Dr. Lynda Mugglestone

Biography

Lynda Mugglestone is a faculty member at the University of Oxford, specializing in the history of the English language. She serves as a Tutorial Fellow at Pembroke College, where she teaches courses on language persuasion, historical phonology, and lexicography. Her publications include notable works such as 'Lost Words: Hidden History of the Oxford English Dictionary', 'Dictionaries: A Short Introduction', and 'Samuel Johnson: The Arc of the Pendulum'. Mugglestone has been awarded a Knowledge Exchange Fellowship associated with Johnson's House in London, aiming to curate a new interpretative exhibition that opens in July 2024. She has also received the Houghton Library Fellowship from Harvard University to further her work on Samuel Johnson's lexicography. Her teaching interests encompass a wide range of topics, including discourse analysis, language ideology, and the historical development of English from 1400 to the present. In addition to her academic roles, she has been involved in curatorial projects, recently planning an exhibition that highlights the contributions of Francis Barber in 2022. Mugglestone has contributed to various podcasts and blogs focusing on language change and its socio-political implications, particularly in the context of World War I.

Research Interests

Experience