I am a Senior Lecturer in Cognitive Linguistics at Northumbria University. I grew up in Norwich and studied linguistics at the University of East Anglia. I received my PhD in Linguistics
from Lancaster University in 2009 and from 2007 to 2011 I taught linguistics at the University of Hertfordshire.
My main research interests are in cognitive
and naturalistic approaches to language, manipulation and ideology. This involves two (interconnected) dimensions of
Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). In the first, I advocate a Cognitive Linguistic Approach to CDA, analysing the relationship
between representations in text and conceptualisation. The principal aim of this approach is to demonstrate,
in a systematic way, how certain linguistic (lexical and grammatical) constructions found in political and media discourses
can engender ideologically vested cognitive representations of 'reality'. In the second
dimension, I am interested in relationships between argument and adapted cognition, drawing on a theoretical synergy between
Evolutionary Psychology and Argumentation Theory to explain the cognitive impact and manipulative potential of particular
argument schemes recurrent in political and media texts. I have applied this model primarily in studies of anti-immigration
discourse. However, I am currently using the Cognitive Linguistic Approach to investigate discourse in other domains,
specifically representations of violence in news reports of political protests.
Other areas of interest include cognitive lexical semantics, cognitive pragmatics, corpus
linguistics, and evolutionary linguistics.
