Staff Profiles

Modules taught

Foundation

• Previously: Nation and Identity 

Undergraduate

• Advanced Stylistics
• Narratological Stylistics
• The Culture of Modernity
• World Literatures
• Work Placement and Graduate Skills
• Dissertation supervision
• Previously: Skills and Creative Strategies for English Studies, Approaching Poetry, Narrative and Narratology, Twentieth Century Writing, Interpretation: Cognitive Poetics

Postgraduate

• Twentieth Century Texts
• MA Dissertation
• Key Concepts and Methods for Research

Supervision

I have supervised MA dissertations and projects in metafiction, adaptation and performance poetry, and have supervised and examined MPhils on 21st century fiction.

My most recent publication is Discourse Deixis in Metafiction: The Language of Metanarration, Metalepsis and Disnarration (Routledge, 2019)

Research group membership

Oxford Brookes Language and Discourse (OBLaDi) Research Cluster

London Stylistics Circle

Poetics and Linguistics Association

Research grants and awards

I was Principal Investigator for a project on 'University English Programmes' Responses to the Reformed English A Levels', with Prof Billy Clark and Dr Marcello Giovanelli, funded by the British Academy and Leverhulme Trust Small Research Grant (SG170798).

Further information

www.integratingenglish.com - the website of a collaborative project, with Prof Billy Clark and Dr Marcello Giovanelli, including the undergraduate journal Mesh and the Lang-Lit Lab, a blog written for A level English teachers

www.whatthestudiessay.com - a website for people who work in charity communications, summarising useful academic research

www.everydaydeixis.com - a little web intro to deixis

Membership of professional bodies

Poetics and Linguistics Association

International Society for the Study of Narrative

European Narratology Network (ENN)

Previously, Expert Panel member for AQA English Language and Literature

Consultancy

I was the project lead for 'The use and misuse of language' project for the Commission on the Donor Experience, and have worked as a brand identity and/or communications consultant for various small businesses.

Conferences

• 'Enterprepreneurship in English Literature' Action on Employability in HE English conference, Northumbria University, UK (16 Sept 2019)
• Invited guest speaker: 'Graffiti as Storytelling', What the Plot conference, Munich, Germany (6 Sept 2019)  
• 'Designing a 'Literary Enterprise' module for English Literature students', IEEC Enterprise Educators UK conference, Oxford Brookes University, UK (4 Sept 2019)
• 'A new tool for diversifying assessment and extracting employability', Oxford Brookes Learning and Teaching Conference, Oxford Brookes University, UK (13 June 2019)
• 'The textual geopolitics of Brigid Brophy’s In Transit (1969) and Steve Katz’s The Exagggerations [sic] of Peter Prince (1968)’, International Assocation of Literary Semantics conference, University of Reykjavik, Iceland (15-17 April 2019)
• 'Social deixis in literature', Poetics and Linguistics Association annual conference, Birmingham University, UK (25-28 July 2018)
• Invited keynote: 'Connectivity and collectivity in the space/face/race of adversity/diversity/the university/academy', Networks and Connections Exclamation conference, University of Exeter, UK (13 June 2018)

• ‘Sharing pedagogies’, English: Shared Futures conference, Newcastle, UK (5-7 July 2017)

• ‘What do we do when we analyse texts?’ English: Shared Futures conference, Newcastle, UK (5-7 July 2017)

• ‘Testing, testing … one, two, … see?’, Institute of Fundraising convention, London, UK (3-5 July 2017)

• ‘Persuasive language: Writing words that work’, Psychology of Communications CharityComms conference, London, UK (29 May 2017)

• 'Empathetic / social / relational deixis: What does it do and how does it do it?' Aix-en-Provence, France (28 April 2017)

• Guest lecture: 'Masterclass in Close Reading', University of Oxford Forum for English, Drama and Media, Oxford, UK (24 Aptil 2017)

• 'Changing streets into stories: A MCDA analysis of the graffiti appeals of the homeless charity Depaul UK', International Association of Literary Semantics conference, University of Huddersfield, UK (10-12 April 2017)

• Guest research paper: 'Positioning the Reader in Post-Apartheid Literature of Trauma: I and you in Zoë Wicomb's David's Story', University of Leicester, UK (7 March 2017) 
• 'Integrating English: Two outreach case studies', Academics in the Classroom conference, Oxford University, UK (16 August 2016) 
• 'Anxieties of inauthenticity in charity fundraising communications', Poetics and Linguistics Association conference, Sardinia (July 2016)
• Panel member for 'Commission on the Donor Experience' workshop, Institute of Fundraising convention, London, UK (6 July 2016)
• Panel member for 'How do we create amazing supporter experiences?' workshop at Audience Strategy: Understanding and connecting with stakeholders, CharityComms conference (26 May 2016)
• 'Teaching Language', New Aspects of A Level English, English Association conference, London, UK (3 Oct 2015)
• 'Be a hero!' Givers vs. helpers in charity ads', Poetics and Linguistics Association conference, University of Kent, UK (July 2015)
• 'What do we do when we do close reading?', with Billy Clark (Middlesex University) and Marcello Giovanelli (Aston University), National Association for the Teaching of English conference, Newcastle, UK (June 2015) 
• 'Rethinking English: Impact on A levels and teaching', with Billy Clark (Middlesex University) and Marcello Giovanelli (Aston University), iMean conference, University of Warwick (April 2015) 
• Guest lecture, ‘Stepping into The Hundred Acre Wood: A deictic shift theory account of the opening of A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh.’ Middlesex University, London, UK (10 March 2015)
• ‘Reading too much into it? Flash fiction and relevance theory.’ International Association of Literary Semantics bi-annual conference, University of Kent, UK (3-5 July 2014)
• ‘Teaching narrative, genre and point of view.’ Integrating English 2014, University of Nottingham  (19 June 2014)
• ‘Cognitive processing of perspective in fiction.’ Cognitive Futures in the Humanities annual conference, Durham University, UK, (24-26 April 2014)
• ‘The ethics of ‘You’.’ International Society for the Study of Narrative, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK (27-29 June 2013)
• Guest lecture, ‘Deictic shifting in literature: Experimental analysis.’ University of Westminster, London, UK (10 Oct 2012)
• ‘Towards a stylistics of performance poetry’, Poetics and Linguistics Association annual conference, University of Malta (16-18 July 2012)
• ‘Shifting through pronouns: An empirical investigation into deictic shifting in literature’, UK Cognitive Linguistics Association annual conference, Kings College, London, UK (10-12 July 2012)
• ‘A pedagogical pitch for undergraduate interdisciplinary stylistics.’ Stylistics Across Disciplines conference, Leiden University, Netherlands (15-17 June 2011)
• ‘Flash fiction and textual intervention as narratological teaching tools.’ Teaching Narrative and Teaching Through Narrative conference, University of Tampere, Finland (26-28 May 2011)
• ‘Pronouns and related deictic positioning in charity advertisements: A cognitive poetic account of rhetorical effects.’ Rhetoric in Society III conference, Lessuis University, Belgium (26-28 January 2011)
• ‘Deictic shifting to and through I, you, he and she: Priming, Prominence, and a pilot study.’ International Society for the Empirical Study of Literature conference, University of Utrecht, Netherlands (7-11 July 2010)
• ‘Readerly deictic shifting to and through I and you: An updated hypothesis.’ Cognitive Poetics and Rhetoric conference, University of Lodz, Poland (18-22 January 2010)
• ‘Enhancing the critical apparatus for understanding metanarration: Discourse deixis refined.’ International Society for the Study of Narrative annual conference, University of Birmingham, UK (4-6 June 2009)
• ‘Constructing 1867 in 2008, through 1969 and with a little help from 1685: Reading The French Lieutenant’s Woman.’ Poetics and Linguistics Association annual conference, University of Sheffield, UK (23-26 July 2008)
• ‘Writing Dulcie in the dawn of the New South Africa: Narrative dynamics and discursive responsibility in Zoë Wicomb’s David’s Story.’ International Society for the Study of Narrative annual conference, University of Texas, Texas (1-4 May 2008)
• ‘How far have we come? A cognitive poetic study of interdiegetic deixis in John Fowles’ The French Lieutenant’s Woman.’ Society for the Study of Narrative Literature annual conference, Georgetown University, Washington D.C. (15-18 March 2007)
• ‘Why cognitive poetics can’t do metafiction (yet).’ Poetics and Linguistics Association annual conference, University of Joensuu, Finland (26-29 July 2006)
• ‘To paint a water lily.’ Constructing Worlds Through Language conference, University of Sfax, Tunisia (29-30 April 2005)

Further information

An interview on narratives and storytelling: http://www.local-legends.org/people/2017/8/13/you-need-to-have-a-set-of-conventions-in-order-to-rebel-against-them