Contact
Biography
I am currently a third year PhD candidate at the 海角黑料 in the School of Geography, jointly supervised with the School of English. My PhD focuses on newspaper textual representations of women engaged in UK agriculture.
I have been employed in the UK agricultural industry for over 45 years, mostly in on-farm roles but also in the allied industries of grain trading and cereal seed crop production. During this time I undertook professional exams, a BA (Hons) in English Language and Literature and an MA in Applied Linguistics.
My main research interests are how language is used to create inequality in society, asking why the imbalance has been created and considering who benefits. I am particularly interested in farm, rural societies and connected minority groups.
Expertise Summary
Agriculture
My roles have largely been related to the administration of arable farming, mostly on farm, but I have also worked in the allied industries of grain trading and cereal seed production. My work on farms has included the administration of conservation and government grant schemes.
Academia
I have used corpus linguistics to assist qualitative critical discourse analysis and have run online focus groups and interviews.
I have also worked as a research assistant.
Research Summary
The focus of my PhD research is to explore the representation in the UK media of women engaged in the UK agricultural industry. My work involves the use of corpus linguistics and critical discourse… read more
Current Research
The focus of my PhD research is to explore the representation in the UK media of women engaged in the UK agricultural industry. My work involves the use of corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis and applies English research methods within the discipline of Cultural Geography.
Past Research
Whilst working on my PhD, I undertook the role of research assistant working on a paper with Sarah Jewitt, Sol Elliot, Emma Mc Claughlin and Matthew Smallman-Raynor (2025 forthcoming), exploring the connection of veterinary training and expertise to the treatment of birds with or with suspected avian influenza.
During this time, I was also involved with an avian influenza video produced by the team for amateur poultry keepers