Dr Bethan Benwell

Senior Lecturer

English Studies University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA

Dr Bethan Benwell

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About me

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.

Research (1)

I have research interests in spoken and written discourse analysis, health communication, reception studies, language and gender, masculinity and popular culture, interactional sociolinguistics and educational linguistics.

Projects

Devolving Diasporas: Migration and Reception in central Scotland, 1980 - present
PI: Dr Bethan Benwell
Funded by: Arts and Humanities Research Council

Outputs (44)

Outputs

Book Chapter

Benwell B & McCreaddie M (2017) Managing patients’ expectations in telephone complaints. In: Van De Mieroop D & Schnurr S (eds.) Identity Struggles: Evidence from Workplaces around the World. Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture, 69. Amsterdam/New York: John Benjamins, pp. 243-262. https://benjamins.com/#catalog/books/dapsac.69/main; https://doi.org/10.1075/dapsac.69.13ben


Book Chapter

Benwell B & Stokoe E (2016) Ethnomethodological and conversation analytic approaches to identity. In: Preece S (ed.) The Routledge Handbook of Language and Identity. Routledge Handbooks in Applied Linguistics. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 66-82. https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-Language-and-Identity/Preece/p/book/9781138774728


Book Chapter

Benwell B & Beynon J (2015) Masculinity and Media. In: Donsbach W (ed.) Concise Encyclopedia of Communication. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. https://www.wiley.com/en-gb/The+Concise+Encyclopedia+of+Communication-p-9781118789322


Book Chapter

Benwell B & Beynon J (2015) Masculinity and the Media. In: Donsbach W (ed.) International Encyclopedia of Communication. 2nd ed. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, pp. 340-341. http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-111878930X.html


Book Chapter

Benwell B (2014) Language and Masculinity. In: Ehrlich S & Meyerhoff M (eds.) The Handbook of Language, Gender and Sexuality. 2nd ed. Blackwell Handbooks in Linguistics. Oxford: Wiley Blackwell, pp. 240-259. http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470656425.html


Book Chapter

Allington D & Benwell B (2012) Reading the Reading Experience: An Ethnomethodological Approach to "Booktalk". In: Lang A (ed.) From Codex to Hypertext: Reading at the Turn of the Twenty-first Century. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, pp. 217-233. http://www.umass.edu/umpress/title/codex-hypertext


Book Chapter

Benwell B, Procter J & Robinson G (2012) Introduction. In: Benwell B, Procter J & Robinson G (eds.) Postocolonial Audiences: Readers, Viewers and Reception. Routledge Research in Postcolonial Literatures. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 1-23. http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415888714/


Edited Book

Benwell B, Procter J & Robinson G (eds.) (2012) Postcolonial Audiences: Readers, Viewers and Reception, First ed. Routledge Research in Postcolonial Literatures, 37. Abingdon, UK: Taylor & FRancis (Routledge).


Book Chapter

Benwell B, Procter J & Robinson G (2012) That's maybe where I come from but that’s not how I read: Diaspora, Location and Reading Identities. In: Benwell B, Procter J & Robinson G (eds.) Postcolonial Audiences: Readers, Viewers and Reception. Routledge Research in Postcolonial Literatures, 37. Abingdon, UK: Taylor & Francis (Routledge), pp. 43-56. https://www.routledge.com/Postcolonial-Audiences-Readers-Viewers-and-Reception-1st-Edition/Benwell-Procter-Robinson/p/book/9780415888714


Other

Benwell B (Editor), Procter J (Editor) & Robinson G (Editor) (2011) Reading After Empire: Special Issue of New Formations. New Formations: A Journal of Culture, Theory, Politics, (73). http://www.newformations.co.uk/abstracts/nf73abstracts.html


Article

Benwell B, Procter J & Robinson G (2011) Not reading Brick Lane. New Formations, 73, pp. 64-90. http://www.newformations.co.uk/abstracts/nf73abstracts.html


Book Chapter

Benwell B (2009) Masculinity and men’s magazines. In: Simpson P & Mayr A (eds.) Language and Power: A Resource Book for Students. Routledge English Language Introductions. London: Routledge, pp. 172-179. http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415469005/


Book Chapter

Benwell B & Stokoe E (2009) University students resisting academic identity. In: Griffiths P, Merrison A & Bloomer A (eds.) Language in use: A reader. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 82-97. http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415442053/


Book Chapter

Beynon J & Benwell B (2008) Masculinity and the Media. In: Donsbach W (ed.) International Encyclopedia of Communication. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell. http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1405131993.html


Book Review

Benwell B (2007) Speaking Out: The female voice in public contexts. Review of: Speaking Out: The Female Voice in Public Contexts, Dr Judith Baxter ed. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2006, 288 pp. ISBN-13: 978-1403994080. Journal of Gender Studies, 16 (2), pp. 192-194.


Book Review

Benwell B (2007) The Sociolinguistics of Narrative. Review of: Discourse and Identity. Bethan Benwell and Elizabeth Stokoe. Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press. 2006. 314 pp. ISBN 0-748-61750-7. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 11 (1), pp. 116-121. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2007.00312_7.x


Authored Book

Benwell B & Stokoe E (2006) Discourse and Identity. 1st ed. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.


Book Chapter

Benwell B & Stokoe E (2004) University students resisting academic identity. In: Richards K & Seedhouse P (eds.) Applying Conversation Analysis. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 124-140. http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=269707


Book Review

Benwell B (2004) Making Sense of Men’s Magazines. Review of:
Peter Jackson, Nick Stevenson and Kate Brooks, London: Polity, 2001, 224 pp, ISBN 9780745621753. Media, Culture and Society, 26 (3), pp. 459-461. https://doi.org/10.1177/0163443704042563


Book Chapter

Benwell B (2003) Introduction: Masculinity and men's lifestyle magazines. In: Benwell B (ed.) Masculinity and Men's Lifestyle Magazines. Sociological Review Monographs. Oxford: Blackwell, pp. 6-29. http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-1405114630.html


Book Chapter

Benwell B (2002) Is there anything "new" about these lads?: The textual and visual construction of masculinity in men's magazines. In: Litosseliti L & Sunderland J (eds.) Gender Identity and Discourse Analysis. Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture, No 2. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 149-174. http://benjamins.com/#catalog/books/dapsac.2/main


Book Review

Benwell B (2002) Good To Talk?. Review of: Good To Talk?: Living and Working in a Communication Culture, Deborah Cameron, London: Sage, 2000, 213 pp., ISBN 9780761957713. Media, Culture and Society, 24 (3), pp. 443-444. https://doi.org/10.1177/016344370202400310


Book Review

Benwell B (2000) Star Authors: Literary Celebrity in America. Review of:
Joe Moran, London/Sterling, VA: Pluto Press, 2000, 192 pp, ISBN 978-0745315195. Media, Culture and Society, 22 (6), pp. 853-855. https://doi.org/10.1177/016344300022006010