Bernard W. Deacon is a multidisciplinary academic, based at the Institute of Cornish Studies of the University of Exeter at the Tremough Campus. He has an Open University doctorate and displays his thesis on the ICS website.
Deacon has worked for the Open University and Exeter University’s Department of Lifelong Learning. In 2001, he joined the Institute of Cornish Studies and is the director of the Institute's master's degree programme in Cornish Studies. His main research interests are:
18th and 19th century Cornish communities
The Cornish language and its revitalisation
Cornwall's population and how it has changed
How peripheral regions are governed
Who are the Cornish and how their identity is presented
Deacon is a fluent Cornish language speaker, and represents the Institute of Cornish Studies on the Cornish Language Partnership. In 2007, he was re-elected as Chairman of Cussel an Tavaz Kernuak (The Cornish language Council).
Cornwall at the crossroads : living communities or leisure zone?, with Andrew George and Ronald Perry. Cornish Social & Economic Research Group, 1988. ISBN 0-9513918-0-1
Liskeard & its People in the 19th Century. Self-published, 1989. ISBN 0-9515355-0-1
The reformulation of territorial identity : Cornwall in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Open University Press, 2001. OCLC 59366043
Mebyon Kernow and Cornish Nationalism, with Dick Cole and Garry Tregidga. Cardiff: Welsh Academic Press, 2003. ISBN 978-1-86057-075-9
The Cornish Family: the roots of our future; with Sharron Schwartz and David Holman; Cornwall Editions 2004. ISBN 1-904880-01-0
Cornwall: the Concise History, (The Histories of Europe series). Cardiff: University of Wales Press, (November 2007) ISBN 978-0-7083-2032-7 (hardback) 978-0-7083-2031-0 (paperback)
Cornwall and the Cornish; Penzance, Alison Hodge (2010) ISBN 978-0-906720-72-1 (small format paperback, lavishly illustrated).
The Land's End? The Great Sale of Cornwall; Cornish Social & Economic Research Group, 2013 ISBN 978-0-9513918-1-5 (paperback).
Deacon has prolific publications in learned journals. The following were published in the Institute's journal:
“Cornish or Klingon?: the standardization of the Cornish language”; Exeter, The University of Exeter Press; Cornish studies edited by Philip Payton, New series, No. Fourteen (2006). ISBN 978-0-85989-799-0, ISSN 1352-271X. pp 13–23.
"From 'Cornish Studies' to 'Critical Cornish Studies': reflections on methodology"; Cornish studies: Twelve (2004). ISBN 978-0-85989-799-0,pp. 13–29.
"Propaganda and the Tudor state or propaganda of the Tudor historians?; Cornish studies: Eleven (2003) ISBN 0-85989-747-8. pp.317–328.
"The New Cornish Studies: new discipline or rhetorically defined space?";Cornish studies: Ten (2002) ISBN 0-85989-733-8. pp. 24–33
"In Search of the 'Missing Turn': The Spatial Dimension and Cornish Studies";Cornish studies: Eight (2000) ISBN 0-85989-682-X.. pp. 213–230.
"Breaking the chains and forging new links"";Cornish studies: Eight (2000) ISBN 0-85989-682-X. pp. 231–234.
"A Forgotten Migration Stream: The Cornish Movement to England and Wales in the Nineteenth Century'"; Cornish studies: Six (1998) ISBN 0-85989-610-2 .pp. 96–117.
"Proto-industrialization and potatoes: a revised narrative for 19th century Cornwall" Cornish studies: Five (1997). ISBN 0-85989-551-3. pp. 60–84.
"Language Revival and Language Debate: Modernity and Postmodernity"; Cornish studies: Four (1996). ISBN 0-85989-523-8 pp. 88–106.
"Re-inventing Cornwall: Culture Change on the European Periphery" with Philip Payton; Cornish studies: One (1993). ISBN 0-85989-413-4 pp. 62–79
“Heroic individualists: the Cornish Miners and the Five-Week Month”, Cornish Studies (old series): 14 (1986) pp. 39–52.
“Attempts at Unionism by Cornish metal miners in 1866”, Cornish Studies (old series): 10 (1982) pp. 27–36.
Cornish surnames, their origin and spread
