The Backstage Academic

This time we are exploring the surprisingly sociological book, The Mighty Dead: Why Homer Matters. As usual we cover a lot of ground, from poetry, writing style, oral history, to the urban and the rural, the origins of violence/gangs. There even some reflections around masculinity and intimacy in war.

Join me and my co host Saiqa as we explore the wonderful world of language and accents for this fascinating book review 'Your All Talk: why we are what we speak'. We discuss class, identity, inequality, prejudice around accents, history of speech, and share plenty of our personal experiences on the subject.

In the second part of the episode I am also joined by Rob Drummond himself (author) to give us the low down on his book, the challenges of writing, and some great advice around how to write one too.

About the Author:

Rob Drummond is Professor of Sociolinguistics at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he researches and teaches about the relationship between how we speak and who we are. He recently completed a large project exploring the accents and dialects of Greater Manchester, touring the region in his Accent Van. He appears regularly on radio and TV talking about language-related issues and spent some time as ‘resident linguist’ on BBC Radio 3’s The Verb, as well as appearing on the BBC Breakfast sofa.

More info can be found here:

https://scribepublications.co.uk/books-authors/books/youare-all-talk-9781914484285

You can order his book here:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Youre-All-Talk-what-speak/dp/1914484282

County Lines is a form of criminal activity that utilises/exploits vulnerable people such as children, to create networks for the supply of illegal substances. The vulnerable individuals are exploited by gangs in a range of ways, from illegal transport, storing substances at their residences and even used in the selling itself. We are joined by Gary Stratton D/Insp County Lines Investigation, INV Syndicate County Lines Investigation. Along with colleague Zoe MacDonald, a DI in charge of the county lines task force within GMP who has been in the police for 25 years, working all over the force in various different roles and rank and headed up the County Lines team since July 2022. Both will discuss the risks, the warning signs to look at for and how they combat this criminality in their work.

Conducting research in the field can be one of the most ethically fraught experiences of your career (maybe even life), and this can become even more salient if you are working with populations that are in some ways marginal and/or vulnerable. This episode should be especially useful to PhD students/early year researchers who are about to enter the field and would like to know about some of the ethical/moral challenges that they will face. We tackle:

What does ‘informed’ consent really mean? And is it truly possible?

How do you navigate feelings of guilt?

Will your research have an impact on you?

What does the blurring of boundaries mean for you as a researcher and as a person?

Does it have implications for your own sense of identity?

Why do your previous experiences/perspectives matter?

I consider myself an ethnographic researcher looking into the experiences of rough sleepers here in Manchester. To help me discuss some of these complex questions I’m joined by phenomenological researcher Dr Steve Kelsey, who’s PhD was titled A Hermeneutic Phenomenological Study of the Lived Experience of Homeless Men. Steve has been working in the field of people and organisation development for over 25 years. Today he works around the world with organisations to deliver innovative development programmes, supporting strategic change and coaching business leaders. He brings his knowledge from psychology and a deep understanding of business to help solve problems and challenge unhelpful paradigms. His approach is both dynamic and sensitive,

You can see one of Steve’s pieces on homelessness for the Guardian here:

You can reach Steve here:

*spoilers - don't listen if you haven't watched the show yet*