Dr Bethan Benwell

Senior Lecturer

English Studies University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA

Dr Bethan Benwell

About me

I am a Senior Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics in the Division of Literature and Languages. I am a discourse and conversation analyst and my primary research focus is on the relationship between discourse and identity. I have published articles and chapters on discourse and reader identity, on discourses and representations of masculinity in popular culture, on tutorial discourse and student identity and on healthcare and health complaints interactions. I am the co-author (with Elizabeth Stokoe) of Discourse and Identity which was shortlisted for the BAAL bookprize in 2007, and co-author (with James Procter) of Reading Across Worlds: Transnational Book Groups and the Reception of Difference. I am editor of Masculinity and Men's Lifestyle Magazines and co-editor (with James Procter and Gemma Robinson) of a Special Issue of New Formations (Reading After Empire) and of a Routledge edited collection: Postcolonial Audiences: Readers, Viewers and Reception. I was co-investigator on an AHRC-funded project (2007-2010): Devolving Diasporas: Migration and Reception in Central Scotland, 1980- present (http://www.devolvingdiasporas.com/) with James Procter (University of Newcastle), Gemma Robinson (University of Stirling), and Jackie Kay (University of Newcastle). This project involved the analysis of reading group discussions (of 'diasporic' literature), both in Scotland and transnationally. Following a pilot study on interactional approaches to Complaints to the NHS with May McCreaddie, I am now working on an NIHR funded project with colleagues in Ulster, Stirling, Queen Margaret and Loughborough on 'Enhancing the patient complaints journey: harnessing the power of language to transform the experience of complaining' which uses conversation analysis to understand the longitudinal experience of complaining and to develop training materials for healthcare professionals handling complaints.