My broad research interests include, corpus linguistics, critical discourse studies, health communication, politics, social discrimination, the intersections between marginalised social groups and identity. In addition, I have a specific interest in weight discrimination, particularly the subtle ways in which lanaguge can be used and manipulated in order to discriminate on the basis of weight.
I am also a Senior Research Associate in the ESRC Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Science (CASS) at Lancaster University working on the ‘Questioning Vaccination Discourse’ project (Quo VaDis). This project is a corpus-based discourse analysis into discussions about vaccinations in the press, parliamentary debates and social media. In doing this research we aim to gain a better understanding of pro and anti vaccination views, in order to inform and facilitate public health campaigns.
The project has three main partners, Public Health England, the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport.