Academic background

I did all my studying at Churchill College, Cambridge. I gained a BA in Modern Languages (1989), MPhil in Linguistics (1990) and then my PhD (1993) under the supervision of April McMahon and Sarah Hawkins.

In 1993-94 I was a Junior Research Fellow at Clare Hall, Cambridge. At the same time I was a lecturer in both the Faculty of English and the Department of Engineering at Cambridge University.

In 1994-1997 I was a Research Associate in what is now the Speech and Language Sciences section at the University of Newcastle. I took a Lectureship in the Department of Linguistics and Phonetics at the University of Leeds in 1997, then moved to the University of York in 2000. In 2004 I was made a Reader, and in 2010 Professor.

I spent six months in 2006-7 as a full time forensic analyst with J P French Associates. In 2008 I enjoyed a Visiting Erskine Fellowship at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, where I was also a visiting scholar in 2010-11.