Academic profile
My research interests focus on languages and intercultural studies, with a particular critical concern for the different ways in which people learn to live and communicate together. My work is often interdisciplinary and draws on the resources of social and cultural anthropology, folklore, theatre and cultural studies, theology, law, modern languages and education. My Ph.D. research and ethnographic training focused on open air community theatre in Germany. I have continued ethnographic work among tourists, modern language students, and adult learners of tourist languages.
At present I am focusing on an ethnographic study of befriending and accompaniment among aslyum seekers and in contexts marked by violence with a particular focus languaging in the work of intercultural justice.
I am concerned to address the question of how it is that people of different languages and cultures encounter each other and how the contexts of their everyday encounters - formal education, tourism, theatre, asylum seeking and through the law - shape these encounters. I am a passionate linguist and lucky to have been able to collaborate with colleagues and students equally keen to explore creative ways of addressing the complex and changing landscape in modern languages and intercultural studies.
I continue to develop my research into languages and intercultural pedagogy as an education for peace, with a growing focus on constructions of faith and on the contribution of theological perspectives.
I welcome applications from potential research students in all of these areas.
My first full collection of poetry was published in 2009 Through Wood. Further poetry writing at present is concerned with a study of the elements: Air, Water, Fire, Earth and their relationship to language, lore and pedagogy.
Research interests
Modern Languages, Intercultural Education, Tourism Studies, European Anthropology, Social and Cultural Theory, Theology, Higher Education Studies, Community Theatre, Critical Pedagogy, Cultural Studies, Humanities Education.
Selected publications
Phipps, A. 2007 Learning the Arts of Linguistic Survival: Languaging, Tourism, Life Clevedon: Multilingual Matters / Channel View (BAAL prize publisher's nomination).
Jack, G. & Phipps, A. 2005 Tourism and Intercultural Exchange: Why Tourism Matters Clevedon: Multilingual Matters / Channel View.
Phipps, A. & Gonzalez, M. 2004 Modern Languages: Learning and Teaching in an Intercultural Field London : Sage.
Phipps, A., 2007 The Sound of Higher Education: Sensuous Epistemologies and the Mess of Knowing London Review of Education 5(1), pp.1-15.
Phipps A. 2001 Measuring Performance: Some Alternative Indicators In M. Walker Reconstructing Professionalism in University Teaching Buckingham: Open University Press.
Forthcoming Publications
Critical and Intercultural Theory and Language Pedagogy edited with Glenn Levine and accepted for publication in the yearly volume of the American Association of University Supervisors and Coordinators (AAUSC), published by Heinle. The AAUSC is the professional organization of university language program directors in the US and Canada (http://www.aausc.org/index.html).
Grants and awards
AHRC, Research leave award, £14,013
AHRB Postgraduate Training Grant 2004: £2000
British Academy overseas conference award, 2003, £512
AHRB Study leave award, 2000: £6467.
Stirling University Faculty award: £1500 (50% with Gavin Jack).
British Academy Postgraduate Studentship, 1994-1995.
University of Sheffield 'fees only' bursary, 1993-1994.
Leverhulme Study Abroad Studentship, 1992-1993: £10000 + car & research expenses.
DAAD research award 1992-1993 (not taken up).
Petrie Watson Travel Bursary, University of Sheffield 1992: £1000
Research collaborations
2007- Visiting Fellow: Institut für interkulturelle Kommunitkation, Universität Passau, Germany.
2006- Visiting Research Fellow: Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change, Leeds Metropolitan University.
2000-2006: Visiting Fellow: Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change, Sheffield Hallam University.
2005- Associate Researcher, Centro Estudos Sociais, Universidade de Coimbra, Portugual.
2000: Visiting Scholarship, Department of German, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA, Fall Semester.
Consulting and advice
Senior Policy Advisor: British Council 2008-
CILT: National Centre for Languages, Advisor, National Occupational Standards for intercultural working. 2007-2008
New Routes into Languages, University of Westminster 2007-2008
Open University 2007: External Assessor curriculum and media.
AHRC Programme Decision Making Structure Review 2007 -2008
ICOPROMO, European Leonardo Project on Professional Mobility and Intercultural Competence 2003-6.
Academic and professional body membership
Chair: International Association for Languages and Intercultural Communication (IALIC) 1999-2004.
Fellow: Royal Society of Arts.
Advisory Board Member: LTSN Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies 1999-2005.
Advisory Board Member: Scottish LTSN Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies.Member: 2004-2008.
Association of Social Anthropologists.
Anthropology of Britain network.
International Association for Languages and Intercultural Communication.
International Society for Critical Language Studies
Humanities Education Research Group
Additional information
Journal and book series editorships
