Hello again! Since sitting my last undergraduate exam at the end of May (and moving into the CASS centre only 3 days later) I’ve been dealing with a transition from the UG life I had once known to a new, postgraduate lifestyle. Something that certainly sped up this acclimatisation was the seventh international Corpus Linguistics conference (CL2013), which I attended last week as a student volunteer.

This was my first ever academic conference and, as you might expect, I approached the week with a lot of uncertainty in my mind. In terms of how the week would pan out I really had no idea what to expect and, among other things, I was a little nervous about meeting the faces behind some of the famous names I had read about in the corpus linguistics world. I was particularly excited about meeting a few people because I had read through most of the abstracts weeks in advance of the conference (most of my “CASS-time” in June was spent editing together the Word documents into a mahoosive, 370 page long abstract book…).

As a volunteer I spent most of my week wearing a beautifully designed bright blue t-shirt and a matching, equally beautiful bright green conference bag. Aside from setting international fashion trends, I got to sit in on most of the talks that tickled my fancy while helping out with any technical issues etc. All speakers (other than the daily plenaries) were given a 20 minute slot and then 10 minutes afterwards to answer any audience questions. It was fascinating to witness first hand the breadth and depth of research that is currently being advanced using corpus-based methods, as well as the really informative and productive discussions that followed each talk. I really got the sense that, despite everyone’s individual research interests, this was very much a community in which we’re all fighting the same metaphorical battle. And as the week went on I really started to get (admittedly geekily) excited about joining such a community of researchers.

As well as furthering my interest in the subject and witnessing how seriously it can be taken (there was a fairly animated discussion about p-values that I’ll not soon forget…) there were also some moments that I didn’t expect to enjoy as a conference blueshirt (yes, it became a noun). Interrupting Michael Hoey’s plenary talk to hand-deliver him my own bottle of water (after which he jokingly complained that it wasn’t beer); having a nice one-to-one with Guy Cook while escorting him back to the hotel; being in the same room as John Kirk whenever he started talking, and taking advantage of the free wine at the Gala dinner with David Wright were all highlights.

But, for me, the real highlight of the whole conference was the official CASS launch night.  I remember back in April a rushed conversation outside on campus with Amanda Potts (conference organiser), where she asked me if I wanted to present a poster at the CASS launch night. A poster of what? was my first thought (aside from the shock of being asked with a faceful of Greggs’ sausage roll…), since at the time I hadn’t even finished my degree and couldn’t think of anything I’d be confident enough in to unleash on anyone – let alone a room full of experienced corpus linguists and important people from the Home Office and the like. But of course I said yes and finished off my sausage roll wondering what I’d let myself in for.

When the time came to prepare something, I’d decided on an undergrad assignment that I completed for the corpus linguistics module only earlier this year. I had used corpus methods to compare the language of the MPs in favour of and against legalising the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill in a debate earlier this year. By sheer luck, the bill was indeed passed only days before the conference, so the poster that I had made to present at the launch night got a bit more attention than I expected!

Hob-nobbing with Bernard Silverman, the Chief Scientific Advisor to the Home Office.

Aside from being mentioned twice in a speech by former Home Secretary Charles Clarke (which caused my face to match the colour of my shirt), my work took the interest of the Chief Scientific Advisor to the Home Office, Bernard Silverman. As you can see above, we had a good old natter about it while I clutched on to my glass of red wine, apparently looking like a sweating, pointing maniac. Despite this (and how I picked a shirt that I had forgotten was missing a button and therefore showed a bit more chest than I really deemed appropriate…) I think the main message from the night was one of encouragement. It certainly helped me settle my worries about whether or not I was really ready for this sort of thing. I think I can safely say now that I was!

All in all, CL2013 was a brilliant week that helped me in numerous ways. Aside from helping me keep my tummy full all week (the food was, like, AMAZING) it helped bridge the gap in my mind between where I am now and where I can hope to be in the not too distant future. And with the announcement that Lancaster would once again host the next Corpus Linguistics conference in 2015 (by which time I’ll be a first-year PhD student) it’s nice to feel like the only way is up.

Hello! And thank you for joining me for the first entry of my new, academic blog. If you have found this from my previous blog about my 2012 trip to Thailand then expect fewer references to scorpions, tigers and elephants and more references to corpus linguistics, corpus linguistics and, erm, corpus linguistics. The latter trio is just as exciting as the former though, I assure you…

Anyway, last week I graduated from Lancaster University with a first class BA Honours degree in Linguistics. Like much of the recent summer weather it was a beautifully hot, sunny day, and I got the chance to talk outside with many fellow County College graduands (and, afterwards, graduates!). The question that seemed to occur most frequently in many of the conversations I had was a very simple one: what next?

Graduation Day: standing outside the office in CASS where I will spend the next four years of my academic career.

I met people with a range of exciting and interesting plans. People moving to London to break into the West End; people training as teachers; people joining grad schemes; people travelling the world; people moving home for some R&R, and of course some people with no idea whatsoever.  The main message I got was that, whatever people were doing next, it was unlikely to be here in little old Lancaster.

Unlike me. The answer to my own what next?  question is exactly the opposite. I am staying here at Lancaster for (at least) another four years. When I told people this, I met gasps of either horror or congratulations or some hilarious combination of the two. Those who did seem horrified were mainly concerned about how I could possibly stay here for another four years without getting bored of the sparse-at-best nightlife or the lack of a Nando’s or Primark.

But when I told them what I was staying here to do, they soon conceded that I would be kept busy enough for the next four years of my university career to fly by without so much as a yearning for a popular chicken restaurant or an ethically questionable clothes store. I am staying here to complete a 1+3 postgraduate studentship as a Research Student at the ESRC funded Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Science (CASS). It’s a bit of a mouthful, and I quickly tired of repeating it on graduation day, so it soon became “I’m sticking around to do a bit of research for a while”. I would have then gone on to explain with much excitement all the juicy details about what I’ll be doing, but the sun made me so hot under my robes I really didn’t have the energy for it.

In short, I’ll be collecting a corpus of spoken language data and exploring all of the methodological issues that come along with this process. I expect it to be a difficult and yet (hopefully) rewarding project, and for my work to be under the CASS banner and all the interesting and important people affiliated with this centre is very cool. This is something I never envisaged myself doing, and even as late as the start of 2013 I was oblivious to the existence of CASS, let alone the opportunity to work here as a Research Student!

My original plan was still to stay in Lancaster – but only for one year. I had applied to do an MA here in the Department of Linguistics and English Language, and then probably use that to boost my employability in finding a job somewhere out there in the real world. This plan was born out of a realisation, during my degree, that I could be good at something (namely, linguistics) and also enjoy it. A huge influence in this realisation was the tuition and support of CASS Deputy Director Dr Andrew Hardie, who taught me during all three years of my degree. He was incredibly good at helping me find my footing in an academic environment that is so different to pre-university education.

Incidentally, he was also the man who first introduced me to the field of corpus linguistics during my undergraduate studies. And indeed, in February of this year, when I first heard about the opening of the centre and the opportunity to join it, Andrew was the first person who I arranged to see to discuss how to best put together an application. A month later I got the good news from CASS Director Professor Tony McEnery that I had won the studentship and that the next four years of my life would be accounted for by research in a new, ESRC funded centre.

So…what next? Well, I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work here and join a long-held tradition of cutting edge research in corpus linguistics at Lancaster University. As a new member of the Lancaster linguistics family I am extremely excited to see what the future brings.