Uploaded May 2021 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Professor Joan Beal, University of Sheffield
In October 2020, a student from Gateshead hit the headlines with her report on the treatment of students from working-class backgrounds at an elite university. The Guardian reported other students coming forward with accounts of how mockery of their accents and backgrounds had undermined their confidence. Professor Joan Beal outlines the history of accent prejudice in Britain and discusses why it is still a problem in the 21st century.
Biography:
Joan Beal is Professor of English Language at the University of Sheffield and series editor for Edinburgh University Press's Dialects of English series. Before moving to Sheffield she spent 30 years at Newcastle University as a student and later as a senior lecturer in the School of English. She was co-investigator on the AHRC-funded Newcastle Electronic Corpus of Tyneside English and has given interviews on TV and radio and in the local and national press on the cultural importance of Geordie.
Live Q&A:
The lecture will be followed by a live Q&A with the speakers. You can submit a question during the event using YouTube Live Chat, via Twitter @InsightsNCL or by sending an email to public.lectures@ncl.ac.uk.
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We would appreciate it if you could complete a short survey, sharing your views on the INSIGHTS Virtual Lectures programme. We'll be collecting responses until Friday 21 May 2021.
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Professor Joan Beal, University of Sheffield
In October 2020, a student from Gateshead hit the headlines with her report on the treatment of students from working-class backgrounds at an elite university. The Guardian reported other students coming forward with accounts of how mockery of their accents and backgrounds had undermined their confidence. Professor Joan Beal outlines the history of accent prejudice in Britain and discusses why it is still a problem in the 21st century.
Biography:
Joan Beal is Professor of English Language at the University of Sheffield and series editor for Edinburgh University Press's Dialects of English series. Before moving to Sheffield she spent 30 years at Newcastle University as a student and later as a senior lecturer in the School of English. She was co-investigator on the AHRC-funded Newcastle Electronic Corpus of Tyneside English and has given interviews on TV and radio and in the local and national press on the cultural importance of Geordie.
Live Q&A:
The lecture will be followed by a live Q&A with the speakers. You can submit a question during the event using YouTube Live Chat, via Twitter @InsightsNCL or by sending an email to public.lectures@ncl.ac.uk.
-----------------------------------------------------------
INSIGHTS Survey: bit.ly/InsightsSurvey21
We would appreciate it if you could complete a short survey, sharing your views on the INSIGHTS Virtual Lectures programme. We'll be collecting responses until Friday 21 May 2021.
-----------------------------------------------------------
Thank you for watching.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: youtube.com/c/INSIGHTSPublicLecturesNCL
Follow INSIGHTS Public Lectures on Twitter: twitter.com/InsightsNCL
Visit the INSIGHTS Public Lectures Website: ncl.ac.uk/events/public-lectures
