Dr Olivia Knapton

Olivia is a qualitative discourse analyst whose work primarily focuses on people’s experiences of mental health and the body, and communication about the natural world. She is a member of the Centre for Language, Discourse and Communication, and teaches across the undergraduate and postgraduate linguistics programmes within the School of Education, Communication and Society.

Research

Discourse and health – Olivia is interested in how people with mental health problems – in particular, OCD, anxiety, phobias and eating disorders - structure their experiences through various cognitive conceptualisations, such as metaphors and schemas. This line of research also focuses on women’s experiences of health and the body, for example, looking at the negotiation of identity within health contexts.

Communication of health and environmental information, public understandings and perceptions – Olivia’s research also explores the relationship between the discourse used to communicate information about health and environmental issues, public perceptions/understandings of those issues and public motivations to take any recommended actions. For example, Olivia has researched understandings of and adherence to water safety advice, and is currently investigating effective ways to promote insect conservation within urban environments.

Cognitive discourse analysis – In terms of approach, Olivia explores ways in which to combine meaning from stable, cognitive conceptualisations with meaning from contextually-situated discourse production. For example, Olivia has looked at how image schemas are drawn upon within narratives of OCD to represent heightened experiences of the surrounding space.

Teaching

Olivia currently teaches on the following programmes:

• BA English Language and Linguistics
• MA ELT & Applied Linguistics

PhD supervision

Olivia is happy to supervise topics exploring discourse in relation to the following areas:

• mental health
• women’s health
• identity and the body
• health institutions and healthcare policies
• communication, understanding and public perceptions of health and environmental information
• the natural world and human-animal relationships

She has experience in a broad range of methodologies, such as Critical Discourse Analysis, Cognitive Linguistics (as applied to discourse), corpus-assisted discourse analysis, metaphor, narrative, social/interactional linguistics, interviews, focus groups and surveys.

Her current PhD students and their topics are:

• Yuan Wang. Collective identities and metaphors in discourses of depression.
• Matilda Vokes. ‘Mother’ or ‘Other’: exploring narratives of queer pregnancy.
• Marleen Pauls. Cognitive Linguistic approaches to discourse and menopause.
• Rhiannon Eley. Exploring Nigerian nurses’ narratives of requalifying to practice in the NHS.
• Maxine Ali. Women’s discursive performances of wellness on social media: a feminist critical discourse analysis.

Her completed PhD students and their topics are:

• Ceri McKay-Smith (2023). A linguistic ethnography of a homeless shelter.
• Sally King (2022). What counts as a premenstrual symptom? A Critical Realist Discourse Analysis of expert and patient descriptions of a highly contested diagnosis: PMS (Premenstrual Syndrome)
• Elvis Coimbra Gomes (2021). Normative regulations of discourses about misunderstood sexual obsessions: a netnographic-supported corpus linguistic study.

Further information

To view her publications, visit Olivia's research profile page.