Survey of English Usage,
University College London
Tel: +44 20 7679 8205
My research focuses on the impact of language on experiences and perceptions of reproductive healthcare, and I am particularly interested in the role of language in experiences of, and attitudes towards, pregnancy endings, including pregnancy loss and termination of pregnancy. I work with clinicians, academics from other disciplines, and third-sector organisations to better understand the roles language plays in experiences of pregnancy endings and public understanding of such experiences.
My main areas of research interest are:
-
Impacts of diagnostic terminology in experiences of reproductive and sexual healthcare
-
Impacts of healthcare terminology on social attitudes to reproductive and sexual health and access to care
-
Healthcare communication more broadly
-
Language and gender
-
Linguistic prescriptivism
-
Language rules​
-
Ecolinguistics
-
Language variation and change
​
My main methodological interests are
-
The advancement of corpus and computational linguistic methodologies
-
Mixed-methods research using frameworks from anthropological linguistics
I am a member of a very strong research unit, the Survey of English Usage, which has a history of pioneering linguistic research. I am passionate about multidisciplinary collaboration and have strong links with other units within UCL, and particularly with the Institute for Global Health.
I also work closely with charities outside of academia, including Tommy’s, Sands, Petals, and The Miscarriage Association.
I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). My current teaching responsibilities include supervision of PhD and MA students. I convene the 'English in Use' module on the MA in English Linguistics and 'Modern English Language' at undergraduate level. At undergraduate level, I teach across the entire history of the English language, from Old and Middle English to applied linguistic research in contemporary contexts.
​
If you are interested in studying at UCL, please see my Contact page for information on applying and my areas of interest for doctoral supervision.
Find out more about my research around pregnancy loss language by visiting the Survey of English usage website. You can also explore my publications or visit my profile on the University College London website.
​
About me
Selected Publications
'The Transition from abortion to miscarriage', 2022
This paper, published in BMJ Medical Humanities, uses computational linguistics to show a causal link between the prescriptive linguistic intervention of a group of eminent obstetricians and a change in clinical language. The obstetricians argued that use of the phrase 'spontaneous abortion' was harmful to those experiencing recurrent pregnancy loss, and urged clinicians to use 'miscarriage' instead. Amazingly, this prompted a complete overhaul in British clinical usage.
'Polarized discourses of abortion' in English', 2023
This paper, published in Applied Linguistics, uses Corpus Assisted Discourse Studies to consider how the word 'abortion' is used on the internet, and whether it can really be used neutrally in phrases such as 'anti-abortion'. Whilst such phrases are often offered as more neutral alternatives in journalistic style guides, this systematic examination indicates that 'abortion' might carry too many negative connotations to be used neutrally in contemporary English.