Area of Expertise:
- Sign language ideologies, language policy, language policing and language politics
- Multimodal multilingual language practices, translanguaging (with special focus on sign multilingualism, gesture-based communication, International Sign)
- Deaf media, TV, and ethnographic film  
- Transnationalism, cosmopolitanism, mobilities (rural, urban, international, translocal)

Research Methods Expertise:
- Ethnography: participant observation, ethnographic interviews, autoethnography 
- Semi-structured interviews, focus groups  
- Diary method and case studies
- Visual methods (language portraits)
- Film-based research (ethnographic filmmaking, participatory filmmaking, film-elicitation)
- Grounded Theory

Disciplinary Intersections:
Sociolinguistics, anthropology, human geography, Deaf studies, media studies

Key Research Collaborations: 

• MobileDeaf (ERC Starting Grant) – Led a major project on deaf mobilities, translanguaging, and intersectionality.
• Deaf Media & Representation – Collaborations with HWU colleagues and the BSL Broadcasting Trust on media representation and sign language use in television and film.
• Applied Deaf Studies & Education – Worked with Maartje De Meulder and Hilde Haualand on Erasmus Mundus Design Measure for a Master in Applied Deaf Studies.
• Ethnographic Film & Visual Research Methods – Collaborative film-based research with Visual Box (filmmakers), including This is IS and Ishaare.
• Sign Language Policy & Family Language Practices – Worked with Jemina Napier and Maartje De Meulder on family language policy and multilingualism in deaf families.
• European Deaf Academic Networks – Contributions to EUMASLI and mentoring of deaf PhD students and early-career researchers in Dr Deaf programme.

Funded Projects:

• 2023 UKRI Talent and Research Stabilisation Fund – Co-Lead with Jemina Napier, fostering SIGNS@HWU research culture (£4,800)
• 2022-2023 British Sign Language Broadcasting Trust – Co-Investigator, Deaf BSL users' TV preferences (PI: Robert Adam) (£147,742)
• 2022-2024 Erasmus Mundus Design Measure – Co-Investigator, Master in Applied Deaf Studies (PI: Maartje De Meulder) (€55,000)
• 2021-2025 AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award – Principal Investigator, Deaf communities and built heritage (£85,000)
• 2018 Carnegie Trust – Principal Investigator, Sign language policy in mixed deaf-hearing families (£9,560)
• 2018 Creative Multilingualism (AHRC) – Co-Investigator, Linguistic diversity in Small World (PI: Jordan Fenlon) (£5,985)
• 2017-2023 ERC Starting Grant – Principal Investigator, MobileDeaf: Deaf mobilities and translanguaging (€1.5 million)

Roles & Responsibilities

• Teaching & Supervision

  • Teaching in courses on Deaf Studies (deaf history, deaf concepts, deaf politics, deaf people in society, working with deaf communities) and sociolinguistics (global English, sign language sociolinguistics, International Sign)

  • Supervision of (mostly deaf) PhD and postdoctoral researchers, mentoring early-career scholars

  • Development of research-led teaching materials and integration of immersive documentary films in pedagogy

• Leadership & Institutional Roles

  • Co-Director of Engagement, School of Social Sciences, Heriot-Watt University (since 2022)

  • Founder and lead of SIGNS@HWU (since 2020), fostering a vibrant research culture for an interdisciplinary group of staff, postdoctoral researchers, and PhD students focused on sign languages and deaf communities.

  • Programme Director for the MA British Sign Language (Interpreting, Translating and Applied Language Studies) (2025).

  • Principal Investigator of the ERC-funded MobileDeaf project team (2017–2023), exploring deaf mobilities, intersectionality, and translanguaging.