Research Interests

I am Reader in Sociolinguistics at Queen Mary University of London.

My work uses quantitative, qualitative and experimental methods to examine patterns of socially meaningful variation in language. In particular, I investigate how linguistic forms come to be associated with different categories of speakers, and how, in turn, speakers use these associations in their everyday linguistic interactions. I primarily focus on the relationship between language and gender/sexuality, and am interested in examining how gender and sexuality intersect with other categories of lived experience (notably, race, nation and social class).