings, particularly the “offshore” Anglophone world.

As Research Assistant for the Dialect and Heritage Project, I focus on dialect variation in England, past and present. The Dialect and Heritage Project will open up the extensive Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture (LAVC) to the public, including the ground-breaking work of the Survey of English Dialects which was conducted between 1951 and 1961. In partnership with five museums, we will be engaging communities across the country with the LAVC’s rich and diverse collection of dialect heritage, while also gathering new data in order to capture a snapshot of present-day dialect. 

I am a trained oral historian and have a special interest in the overlap between sociolinguistic fieldwork and oral history interviewing.

Qualifications

• PhD Sociolinguistics (University of Oxford)
• MPhil Linguistics (University of Oxford)
• BA English Language and Literature (University of Oxford)

Professional memberships

• Oral History Society