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.[6]
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, B.; George, Andrew; Perry, Ronald (1988). Cornwall at the Crossroads: Living Communities or Leisure Zone?. Cornish Social & Economic Research Group. ISBN0-9513918-0-1.
Deacon, B. (1989). Liskeard and its People in the 19th Century. ISBN0-9515355-0-1.
Deacon, B. (2001). The Reformulation of Territorial Identity: Cornwall in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Open University Press. OCLC59366043.
Deacon has prolific publications in learned journals.[11] The following were published in the Institute's journal (published by the University of Exeter Press):
Deacon, B. (2004). "From 'Cornish Studies' to 'Critical Cornish Studies': Reflections on Methodology". Cornish Studies. 2nd Series. 12: 13–29. ISBN978-0-85989-799-0.
Deacon, B. (2003). "Propaganda and the Tudor State or Propaganda of the Tudor Historians?". Cornish Studies. 2nd Series. 11: 317–28. ISBN0-85989-747-8.
Deacon, B. (2002). "The New Cornish Studies: New Discipline or Rhetorically Defined Space?". Cornish Studies. 2nd Series. 10: 24–33. ISBN0-85989-733-8.
Deacon, B. (2000). "In Search of the 'Missing Turn': The Spatial Dimension and Cornish Studies". Cornish Studies. 2nd Series. 8: 213–30. ISBN0-85989-682-X.
Deacon, B. (1998). "A Forgotten Migration Stream: The Cornish Movement to England and Wales in the Nineteenth Century". Cornish Studies. 2nd Series. 6: 96–117. ISBN0-85989-610-2.
Deacon, B. (1997). "Proto-industrialization and Potatoes: A Revised Narrative for 19th century Cornwall". Cornish Studies. 2nd Series. 5: 60–84. ISBN0-85989-551-3.
Deacon, B. (1996). "Language Revival and Language Debate: Modernity and Postmodernity". Cornish Studies. 2nd Series. 4: 88–106. ISBN0-85989-523-8.
Deacon, B. (1993). "Re-inventing Cornwall: Culture Change on the European Periphery". Cornish Studies. 2nd Series. 1: 62–79. ISBN0-85989-413-4.
Deacon, B. (1986). "Heroic Individualists: The Cornish Miners and the Five-Week Month". Cornish Studies. 1st Series. 14: 39–52.
Deacon, B. (1982). "Attempts at Unionism by Cornish Metal Miners in 1866". Cornish Studies. 1st Series. 10: 27–36.
^He should not be confused with Bernard Deacon (anthropologist) (1903–1927), who has an ODNB article by Jeremy MacClancy, 'Deacon, (Arthur) Bernard (1903–1927)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 21 May 2008