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

My research interests include:

• lexis and grammar in contemporary spoken British English, including:
  • swearing
  • modality
  • adverbs
• strategic communications in the context of Covid-19
• transcription of indistinct recordings in forensic contexts
• methods of designing and building spoken corpora
• LGBTQ+ representations in the news media and Parliamentary debate
• corpus research for English Language Teaching
• language in mainstream education

I have published papers and given talks at conferences on these topics. My research also informs my teaching, which covers a range of topics in English Language and Linguistics.

I also hold the following academic roles:

Administration

Current:

• Director of Undergraduate English Language, English Literature and TESOL Programmes, Aston University (2022-)
• Exams Representative and Academic Offences Officer, Department of English, Languages and Applied Linguistics, Aston University (2020-2022; 2022-)
• Co-Director, Aston Corpus Linguistics Research Group, Aston University (2023-)

Past:

• Director, Aston Corpus Linguistics Research Group, Aston University (2021-2023)
• 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

• Advisory Board Member, Inter-Varietal Applied Corpus Studies (IVACS) Research Centre, Mary Immaculate College (2022-)
• Ordinary Member, BAAL Executive Committee (2021-)
• Communications Officer, BAAL Corpus Linguistics Special Interest Group (2021-)

Editorial positions

• Member of the Editorial Board for the journals Research in Corpus Linguistics (Asociación Española de Lingüística de Corpus) and Humanities & Social Sciences Communications (Springer Nature)
• Guest Article Editor, SAGE Open (2021)
• Co-editor of Volume 22(3) of the International Journal of Corpus Linguistics (2017)
• Series Editor for the CASS Briefings series at Lancaster University (2015-2017)

External examination and validation

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)
  • International Corpus Linguistics Conference (2021, 2023)
  • Inter-Varietal Applied Corpus Studies (IVACS) conference (2020)

Conference/seminar organisation

• 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

• 2022: Aston Students’ Union Academic Award for Dissertation or Research Supervisor (winner)
• 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 (winner)
• 2021: Aston Students’ Union Academic Award for Teaching – Engagement (nominee)
• 2021: Aston Students’ Union Academic Award for Online Learning (nominee)

Membership

• British Academy Early Career Researcher Network (2021-)
• Aston Centre for Applied Linguistics (ACAL), Aston University (2021-)
• UKRI Early Career Researcher Forum (2021-)
• British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL) (2017-)
• Centre for Language Education Research (CLER), University of Leeds (2018-2020)
• International Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL) (2019-2020)

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