I am Senior Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at Aston University, UK. I am an applied linguist, specialising in corpus linguistics.

Posts

• 2024- • Senior Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics, Aston University
• 2020-2024 • Lecturer in English Language, Aston University
• 2018-2020 • Research Fellow in Applied and Corpus Linguistics, University of Leeds
• 2017-2018 • Senior Research Manager, Cambridge Assessment English
• 2014-2017 • Associate Lecturer (Linguistics and English Language), Lancaster University
• 2012-2014 • Academic Writing Mentor, Lancaster University

Roles and responsibilities

Administration

• Programme Director, BA (Hons) Digital Media and Communication (2025-)
• Programme Development Lead, Department of Communication and Culture, Aston University (2024-)
• Co-Director (prev. Director), Aston Corpus Linguistics Research Group, Aston University (2021-)
• Academic Offences Officer, College of Business and Social Sciences, Aston University (2020-2024)

Previous:

• Director of Undergraduate English Language, English Literature and TESOL Programmes, Aston University (2022-24)
• Staff representative of the College of Business and Social Sciences on the University Senate, Aston University (2020-22)
• Marketing and Outreach coordinator, Department of English, Languages and Applied Linguistics, Aston University (2020-2022)
• Fixed-term staff representative, Research and Innovation committee, School of Education, University of Leeds (2018-2020)

Positions in academic organisations

• Convenor, BAAL Corpus Linguistics Special Interest Group (2024-)
• Newsletter Editor, BAAL Executive Committee (2024-)
• Coordinator of the English component of the International Comparable Corpus (2024-)
• Advisory Board Member, Inter-Varietal Applied Corpus Studies (IVACS) Research Centre, Mary Immaculate College (2022-)

Previous:

• Communications Officer, BAAL Corpus Linguistics Special Interest Group (2021-2024)
• Ordinary Member, BAAL Executive Committee (2021-2023)

Editorial positions

• Editor, Volume 12(2) of Research in Corpus Linguistics (2024)
• Member of the of the Board of Referees for Research in Corpus Linguistics (Asociación Española de Lingüística de Corpus) (2022-)

Previous:

• Associate Editor, Humanities & Social Sciences Communications (Springer Nature) (2021-2023)
• Co-editor, Volume 22(3) of the International Journal of Corpus Linguistics (2017)
• Series Editor of the CASS Briefings series at Lancaster University (2015-2017)

External examination and validation

• External Examiner, BA English Language programmes, University of Huddersfield (2024-)

In 2022, I served on the external academic panel for the re-approval of English programmes at the University of Bedfordshire Majan University College, Oman.

Peer Reviewing

I am regularly invited to review submissions to journals and book series relevant to my research interests.

• Journals:
  • Ampersand (Elsevier)
  • Applied Corpus Linguistics (Elsevier)
  • Applied Linguistics (Oxford University Press)
  • Corpora (Edinburgh University Press)
  • Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory (Gruyter Mouton)
  • Digital Scholarship in the Humanities (Oxford University Press)
  • Discourse and Communication (SAGE Publications)
  • Discourse Studies (SAGE Publications)
  • Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (Springer Nature)
  • International Journal of Corpus Linguistics (John Benjamins)
  • Journal of Corpora and Discourse Studies (Cardiff University Press)
  • Journal of Open Humanities Data (Ubiquity Press)
  • Language Resources and Evaluation (Springer)
  • Research in Corpus Linguistics (Asociación Española de Lingüística de Corpus)
  • SAGE Open (SAGE Publications)
  • System (Elsevier)
  • Text & Talk (De Gruyter)
• Book series:
  • Corpus and Discourse (Bloomsbury)
  • Elements in Applied Linguistics (Cambridge University Press)
  • Studies in Corpus Linguistics (John Benjamins)
  • I have also reviewed book chapters for the Bloomsbury Handbook of Corpus Linguistics and the Handbook of Pragmatics (John Benjamins).
• I have served on the scientific committee for the following conferences:
  • American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) conference (2022)
  • American Association for Corpus Linguistics (AACL) conference (2018, 2020)
  • British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL) conference (2022)
  • International Computer Archive of Modern and Medieval English (ICAME) conference (2019, 2020, 2022, 2024)
  • International Corpus Linguistics Conference (2021, 2023)
  • Inter-Varietal Applied Corpus Studies (IVACS) conference (2020, 2024)

Conference/seminar organisation

• Local organising committee, 59th BAAL Annual Conference 2026 at Aston University (2026)
• Conference Chair, 13th International Corpus Linguistics Conference (#CL2025) at Aston University, Birmingham City University and the University of Birmingham (2025)
• Organiser of the Aston Corpus Linguistics Symposium at Aston University (2021)
• Lead organiser of the BAAL/Cambridge University Press seminar Corpora in Applied Linguistics: Broadening the Agenda at Aston University (2021)
• Co-organiser of the Research Roundup seminar series at Cambridge Assessment English, University of Cambridge (2017-2018)
• Organiser of the Spoken BNC2014 Symposium at Lancaster University (2017)
• Co-organiser of the UCREL Corpus Research Seminar series at Lancaster University (2014-2015)

Staff awards

• 2024: Aston University College of Business and Social Sciences Highly Commended Staff Award for Excellence in Public Engagement
• 2024: Aston Students’ Union Academic Award for Feedback and Development (nominee)
• 2023: Aston University College of Business and Social Sciences Staff Award for Excellence in Public Engagement
• 2022: Aston Students’ Union Academic Award for Dissertation or Research Supervisor
• 2022: Aston Students’ Union Academic Award for Teaching – Engagement (nominee)
• 2021: Aston University Achievement Award for Best Newcomer (nominee)
• 2021: Aston University College of Business and Social Sciences Staff Award for Best Newcomer
• 2021: Aston Students’ Union Academic Award for Teaching – Engagement (nominee)
• 2021: Aston Students’ Union Academic Award for Online Learning (nominee)

Membership

• Centre for Health and Society, Aston University (2023-)
• Research Centre for the Humanities (REACH), Aston University (2022-)
• Aston Stylistics Research Centre (ASRC), Aston University (2021-)
• British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL) (2017-)
• Aston Centre for Applied Linguistics (ACAL), Aston University (2021-2024)
• Centre for Language and Education Research (CLER), University of Leeds (2018-2020)
• International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL) (2019-2020)
• ESRC Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Science (CASS), Lancaster University (2013-2018)

Social media

• From 2020-2022 I ran the Twitter account for the Department of English, Languages and Applied Linguistics at Aston University
• From 2018-2020 I ran the Twitter account for the Centre for Language Education Research (CLER) at the University of Leeds
• From 2014-2017 I ran the Twitter account for the journal Corpora