Projects

The following is a list of current projects being undertaken by members of SinC. These include book projects, conference papers and journal articles, as well as wider scale studies which are funded by both NTU and external funding bodies.

Public Health Reasoning (Louise Cummings)
This current project examines how scientists reason in contexts of uncertainty. Its claim is that so-called fallacies can serve an important, and largely overlooked, role in facilitating inquiry in these contexts.

Pragmatics in a Multidisciplinary Perspective (Louise Cummings)
Pragmatics lies at the crossroads of a number of disciplines and is best examined from a multidisciplinary perspective. The disciplines that can best contribute to that examination are philosophy, psychology, language pathology and artificial intelligence.

Communication Disorders (Louise Cummings)
Developmental and acquired communication disorders affect significant numbers of children and adults. Within these, pragmatic disorders are a growing area of research interest.

Homophobic Discourse (Liz Morrish)
This research project aims to investigate the ways in which particular sexuality discourses are embodied and enacted in specific areas (English, Citizenship and PSHE) of the Key Stage 3 and 4 curriculum in a sample of UK secondary schools. We propose to examine the perceived effects of this on LGBT-identified young people in schools, and teachers in those subject areas. 

Language and Sexual Identity (Liz Morrish)
This project includes two publications. The first is co-authored with Dr Helen Sauntson: New Perspectives on Language and Sexual Identity (2007). The other is a book chapter, co-authored with Professor William Leap: Morrish, L. and Leap, W. (2007). Sex Talk: Language, Desire, Identity and Beyond. In Helen Sauntson and Sakis Kyratzis (Eds.) Language, Sexualities, Desires: Cross-Cultural Perspectives. Palgrave.

Neoliberalism, Gender and Sexuality: The Discursive Limits of Equality in Higher Education (Liz Morrish)
This project includes a seminar series based at the University of Birmingham and is funded by that University's Deans' Funding initiative. Also within this project is a co-edited (with Dr Helen Sauntson) of a special edition of the journal LATISS (Learning and Teaching: The International Journal of Higher Education in the Social Sciences).

Exploring the German Language (Natalie Braber)
This is a book published in 2008 by Cambridge University Press in collaboration with Professor Sally Johnson (University of Leeds).

Emotion and Language (Natalie Braber)
Previous research examined the usage of modal particles in German. Current research involves investigation of modal particles cross-linguistically, in collaboration with Dr Nicola McLelland (University of Nottingham).

East Midlands Voices (Natalie Braber)
This project features the examination of accent and dialect in the East Midlands, an area of England which is relatively under-researched. NTU funded this pilot project and the data will also be used in collaboration with Dr Caroline Langensiepen (Nottingham Trent University).

Local identity and sound change in Glasgow (Natalie Braber)
This project was initially funded by the University of Manchester and investigates identity and language change in Glasgow.

Computer Mediated Discourse (Dean Hardman)
This current project is a book that examines online communication from a discourse analytical perspective. The book will cover three main areas:

• online communities
• identities
• evaluation.