Confs: Discourses of Crisis: Language, Communication and Culture in Times of Polycrisis

Daughter has started trying to crawl. Where did my baby go?! 🥹

Even *if* machines could do these jobs better than humans, why would we want them to? If we outsource intellectual curiosity and critical thinking to machines, what is left of the human? As one of my students frequently tells me, “unbridled convenience rots the soul”

At least the day started with some good news: Major revisions on a paper I had thought would be rejected! It took three months to find reviewers for it and it was my first writing endeavour while on maternity leave, so I’ll take it 😀

My daughter woke me up at 4am this morning so apologies in advance to people I have meetings with today 😴

OUT NOW: Encyclopaedia entry on Political Discourse for the International Encyclopaedia of Language and Linguistics www.sciencedirect.com/science/chap...

Thanks to you, we are one of the UK's biggest funders of eating disorders research.💚 However, research into these serious illnesses is still far too underfunded, receiving just 1% of all mental health research funding. See how you can support our work: bit.ly/3OZiPFC #EatingDisordersAwarenessWeek

Delighted to have been an academic project lead on this animation addressing eating disorders from the perspective of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds edifyresearch.co.uk/resources/56...

Their words remind us that we need different perspectives and new voices to broaden our understanding of eating disorders.

Eating disorders can affect anybody, from any age, sex, gender, and background. Yet limiting stereotypes still exist about who can be affected by eating disorders. #eatingdisordersawarenessweek #EDAW youtu.be/JBmOI8xKAc8?...

Can’t say I’ve ever had an altmetric score of 115 before! It’s testament to how important the research on TikTok algorithms and eating disorder content really is #eatingdisordersawarenessweek #EDAW

Happy to share a journalistic version of our article on how people with #eatingdisorders experience #algorithms on social media. How social media draws vulnerable users back to eating disorder content – new research theconversation.com/how-social-m...

Important piece in The Conversation by @paula-saukko.bsky.social which makes reference to our article in Journal of Eating Disorders about vulnerable young people finding themselves in spirals of eating disorder content on TikTok - in part due to algorithms. theconversation.com/how-social-m...

Today I’m preparing my chair notes for the Social Media & Eating Disorders workshop with Beat taking place tomorrow. I’m chairing the final two sessions on online communities (problems, perspectives and possibilities) and final reflections. www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/get-informat...

As part of #EatingDisorders Awareness Week, we're inviting everyone to our film screening by four EDIFY artists-in-residents as they share artistic translations of eating disorder experience and research Register now: www.kcl.ac.uk/events/commu...

Delighted to have been an academic project lead on this animation addressing eating disorders from the perspective of diverse ethnic and cultural backgrounds edifyresearch.co.uk/resources/56...

Daffodils in the vase and sun in the sky. What a beautiful day. ☀️

📢New chapter: Emotion talk in UK parliamentary debates on migration I look at the rhetorical use of explicit references to pride & gratitude, shame & regret, fear & tolerance Free to download: www.peterlang.com/document/147...

Last year I received funding as PI for a co-production project called Empowering Recovery. In collaboration with Beat and some wonderful experts by experience, we co-produced digital resources for posting and scrolling with purpose when facing ED content: edifyresearch.co.uk/resources/53...

Well, surpassing 200 citations is pretty cool.

It's #EDAW2026! Read our paper on young people's views on TikTok algorithms and eating disorder content... link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Newly published Gold Open Access book-Representing Migration: discursive&methodological perspectives. A result of great teamwork as part of the RECRI project @Jaume I University. Very happy to have contributed a chapter with P.Johnson on migrant advocacy narratives www.peterlang.com/document/147...

This is wonderful! One for the Beginnings of English lot at University of Nottingham - I learnt Old English there and can just about manage most of it with difficulty as it's been about 8 years since I read OE. www.deadlanguagesociety.com/p/how-far-ba...

Sign up here: www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/get-informat...

Eating Disorders Awareness Week starts on Monday. On Thursday, as part of EDAW, I’ll chairing a session at the CPD-certified social media and eating disorders workshop organised by EDIFY and Beat. I’ll be talking about co-production and also about key reflections and opportunities in this area.

Baby now reading: Goblin Market.

Going through the break up of an 8 year relationship while 6 months postpartum is just really, really tough. Not much else to say, really.

Would you like to apply for the Marie Curie Postdoctoral Fellowships at Tampere University with me as your PI and join our masterclass to prepare your app? Get in touch with me (or another prospective supervisor from @pluraltampere.bsky.social) by 27.4. www.tuni.fi/en/research/...

OUT NOW in Language Teaching: our conference report on our 2024 BAAL/CUP Seminar on linguistic approaches to short-form social media www.cambridge.org/core/journal...

Softcover book has arrived! We much prefer it to the hardback.

View of the day.

Still haven’t read Constructing Brexit Britain? There’s a 40% sale on the eBook on Bloomsbury’s website which means you can get it for just over £15!! www.bloomsbury.com/uk/construct...

I’ve got to say, I didn’t have moving back in with parents on my 2026 bingo list 😬

Do I know anyone working on (in)fertility discourses or maternal health literacy?

Obsessed with this memorial bench in the local park that always has flowers attached no matter the season.

6 months ago today my darling daughter was born and we nearly lost her due to severe hypoglycaemia and respiratory distress. Thanks to her father’s quick thinking and an open-minded NICU consultant, she made it through. Forever grateful for her and all she teaches me.

Personal post: because of OCD (and maybe ARFID?) I haven’t eaten any kind of berry in 4 years. Today I ate this bowl of blueberries for the first time.

First proper workout since having my daughter! 💪🏼

This time three years ago, to the minute, I was about to start my PhD viva! Happy viva-versary to me!

I’ve been reflecting on my time in journalism school and if it has helped in my career. I think one way it has is in the development of research ideas as it trains us to look for timely angles to existing stories. Curiosity and an eye for a story are key characteristics of academic researchers too.

2026 volume just inaugurated with a brilliant piece by Emma Franklin on discursive representation of animal-killing jcads.cardiffuniversitypress.org/articles/10....

We are very excited about our upcoming conference! The programme has now published on our website. We will have a vast array of talks ranging from environmental crises to pandemics and from global pandemics to more personal crises – and the role of language in these. #lancris2026

Registration complete for #CADS2026. Really looking forward to it as my first conference back. It’s the only conference I’ve been to consistently, both online and in person.

If you would like to know more about our work on social media and eating disorders, you can sign up for our CPD-certified workshop with Beat: www.beateatingdisorders.org.uk/get-informat...

You can see the co-produced outputs here: edifyresearch.co.uk/resources/53... Our experts by experience were fantastic to work with and so knowledgeable!

So EDIFY is shaping a fresh approach to eating disorders. For example, their analysis of social media has provided insights into how social media affects young people. pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41419991/ #AMHDMshowcase

Corpus folks, if I wanted to annotate a media corpus to separate out headline from main text, would I need to use something like UAM?

Successful first meeting for a project! Excited to see where it goes.

Took Emily to a weaning group. The person leading the session, as we were leaving, said, ‘Wow, she’s so loud’ 😂🤦🏻‍♀️