2024

November 

Arlene Holmes-Henderson and Tom F. Wright will be running a special Oracy action research training day for the English Speaking Union at Darmouth House central London 

October 

The Speaking Citizens team will host a special event at Europe House, Westminster, London, alongside the English Association on 'Connecting Communities' Details here

Tom F. Wright will be talking about the pioneering educational ideas of Bronson Alcott, father of the author of Little Women, a special edition of BBC Radio 4's flagship arts and ideas show In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg.

May

Tom F. Wright was interviewed for an episode of the Oracy Commission's 'Oracy Conversations Podcast, in which he discussed the underappreciated history of radical elocution with host Geoff Barton. You can listen to the episode here

Arlene Holmes Henderson was interviews for an episode of the Oracy Commission's Oracy Conversations podcast, talking to Geoff Barton about what we can learn about oracy education from the ancient world, why more young people should be studying 'rhetoric' and the myths about oracy and citizenship we should be challenging. You can listen to the episode here.

March

Stephen Coleman was appointed an official commissioner to the Commission on the Future of Oracy Education in England. This independent Commission was formed to respond to a growing recognition of the importance of spoken language on children's learning and their lives beyond school. Stephen is one of an expert panel acrosss education, industry and civil society and his evidence will be shaping education policy in future governments. More information here

January 

Arlene Holmes-Henderson and Tom Wright ran the second year of our action research project partnership with the English Speaking Union at Dartmouth House in central London. 

2023

September

Stephen Coleman, Tom Wright and Hester Barron gave a seminar on 'The Politics of Oracy' at the University of Sussex. View the slides here

July  

Tom Wright gave an invited lecture on his research into 'articulacy' in the nineteenth century at the University of Regensburg, Germany as part of a special conference on Victorian Orality. Details here

April

Tom Wright gave an invited lecture on his research into 'articulacy' in the nineteenth century at the London Nineteenth Century Seminar at Senate House, University of London.

January

Arlene Holmes-Henderson and Tom Wright launched a Speaking Citizens 'Action Research project' partnership with the English Speaking Union to share findings with teachers from over 20 schools across England and Wales, at Dartmouth House in central London. 

2022

March 

Tom Wright appeared on BBC Radio's flagship ideas discussion programme In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg on the topic of 'Charisma' alongside Linda Woodhead of King's College London, and David Bell of Princeton. You can listen to the recording here.

January

Arlene Holmes-Henderson and Tom Wright spoke at 'Speaking Freely: Finding Words', a special event at the University of London's School of Advanced Study co-convened by the Institute of Historical Research and Institute for Classical Studies. Details here

2021

October 

Arlene Holmes-Henderson and Tom Wright spoke at the Reuters Institute at the University of Oxford on the idea of the inarticulate citizen and the importance of classical rhetoric

July

Stephen Coleman was a keynote speaker at Oracy@Cambridge's 2021 online Conference on 'Changing Minds' at the University of Cambridge

June 

Speaking Citizens hosted a session on 'Powerful Protest: How Does Language Enhance Activism' as part of the Sussex Festival of Ideas. You can watch the event here:

April

Tom F. Wright spoke about nineteenth century black female public speakers at the British Association for American Studies Digital Conference.

March

Our entire team spoke at an online Public Seminar discussing the status of our project a year in. You can watch a recording of that event here:

Tom F. Wright and Arlene Holmes-Henderson spoke at a 'Rhetoric in the Humanities' event at the Centre for Intellectual History at the University of Sussex

Tom F. Wright spoke about the radical history of c18th elocution at a special research seminar at the Université de Bordeaux-Montaigne, France. 

February 

- Stephen Coleman, Arlene Holmes-Henderson, Stuart Dunmore and Tom F. Wright addressed the research seminar of the Cambridge Educational Dialogue Research centre (CEDiR) at the University of Cambridge. You can watch a recording of that session here.

- Stuart Dunmore presented at the Research on Language and Linguistics at Sussex (ROLLS) seminar on 'Ethnolinguistic identity in a transatlantic minority: Gaelic in contemporary Canada'

To find out more see: http://sussexlinguists.blogspot.com/ 

- Stuart Dunmore, Arlene Holmes-Henderson and Tom F. Wright spoke at the Language in Context Seminar at the University of Edinburgh