Professor Anthony Grant on Morris Swadesh and the uses of adversity

Ever wondered where the fantasy languages in films like Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix came from? Newly appointed Edge Hill Professor Anthony Grant can help you find out.

Anthony will be holding his first inaugural lecture as Professor for the University on Wednesday, April 22^nd 2009. The lecture titled, Morris Swadesh and the Uses of Adversity, will cover topics including his interest in controversial American linguist, Morris Swadesh.

Professor Grant has previously been involved with the producers of the Harry Potter series, by creating the languages spoken by characters such as the Centaurs and Grawp, the giant half-brother of Hagrid.

Originally from Bradford, West Yorkshire, Anthony was interested in languages from a young age. He studied classical languages, ancient history and Russian at A-Level, while also being interested in Romani and in German dialectology.

Anthony took his first degree in Language and Linguistics at the University of York, going on to spend eight years in various roles at the University of Bradford, where he studied linguistics, examining an extinct Native American language of Texas for his Master of Philosophy degree.

He later studied agglutinated nominals in Creole French varieties for his PhD, whilst working on ancestral language revitalisation projects in Oregon and maintaining strong academic links with the University of Amsterdam and the University of California, Berkeley.

Before joining Edge Hill in 2003, Anthony taught at the University of Bradford, Manchester, St Andrews and Southampton and was a Research Associate with the National Centre for English Cultural Tradition at the University of Sheffield.

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