My research combines approaches from Corpus Linguistics, (Critical) Discourse Studies, Computational Linguistics, and Data Science to study a range of issues pertinent to (online) safety and security – particularly relationships between language and abuse – such as extreme misogyny and sexism, nationalism and radicalisation, safeguarding, and mis/disinformation. 

Much of my present work focuses on applications of corpus linguistics in safeguarding. I was Academic Supervisor on an Innovate UK-funded Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) working to develop the linguistic toolchain for the online safeguarding product Senso.cloud⚡. This project has been shortlisted for the "Business Growth & Transformation through KTP" award as part of the Innovate UK KTP Best of the Best Awards and our collaboration continues through the EPSRC-funded CyberFocus project Improving Safeguarding Methods – enhancing linguistic monitoring methods for safeguarding EdTech.

My research has informed the work of various government and regulatory bodies. This includes:

• Acceptance by the UK Government Women and Equalities Committee of evidence submitted to their inquiry into the escalation of violence against women and girls 

• Acceptance by the UK Government Women and Equalities Committee of evidence submitted to their call for evidence on Misogyny: the manosphere and online content

• Publication by OFCOM of a response to their consultation on draft guidance for a safer life online for women and girls

I am the University of Liverpool's N8 Centre of Excellence in Computationally Intensive Research (CIR) Theme Lead for Digital Humanities

Before joining Liverpool, I was Associate Professor of Corpus Linguistics and Discourse Studies in the College of English and Media at Birmingham City University, and I have held various research positions at Lancaster University's Centre for Corpus Approaches to Social Science and Security Lancaster, as well as in the WMG Cyber Security Centre at The University of Warwick. I earned an ESRC-funded PhD in Applied Linguistics from Lancaster University and am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).