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Barbara Strang Memorial Lectures

This free public lecture series is named after Professor Barbara Strang (1925-1982), who was the first incumbent of a Chair in English Language and General Linguistics established at Newcastle University in 1964. Her research expertise was very wide ranging, extending from reviews on the acquisition of language in developmental medicine and child neurology to the history of the Kentish dialect. Barbara was also the driving force behind the Tyneside Linguistic Survey which became the backbone of the digital twenty-first century DECTE corpus, allowing her legacy to live on in ways that she herself could never have predicted. It was her monographs Modern English Structure (1962) and A History of English (1970), though, which established her reputation for what the late Sir Randolph Quirk in his foreword to An Historic Tongue (1988) (also dedicated to her memory) described as “sparkling intellect and originality” and “unshakeable dedication to the most demanding standards of scholarship.” 

Barbara Strang

This virtual, bi-annual public lecture series to celebrate Barbara’s many achievements is supported by NU INSIGHTS and is free and open to all.  

The inaugural lecture will be delivered by Joan Beal, Professor Emeritus in the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics, Sheffield University and a former student of Barbara’s at Newcastle. She is also well-known for her research on the history of English and dialects of British English. It takes place on May 20th at 5pm (further details to follow).