Dr David Parkin
Senior Lecturer
Biography
Dr Harry Parkin is Senior Lecturer in English Language and the Programme Leader for the MRes in Storytelling, in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences at the University of Chester, UK. In addition to teaching and research, he engages in a range of schools outreach and public engagement activities, and is currently lead judge for the Cheshire Prize for Literature. He works with students and external stakeholders to explore ways in which surnames, place-names and historical aspects of the English language can enhance engagement with our local stories and histories. Harry is also an Affiliate of the University's Centre for Academic Innovation and Development (CAID). He has researched and taught a range of topics related to the English language, with a particular focus on the history of English, and has been part of a number of projects which involved collaboration with national and international partners.
Teaching and Supervision
Harry teaches a range of topics related to the English language across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. Topics include: the history of the English language; phonetics and phonology; syntax; morphology; discourse analysis; semantics; creativity in English; narrative theory; and onomastics. He supervises undergraduate, postgraduate taught and postgraduate research student projects, and designs, delivers and examines modules on English Language programmes. He also supervises and observes colleagues working towards fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.
Research and Knowledge Exchange
Harry's main research interests are in the history of the English language, in particular Middle English vocabulary, Middle English dialectology, and the use of onomastic (name) data for the analysis of regional dialect lexis and phonology. He is currently exploring the ways in which medieval tax documents can be used to further our understanding of Middle English dialect distribution, and the extent to which variation in name data differs from variation in other types of linguistic evidence. The study of names is one of his primary focuses, and he is the editor of the Concise Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain.