Professor Brian Street - In memoriam
We are very sad that Professor Street passed away on Wednesday 21st June 2017, after a period of ill health. Our thoughts are with his family at this time.
Professor Street studied English and Anthropology at Oxford. His ground-breaking anthropological research in the literacy practices of everyday people in an Iranian village gave rise to the concepts of ‘autonomous’ literacy and ‘ideological’ literacy. These concepts have shaped thinking in applied and social linguistics, composition studies, international development, language and literacy education, and other disciplines here in the UK and many other countries.
Professor Street joined our School in 1996 from Sussex University and retired from his full-time post in 2010. He continued to give lectures and publish after his retirement around the world. Generations of students have benefitted from his research and teaching. As colleagues we all appreciated his love for ideas and his dedication to education and research. He wore his high intellect lightly. He was always generous with his time and sensitive in his advice. He was primus inter pares. Our fields will be much poorer without him.
Read more about Brian Street's life and work here.