Paul Kerswill


Paul Kerswill, FBA, is a sociolinguist. Since 2012, he has been professor in the department of language and linguistic science at the University of York. After completing his undergraduate degree and doctorate at Gonville and [Caius College, Cambridge], he was a research assistant from 1985 to 1986 at the University of Cambridge, before working as a lecturer at the University of Reading until his appointment in 2004 as a professor at Lancaster University.

Work

Kerswill has written several papers and done lectures, including a TED talk, on the subject of Multicultural London English, a sociolect spoken in London.

Honours

In July 2017, Kerswill was elected a Fellow of the British Academy, the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and social sciences.

Selected works

  • Dialect Change: Convergence and Divergence in European languages.
  • The SAGE handbook of Sociolinguistics.