Postgraduate research students

My chief research is Sociophonetics and how it pertains to sex and gender. My PhD thesis is looking at the socioarticulatory variation of laterals in nonbinary/non-binary (NB) speakers. NB people have been shown to be discriminated against and failed in a number of sectors throughout society and previous linguistic work has shown that NB speakers manipulate their language in accordance to the relative safety from normative/hateful views across distinct contexts. I shall be examining how NB speakers across two distinct dialects - Southern British English (SBE) and Glaswegian English (GE), of whom differ greatly in their production of laterals - vary their speech according to the style and context of an interaction. I will examine speech using triangulation methods of auditory, acoustic and articulatory analyses, the latter of which will be Ultrasound Tongue Imaging. By providing an account of language and gender beyond the binary – an underrepresented area in contemporary sociolinguistic theory – I will present an analysis of how NB gender identity is constructed through speech. This thesis will also look to build on sociolinguistic theories of style and identity, as well as sociophonetic research on sex and gender, and social-indexicality for a subjugated community.

• Professor Jane Stuart-Smith

Fully funded PhD studentship from Scottish Graduate School of Social Sciences (SGSSS). 

Talk at British Association of Applied Linguistics (BAAL): Language, Gender and Sexuality Special Interest Group. University of Brighton. 2nd May 2023.

Currently teaching first and second year English Language and Linguistics Pre-Honours students.