Douglas, FM (2017) Using archives to conduct collaborative research on language and region. In: Montgomery, C and Moore, E, (eds.) Language and a Sense of Place: Studies in Language and Region. Studies in Language and Religion . Cambridge University Press , pp. 128-146. ISBN 9781316162477
Abstract
The Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture (LAVC) is a large, multimedia archive relating to the study of dialect and folk life in England. It comprises all of the materials from the Survey of English Dialects (conducted at the University of Leeds from the 1950s-60s, to date it is the only complete study of the dialects of England), and the output from Leeds’ former Institute of Dialect and Folk Life Studies (IDFLS), extant from 1964 until the early 1980s. The LAVC is a unique, valuable and important resource, but nowadays its use is mostly confined to ad-hoc consultation by individual researchers. The Language, History, Place project is breathing new life into this historical archive by re-birthing it for the twenty-first century. Working in collaboration with folk life museums’ contemporaneous collections of vernacular culture artefacts, it uses the LAVC as a catalyst for generating new and present-day linguistic research data through a programme of public engagement initiatives set within the local communities from which the archive materials originally came. This chapter explores the substantial research opportunities and benefits offered by reuniting tangible and intangible heritage within the museum context. Visitors are invited to respond and to collaborate with the project by contributing their own linguistic heritage via a series of enactive engagement activities (Hooper-Greenhill, 1994), thus providing new comparative language data and augmenting the archive. Also discussed are the intellectual and methodological challenges associated with trying to reuse archive data for purposes for which it was never originally intended. What is and is not possible, defensible, or allowable? And can one collect useful sociolinguistic research data using such methods, whilst at the same time significantly enriching museum collections and providing an enhanced, enjoyable and stimulating visitor experience?
Metadata
Item Type: | Book Section |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Editors: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2017 Cambridge University Press. This is an author produced version of a book chapter published in Language and a sense of place. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | Leeds Archive of Vernacular Culture; museums; dialect; enactive engagement; tangible and intangible heritage |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (Leeds) > School of English (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 17 Sep 2019 09:38 |
Last Modified: | 07 Apr 2021 15:15 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Cambridge University Press |
Series Name: | Studies in Language and Religion |
Identification Number: | 10.1017/9781316162477 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:85934 |