Dr Lawson’s current research activity centres on the intersection of language and masculinities in a range of online and offline contexts, including newspapers, television shows, social media sites, and fatherhood forums. He has also written extensively on language and impact and has developed ways of integrating applied language studies into undergraduate curricula, helping students foster internal and external collaborative partnerships to investigate language use in a range of institutional and organisational contexts. He is also working on an international collaboration about discourses surrounding climate activism in online spaces.
Dr Lawson's research interests include:
- Sociolinguistics,
- Language and Gender,
- Ethnography,
- Language in the public eye,
- Language in the media,
- Research application and impact
Robert is also interested in how language is used in society and how sociolinguistic research can help improve human wellbeing in a variety of contexts.
Thesis
A sociolinguistic ethnography of language, masculinity and identity among urban adolescent males in Glasgow.
Dr Lawson accepts PhD students in the fields of sociolinguistics, language and gender, language and masculinities, and language and social media. Applications which have an applied language studies component are especially welcomed.
Monographs
Forthcoming. The Linguistic Construction of Contemporary Masculinities: Cultures, Contexts, Constraints. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Edited Volumes
In preparation. Discourses of Digital Masculinities. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2016. Sociolinguistic Research: Application and Impact (with Dr Dave Sayers). Oxon: Routledge.
2014. Sociolinguistics in Scotland. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Journal Articles
2020. Language and Masculinities: History, Development, Future. Annual Review of Linguistics, 6. 409-434
2019. (with Dr. Ursula Lutzky) Gender politics and discourses of #mansplaining, #manspreading, and #manterruption on Twitter. Social Media+Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305119861807.
2016. (with Dr. Ursula Lutzky) Not getting a word in edgeways? Language, gender and identity in a British comedy panel show. Discourse, Context and Media, 13: 143-153.
2014 ‘Don’t even [θ/f/h]ink aboot it’: An ethnographic investigation of social meaning, social identity and (θ) variation in Glasgow. John Benjamins. English World Wide, 35 (1): 68-93.
2013. The construction of 'tough' masculinity: Negotiation, resistance and acceptance. Gender and Language, 7 (3): 369-395.
2011. Patterns of Linguistic Variation among Glaswegian Adolescent Males. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 15 (2): 226 - 255.
Book Chapters
2018 (with Dr. Esther Asprey). English and social identity. In Stephen Pihlaja, Ann Hewings, and Philip Seargent (eds.), The Routledge Handbook in English Language Studies. Oxon: Routledge.
2016. A different drum: Social media and the communication of sociolinguistic research. In Robert Lawson and Dave Sayers (eds.), Sociolinguistic Research: Application and Impact, 171-192. Oxon: Routledge.
2016 (with Dr. Dave Sayers). Where we’re going, we don’t need roads: The past, present, and future of impact. In Robert Lawson and Dave Sayers (eds.), Sociolinguistic Research: Application and Impact, 1-22. Oxon: Routledge.
2015. Fight narratives, covert prestige and performances of ‘tough’ masculinity: Some insights from an urban centre. In Tommaso M. Milani (ed.), Language and Masculinities: Performances, Intersections, Dislocations. Oxon: Routledge. 53-76.
2014. Introduction: An overview of language in Scotland. In Robert Lawson (ed.), Sociolinguistics in Scotland. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 1-14.
2014. What can ethnography tell us about sociolinguistic variation over time?: Some insights from Glasgow. In Robert Lawson (ed.), Sociolinguistics in Scotland. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 197-219.
As module leader for Applied Sociolinguistics, Dr Lawson works with his students to develop case studies which investigate the role of language in different organisational and institutional contexts, offering interventions and solutions to issues of communication, dissemination and outreach. Partners have included the Wolverhampton Art Gallery and the Black Country Museum, as well as different university departments within BCU.
