About TRG

The Transliteracy Research Group is based at De Montfort University, Leicester, UK, in the Institute of Creative Technologies and the Faculty of Humanities. It is led by Sue Thomas, Professor of New Media, and Kate Pullinger, Reader in New Media.

Transliteracy is currently defined as the ability to read, write and interact across a range of platforms, tools and media from signing and orality through handwriting, print, TV, radio and film, to digital social networks. The Transliteracy Research Group coordinates theoretical and practice-based research into transliterate materials and behaviours.

Since transliteracy research began at DMU in 2005 under the umbrella of PART (Production & Research in Transliteracy), group members have produced a significant range of projects, events, presentations and publications. The Transliteracy Research Group aims to focus PART's work yet more closely, drawing in a broader coalition of theorists and practitioners, both from DMU and other institutions and organizations whilst continuing  to develop our already strong links with business, local community, and the broader cultural sector. Participants in transliteracy events at DMU have come from academia, the arts, information sciences, pedagogical researchers, and the creative industries.

Several projects associated with PART have already been funded by the AHRC (Tags, Narratives, Networks); Arts Council England (IOCT Writer-in-Residence; Flight Paths); HEIF (the NLab Network); the British Academy (The Wild Surmise) and most recently NESTA (Amplified Leicester). 

Current projects:

• Amplified Leicester
• CWNM New Media Writing Lecture Archive
• Flight Paths – Kate Pullinger
• The Wild Surmise – Sue Thomas
• African Writing and the Internet (PhD research, Anietie Isong)
• Emerging Platforms for Writers (PhD research, Alison Norrington)
• My Secret Blog: a year of writing and publishing in print and new media – Kate Pullinger
• Inanimate Alice and iStories – digital fiction and pedagogy
• Participatory Cultures: The Environment and Web 2.0
• Step Inside - a creative digital map that engages and challenges local people to be visitors in their own home town (with Multistory)
• Social Media Classroom (with Howard Rheingold)
• NLab: working with small businesses and new media

Past projects:

• The Million Penguins Wiki Novel
• Tags, Networks, Narrative
• Transliteracy Colloquium
• Transliteracy Unconference
• Transliteracy Workshop
• New Media Stories: Interactivity, Feminism, and Narrative Structures in New Media (PhD research, Jessica Laccetti)
• 2008 CWNM Student Showcase Publication
• Digital Livings