As Professor of Communication in the Business School I teach and research across a number of areas usually associated with different departments: public relations (in our Marketing Department); intellectual property and media law.(in our Law Department); and more general professional communication (in our Business and Management Department).

The main points of focus in my work are:

  • Questions of meaning and interpretationin (e.g. in media law and regulation)
  • Intellectual property, esp. copyright and trademarks
  • Cultural 'keywords' in public debate (e.g. in business, politics and the wider social 'conversation')

PhD (Trinity College Cambridge - 1980)

BA (Double First-Class Hons) and Senior Scholar (Trinity College Cambridge - 1976)

Research projects

Member of steering group and website editor, ‘Keywords Project’, investigating complex words which cause problems in contemporary policy and cultural debate (and extending Raymond Williams’s KEYWORDS (1976/1983). Jointly funded by Jesus College, University of Cambridge, and University of Pittsburgh. http://keywords.pitt.edu/ .

Selected publications, 2008 onwards

In press

(with Montgomery, Furniss and Mills), WAYS OF READING: Advanced Reading Skills for Students of Literature, 4th, revised edition (Routledge, 2012).

‘Reading cases in interdisciplinary studies of law and literature’, in Marco Wan (ed), THE LEGAL CASE: CROSS-CURRENTS BETWEEN LAW AND THE HUMANITIES (Routledge, 2012).

2011

(with Jennifer Davis), ‘To protect or not to protect? The eligibility of commercially-used short verbal texts for copyright and trade mark protection’, INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY QUARTERLY, (4), 345-70.

(With Ifan Shepherd), ‘“Culture” and “Communication” in Intercultural Communication’, in, Ian Mackenzie (ed.), INTERCULTURAL NEGOTIATIONS (Routledge, 2010), pp.13-28. Earlier version published in EUROPEAN JOURNAL OF ENGLISH STUDIES, volume 13 number 2 (2009), 147-62. [ISSN 1382-5577]

2010

MEANING IN THE MEDIA: DISCOURSE, CONTROVERSY AND DEBATE, Cambridge University Press. xii + 254pp. [ISBN978-0-521-19958-2 hardback; 978-0-521-13640-2 paperback]

‘How does ‘substantial similarity of expression’ in infringement actions look from a linguistic point of view?’, in, Lionel Bently, Jennifer Davis & Jane Ginsberg (eds), COPYRIGHT AND PIRACY: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CRITIQUE (CUP, 2010), pp.147-93.

2009

(with Marina Lambrou), LANGUAGE AND MEDIA (Routledge). xvii + 269pp. [ISBN 0-415-47573-2 hardback; 0-415-47574-0 paperback]

2008

‘How can I tell the trade mark on a piece of gingerbread from all the other marks on it? Naming and meaning in verbal trademark signs’, in, Lionel Bently, Jennifer Davis & Jane Ginsberg (eds), TRADE MARKS AND BRANDS (CUP, 2008), pp.107-140

‘“The significance is in the selection’: identifying contemporary keywords’, CRITICAL QUARTERLY 50 nos.1-2 (2008), 122-144

Earlier books

(with Nigel Fabb), HOW TO WRITE ESSAYS AND DISSERTATIONS: a guide for English Literature students. 2nd revised edition (Pearson, 2005). v + 186pp. [ISBN 0 582 78455 7]

(Edited with introduction, editorial notes, glossary, student tasks and accompanying CD, Thomas Hardy’s TESS OF THE D’URBERVILLES, Penguin Classics (Student Edition). (Penguin, 2002), xiv + 596pp. [ISBN 0-14-081793-X]

(with Nigel Fabb), LITERARY STUDIES IN ACTION (Routledge, London and NY, 1990), 130,000 words. xiv + 224pp. [ISBN 0-415-03931-2; 0-415-02945-7] [Also Chinese edition, in English, by World Publishing Corporation, Beijing, 1992. ISBN 7-5062-1450-4/I].

(ed, with Fabb, Attridge and MacCabe), THE LINGUISTICS OF WRITING: Arguments between language and literature (Manchester University Press, UK; Routledge, USA, 1987). [0-7190-2335-1; 0-7190-2336-X] [Also translated into Spanish, by Carlos Piera, Visor, Madrid, 1990] ISBN 84-7774-854-3. vii + 325pp.

CONDITIONS OF MUSIC (Macmillan, 1984), 80,000 words. ISBN 0-333-33166-4; 0-333-37277-8 pbk. In USA, SUNY Press, 1984. x + 256pp. [ISBN 0-88706-015-3; 0-88706-017-X]

EZRA POUND, IDENTITY IN CRISIS: A Fundamental Reassessment of the Poet and his Work (Harvester and Barnes and Noble, 1981). x + 206pp. [ISBN 0-389-20197-9]

Further publications are listed (and some are downloadable) at Middlesex E-prints: http://eprints.mdx.ac.uk/

Media

Producer, 65 minute television documentary (Channel 4), 'BIG WORDS... SMALL WORLDS', based on 'Linguistics of Writing' conference, with additional interviews. Script and narration by David Lodge (TX: November 1987). Can be viewed online at: http://keywords.pitt.edu/

Producer and offline-editor, 30 minute documentary (Channel 4), CULTURAL POLITICS OF DIFFERENCE: commentary by Cornel West on black cultural politics in cinema and television, comparing USA and UK (TX: 28 May 1991).

Producer, non-broadcast 40-minute Broken English Productions / BFI video, 'TOWARDS 2000: THE RAYMOND WILLIAMS FORUM' (participants: Edward Said, Stuart Hall, Juliet Mitchell & Cornel West), 1995. Can be viewed online at: http://keywords.pitt.edu/

Televison and radio interviews (various)

Lectures, short courses, projects and visiting fellowships

Visiting Fellow, Tokyo University (School of Language and Information Sciences), Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, 2000.

Lectures, short programmes, and consultancy projects for the British Council and other organisations in more than twenty-five countries around the world, 1986 onwards.

External examining

Programmes

Goldsmiths, University of London; Manchester University; University of Central Lancashire; University of Bangor; University of Edinburgh.

PhDs

Complutense University Madrid (UCM); UPM Malaysia; University College, London; University of Nottingham; Open University; Edinburgh University; Hong Kong University; University of Lausanne, Switzerland; UNISA, South Africa; University of Kerala, India.

  • Public language and information, including in public relations and advertising
  • Topics in intellectual property and media law, especially copyright and trade marks

Previous posts include:

1997-2007 Professor of English & Communication Studies, School of Arts & Education, Middlesex University

1993-1997 Professor and Head of the School of English, Cultural and Communication Studies, Middlesex University

1991-3 Professor and Head of the Department of English, University of London, Goldsmiths' College.

1986-1990 Director of the Programme in Literary Linguistics and Senior Lecturer, University of Strathclyde;