Emma is a corpus linguist and a research associate on the Leverhulme-funded project, Framings of Insects in Communication and Their Effects on Urban Public Perceptions.

After completing a PhD in Linguistics at Lancaster University on the language of animal-killing, Emma worked as a research associate for the Grantham Centre for Sustainable Futures at the University of Sheffield, where she co-created practical guidance on communications around plastics and developed scholarly initiatives around posthumanist sustainability. Following this, she was a lecturer in Corpus-Based Digital Humanities at the University of Wolverhampton's Responsible Digital Humanities Lab, and then a lecturer in English Linguistics at Birmingham City University.

Outside of academia, Emma has contributed narrative strategy to nonprofit organisations, worked freelance as a linguistic consultant and specialist disability mentor, and led on child-safeguarding linguistic software at an edtech company.

Research interests

Emma is working together with Dr Olivia Knapton, Prof Jill Hohenstein and Dr Chris Tang to investigate how insects are discursively framed in public communications, and how such framings can influence perceptions of, and intentions to support, insects in UK urban areas. More information on the project can be found here.

Emma's research spans:

• Corpus linguistics

• Discourse analysis

• Lexicography and lexicology

• Critical Animal Studies

• Ecolinguistics

• Posthumanism

Her publications and talks are listed here.