‘Use enthusiasm as a compass. It shows you exactly where to go.’
About me
I am a Lecturer in English Linguistics at the University of Bedfordshire, Bedford campus, UK . I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) and a Researcher at the Centre for Research in English Language Learning and Assessment (CRELLA) and the Safer Young Lives Research Centre (SYLRC). I regularly present at international conferences and I am a member of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA), the International Association for Forensic and Legal Linguistics (IAFLL), and the Expert Network Addressing Child Sexual Abuse (ENACSA).
Welcome to my website!
Je suis maître de conférence / enseignante-chercheuse en linguistique anglaise à l’université de Bedfordshire.
My research
My primary domain of interest and expertise is in the realm of pragmatics – i.e., the study of language in use and in context, the use of prosody and nonverbal communication in utterance interpretation, and the role of multimodality in interlanguage and instructional pragmatics.
The second strand of my research focuses on analysing the pragmatics of manipulation and deception in online child sexual grooming discourse, within the field of investigative and forensic text analysis, in the context of detecting, preventing, and tackling online harms and tech-enabled violence against women and girls. My work brings together language/discourse, power, and social/criminal justice. As an Activist Applied Linguist, I apply my expertise in language and communication to digital safety, AI safety, and youth-led, community-engaged child protection research.
Broader expertise and interest: forensic stylistics, corpus pragmatics, forensic psychology/psychiatry, neuroscience & spirituality, brain health.
In HE since 2014
Prior to joining the University of Bedfordshire, I taught at the University of Brighton, Middlesex University, University College London, the University of Surrey, Royal Holloway University London and Lancaster University.
