Along with packing his ideas, Michael Billig realized he may also have to bring Wellington boots, long underwear, and a jumper for his trek across the pond to chilly Iowa City.

Billig, a professor of social sciences at Loughborough University, will deliver the lecture “Why Social Scientists Love to Write Badly” at 7:30 p.m. today in the Main Library Shambaugh Auditorium.

The London native was named the Samuel L. Becker Distinguished Lecturer of 2009. The lectureship was established in 2001 at the UI, and it is awarded annually to those individuals nationally and internationally who have made important contributions in the communication field.

He is excited about traveling to Iowa for the first time in more than a decade, and said he is very flattered to be asked to speak. The lecture will focus on social scientists’ tendencies to hide their meanings behind seemingly incomprehensible language.

“A concern that I’ve had for a while [is that] often social scientists use a lot of technical words [and] jargon in their writing, and I’ve become rather skeptical about the use of technical language,” Billig said. “I’m trying to show why the language of social sciences is often more imprecise.”

Kristine Fitch, a UI professor of communication studies, praised Billig as someone who is easily accessible to general audiences.

“Anybody could come and probably find much to enjoy and be interested in,” she said.

When choosing a lecturer, the department strives to choose someone who has furthered the discipline as well as someone who will be of interest to the community as a whole.

“He is one of the smartest and most influential people in the interdisciplinary area represented by communication studies,” Fitch said. “He’s done a lot of things in very smart and original ways.”

Billig has written several books on topics ranging from fascism to rock ’n’ roll in the Jewish community. He believes it is the responsibility of older academics to make the case for clarity in writing.

“When I was a postgraduate student, I didn’t know whether I was stupid or the writing was bad. For years, I really struggled to understand things,” he said. “We make it unnecessarily difficult. I think often, we hide a lack of ideas behind a display of technical vocabulary.”

Billig’s affection for simple language stems, in part, from George Orwell’s 1946 essay “Politics of the English Language.” The piece had a profound effect on the professor.

“I think that is one of the most important and brilliant essays on the English language,” he said. “Academics should read it regularly. That has been an inspiration.”

Billig hopes to give confidence to postgraduate students who sometimes feel frustrated with challenging texts.

“If I can give confidence to any postgraduate who would otherwise lose confidence,” he said, “then I will be happy.”