About

I am a Senior Lecturer in English Language. As well as teaching undergraduate students on the BA (Hons) English course, I research topics in sociolinguistics and discourse analysis. I also am on the research leadership team for the School of Humanities and Journalism.

Research interests

My research includes studies of English looking at interactional functions of pragmatic markers such as sort of and and stuff like that. I also study everyday discussions of language variation and the ideologies behind these. I examine how these relate to social meanings of language use and interactional or local ethnographic identities.

Recently, I have been considering the relationships between language and violence, exploring different ways linguistics can contribute to understanding these.

A lot of my research focuses on describing and understanding Australian English.

Recent publications

See some of my recent publications via the University of Derby Repository. For a full listing of my research activities and co-authors, see my Academia.edu or ResearchGate profile (these are all direct links to my profiles).

Qualifications

• Doctor of Philosophy (Linguistics), University of Melbourne
• Master of Applied Linguistics, University of Melbourne
• Graduate Diploma of Education, Monash University
• Bachelor of Arts, La Trobe University

International experience

I was an Honorary Research Fellow at La Trobe University (2018 to 2024 - I resigned over firing of senior staff to recoup funds).

I previously taught linguistics at La Trobe University, and linguistics, academic skills and applied linguistics at the University of Melbourne (both in Melbourne, Australia).

Teaching responsibilities

I am the module leader for:

• Key Concepts in Linguistics
• Ideology, Discourse and Power
• Society in Language
• Language and Mind: Psycholinguistics
• The Globalisation(s) of English

I am currently the Director of Studies on two PhD projects and one EdD, and I am available for PhD supervision on topics related to my expertise (see my research interests and publications).