I am Professor of Linguistics at Lancaster University. My work draws on insights and methods from cognitive science and critical discourse analysis to investigate the links between language, cognition and social/political action.

Specifically, I use models developed in Cognitive Linguistics, including cognitive grammar, conceptual metaphor theory and conceptual semantics, to analyse the ideological and de/legitimating potential of conceptualisations evoked by linguistic (and other semiotic) forms found in political and media discourses.

I am also interested in multimodality including, specifically, the relationship between language and image in multimodal texts as well as the role of gesture in situated political communication.

I often use experimental methods to investigate empirically the effects of textual features on audience attitudes and responses to social/political issues.

Much of my work is focussed on anti-immigration discourses and discourses of civil disorder in the form of riots, strikes and protests.