About Us
The work published in
Working Papers in Urban Language and Literacies
is based in and around five universities
in Brazil, Cyprus, England and South Africa: Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ), European University Cyprus (EUC), King's College London (KCL),
University College London (UCL), and University of the Western Cape (UWC).
Our Mission
Working Papers in Urban Language and Literacies focuses on linguistic practice, literacies and mediated communication in diverse and stratified settings. It publishes research committed to developing
- sociolinguistic, applied and educational frameworks adequate for the analysis of language, literacies, interaction and learning
- modes of intervention in language policy and practice that are productively tuned to the realities of contemporary lifeor
Meet the Working Papers in Urban Language and Literacies editorial board
Ben Rampton
King’s College London
Ben Rampton is Professor of Applied & Sociolinguistics at King’s College London. He does interactional sociolinguistics, and his interests cover urban multilingualism; youth, ethnicity and social class; conflict and (in)securitization; and language education policy and practice. His books include Crossing: Language & Ethnicity among Adolescents (1996/2018) and Linguistic Practice in Changing Conditions (2022). He founded WPULL and was founding convener of the UK Linguistic Ethnography Forum. He directed the King’s ESRC Interdisciplinary Social Science Doctoral Training Centre from 2011-2014, and is regularly involved in adult ESOL teaching.
Zannie Bock
University of the Western Cape
Zannie Bock is Associate Professor of Linguistics and Deputy Dean of Teaching and Learning in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. Her recent publications are in decolonial pedagogies, and narrative and discourse analysis, with a focus on racialising discourses among university students. She is the project co-ordinator and co-editor of the first southern African textbook in Linguistics, Language, Society and Communication: An Introduction, Van Schaik. She is also co-editor, with Christopher Stroud, of the Bloomsbury volume, Language and Decoloniality in Higher Education: Reclaiming Voices from the South (2021).
Rodrigo Borba
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro
Rodrigo Borba works at the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Applied Linguistics at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. His research interests include a wide range of areas such as queer linguistics, linguistic landscapes, verbal hygiene, and discourse analysis with an activist and research focus on the relations between discourse, gender and sexuality. He co-edits the journal Gender and Language.
Constadina Charalambous
European University Cyprus
Constadina Charalambous is Assistant Professor of Language Education & Literacy at the European University Cyprus. Her work focuses on the interplay between language and larger socio-political ideologies, including processes of (in) security. She is the co-author of Peace Education in a Conflict-affected society (2016), and co-edited Security, Ethnography & Discourse: Transdisciplinary Encounters (2022).
Melanie Cooke
King's College London
Melanie Cooke is Senior Lecturer in ESOL and Applied Linguistics at King’s College, London. She has been involved in English language teaching as a teacher and researcher for over thirty years. Her co-edited and co-authored books include Brokering Britain, Educating Citizens: Exploring ESOL and Citizenship (2019) and ESOL: A Critical Guide (2008). She is the convenor of the Hub for Education & Language Diversity (HELD) and for over 10 years, she has been a collaborator with English for Action, a grassroots ESOL charity in London.
Miguel Pérez-Milans
University College London
Miguel Pérez-Milans is Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics at the Department of Culture, Communication and Media in UCL Institute of Education. He has researched and/or taught at the Autonomous University of Madrid, King’s College London and The University of Hong Kong. He co-edits the journals Language, Culture and Society, and Language Policy, and is Co-President of EDiSo Association for Studies in Discourse and Society.