My research interests focus on representations of mental health in public discourse, and how these are shaped by cultural and historical forces. To observe culturally significant patterns, I use theories and techniques from corpus linguistics, which enables the analysis semi-formulaic linguistic patterns shared over hundreds of texts.

To date, my research has focussed on representations of schizophrenia in the UK press, which was the focus on my PhD thesis at Lancaster University. I am currently developing this prize-winning research into a monograph entitled Representing schizophrenia: A Corpus-Based Approach to UK Press Coverage, to be published with Routledge.

I am increasingly becoming interested in online communication, a site where health-related knowledge of varying quality and accuracy is proliferated. As a result of this, I am currently conducting research into the representation of personality disorders on an online forum, with a particular focus on the language of responsibility and blame.

I am also involved in the Spoken Learner Corpus Project, a collaboration between Lancaster University and Trinity College London.

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Pre-Honours (2021-22)

I lecture on the Language, Power and Authority Strand of English Language & Linguistics 1A: Language, Meaning and Power.

I lecture on the Language and Society strand of English Language & Linguistics 2A: Language, People and Culture

Honours (2021-22)

I convene Written Text Analysis (ENGLANG4055) and its postgraduate extension Methods in Written Text Analysis (ENGLANG5112), Semester 2

Postgraduate Taught (2021-22)

I lecture on Applying Linguistics in Social and Professional Life (ENGLANG5117)

I am convenor of the English Language and Linguistics Seminar Series.