Yaron Matras
Yaron Matras is a linguist with an interest in urban multilingualism, language policy, languages of the Middle East, Romani, German dialects and contact linguistics. He is British Academy Wolfson Professorial Fellow, Fellow of the Hanse Institute for Advanced Study and Honorary Professor at the Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics. Until 2020 he was Professor of Linguistics at the University of Manchester, where he founded and led the Multilingual Manchester project. For more information and an overview of academic and public engagement work including publications see https://yaronmatras.org/.
Qaisra Shahraz
Qaisra Shahraz MBE JP FRSA is the Founder and Executive Director of MACFEST, Muslim Arts and Culture Festival, Muslim Women’s Arts Foundation and MACFEST Heritage Tours. A critically acclaimed novelist, scriptwriter, she is a prize-winning peace and gender activist, a magistrate and a former Ofsted inspector and teacher trainer. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a literary judge including for The Writer’s Guild of Great Britain, she is a former Director of Gatehouse Books and advisor to Asia Pacific Writers & Translators partnership.
She is the author of three novels, The Holy Woman, Typhoon, Revolt and two collections of short stories, A Pair of Jeans and Other Stories and The concubine and the Slave Catcher. A critical analysis of her works has been done in a book entitled The Holy and the Unholy: Critical Essays on Qaisra Shahraz’s Fiction (2011). She has appeared in many international writers’ festivals. Her award-winning drama serial Dil Hee To Hai was broadcast on Pakistani Television in 2003. Her work is translated into several languages and three of her stories A Pair of Jeans, The elopement and Escape are used in German schools as a literary text.
Qaisra has won several awards, including the prestigious National Diversity, Lifetime Achiever Award for services to ‘Literature, Education, Gender and Interfaith Relationships’ (2016) and an MBE for Services to Gender Equality and Cultural Learning (2020). In 2018, she gained the University of Salford, Alumni Achievement Award for achieving distinction in her multiple careers and contributions to the arts and community cohesion.
In 2017, Qaisra was recognised by ‘Lovin Manchester’ as number 1 in a list of 50 Most Influential Women in Manchester, one of 100 influential Pakistani women in Pakistan Power 100 List and included in the Muslim Power 100 list (2018).
Greg Morrison
Greg Morrison is currently Associate Assistant Headteacher at Burnage Academy for Boys in south Manchester, and is responsible for the Languages and EAL Faculty. The school is incredibly linguistically diverse, with approximately 40 different languages being spoken by the student population. During his time at the school, he has launched the Young Interpreter Scheme and supported the vast expansion and celebration of additional language GCSEs. This helps pupils to value and respect their languages, both those studied in school and those spoken in the community.
Greg has taught both French and English here in Manchester and in France. His passion for languages stems began through voluntary work with CISV, and an interest in how relationships form despite cultural and linguistic differences. He also holds an MA Education in which he focused on student identity.
Becky Swain
Becky Swain is Director of Manchester Poetry Library, the North West’s first public poetry library, which opened in 2021 at Manchester Metropolitan University and celebrates language in all of its diversity. She has experience leading arts, literature and multilingual programmes at organisations including Arvon, Creative Partnerships, and Creativity Culture and Education, and is an experienced youth worker, English and Drama teacher, coach and arts learning facilitator. A Clore Fellow (2009), and a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts, she is a member of the Advisory Group and Young Poets’ Stories, a poetry writing development research.
Ivan Wadeson
Ivan is Executive Director of Manchester City of Literature, the charity set-up in 2019 to manage the city’s UNESCO designation on behalf of Manchester City Council, Manchester Metropolitan University, the University of Manchester and the city’s writers, publishers, literary organisations and festivals. Designated cities are recognised for their commitment to make culture and creativity a driving force for sustainable development and urban regeneration.
Prior to this Ivan has over twenty five years’ experience of working at senior levels in the cultural sector. This includes extensive periods at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Arts About Manchester, All About Audiences, The Dukes in Lancaster and Dance Consortia North West. Ivan is a Trustee at the outdoor arts consortium Without Walls. He is a Fellow of the RSA and a Common Purpose graduate. He has lived in Manchester for over twenty years.
Daniele Viktor Leggio
Daniele Viktor Leggio is an independent researcher and former lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Manchester. His research combines sociolinguistics, ethnolinguistics, migration and diaspora studies, language policy and planning, computer-mediated communication and Romani studies. He has coordinated the MigRom Project’s engagement scheme with young Roma migrants in Manchester, facilitating their contacts with City Council representatives and other community groups. His personal profile and publications can be seen here.
Ian Cushing
Dr Ian Cushing is Senior Lecturer in Critical Applied Linguistics at Manchester Metropolitan University, where he teaches on programmes concerning critical sociolinguistics, language and social justice, and language in education policy. His research examines how language ideologies and policies cause harm to marginalised communities in schools, and how these are shaped by long histories of colonialism, anti-Blackness and white supremacy. He works closely with teachers and students in designing anti-racist approaches to language policy. Current projects are funded by the Spencer Foundation, the British Association of Applied Linguistics, and the British Academy/Leverhulme. His work has appeared in journals including Language in Society, Race Ethnicity & Education, Language Policy and Critical Inquiry in Language Studies. His full academic profile is here.
John Claughton
In his declining years, John Claughton has been the co-founder of WoLLoW, World of Languages and Languages of the World, a languages programme which aims to give value to the multilingualism of today’s pupils – and to challenge the current focus on ‘Modern Foreign Languages’. Before that decline he got a Double First in Classics at Oxford University, taught Classics at Eton College for 17 years, was Headmaster of Solihull School from 2001-2005 and, finally, Chief Master of King Edward’s School, Birmingham – where he was educated. In 2016 he was given the lifetime achievement award at the TES Independent Schools Awards and won the Tatler Independent Head of the Year. He is also an Honorary Research Fellow at Manchester University has published works on Herodotus and Aristophanes for Cambridge University Press. Finally, he was out for 0 at Old Trafford on his County Championship debut for Warwickshire in August 1980.
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