Professor Tony Crowley

Professor Tony Crowley

Profile

I did my undergraduate and doctoral work at Oxford and arrived at Leeds after stints at Southampton, Manchester (Chair of Language, Literature and Cultural Theory 1994-2004 and Scripps College, California (Hartley Burr Alexander Chair in the Humanities 2004-2013).

My work covers a number of distinct but often over-lapping fields, including specifically: the politics of language; the interrelations between language and history in Britain and Ireland (Renaissance to the present); language and power; language and literature (any period); the use of ‘non-standard’ language in literature; the language and literature of Liverpool (1850-the present); Irish studies (Renaissance to the present); representations of Northern Ireland; the murals of Northern Ireland 1979-the present.

Responsibilities

  • Programme manager BA English Language and Literature

Research interests

As noted above, I have a range of interests and these are reflected in my major publications: The Politics of Discourse: The Standard Language Question in British Cultural Debates (London: Macmillan, 1989), 2nd edition, revised and enlarged, The Politics of Language: The Standard Language Question in Cultural Debates (London: Palgrave, May 2003); Proper English? Readings in Language, History and Cultural Identity (London: Routledge, 1991); Language in History: Theories and Texts (London: Routledge, 1996); The Politics of Language in Ireland 1366-1922: A Sourcebook (London: Routledge, 2000); The Language and Cultural Theory Reader (with L.Burke and A.Girvin), (London: Routledge, 2000); Wars of Words: The Politics of Language in Ireland 1537--2004 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005); Scouse: A Social and Cultural History (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2012); The Liverpool English Dictionary (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2017); Digital Humanities Project: The murals of Northern Ireland 1979-2018 (an international collaboration with the Honnold Library, Los Angeles consisting of an open-access archive of c.7500 digital images, taken from a collection of some 20,000 of my own photographs, of the war-related and post-conflict murals of Northern Ireland, 1979-2017, with full historical annotation) - http://ccdl.libraries.claremont.edu/col/mni (or goog;e Tony Crowley mni). I am on the editorial board of Key Words: A Journal of Cultural Materialism, which promotes research in the open tradition of Raymond Williams's work, and I contribute 'Keywords' pieces to the journal (accounts of significant terms in contemporary social life - recent examples include 'dissident', 'post-truth', and 'commitment'). 

<h4>Research projects</h4> <p>Some research projects I'm currently working on, or have worked on, will be listed below. Our list of all <a href="https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/dir/research-projects">research projects</a> allows you to view and search the full list of projects in the faculty.</p>

Qualifications

  • B.A.Hons English Language and Literature, Oxford University.
  • Diploma in Comparative Philology and General Linguistics, Oxford University.
  • D.Phil, Oxford University.

Professional memberships

  • Fellow of English Academy

Student education

I teach across a range of fields at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels, including courses such as 'The Politics of Language', Language in Society', and 'Keywords: the words we use and the ways we use them'. 

Current postgraduate researchers

<h4>Postgraduate research opportunities</h4> <p>We welcome enquiries from motivated and qualified applicants from all around the world who are interested in PhD study. Our <a href="https://phd.leeds.ac.uk">research opportunities</a> allow you to search for projects and scholarships.</p>