About me

I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Language Science and Technology at Saarland University. With a PhD in Linguistics from the University of York and a background in History and English Philology, I have a keen interest in spoken language and its social functions.

A central theme of my research are the links between speech and identity — in every meaning of the word. My PhD work, which had a forensic focus, aimed to elucidate how witnesses to a crime can use vocal cues as a means of identifying a perpetrator.

My current collaboration with Jürgen Trouvain, Richard Ogden, and Marina Cantarutti on the BREVIT project explores the functions and characteristics of aspects of speech that are often overlooked, including breathing behaviour and non-lexical vocalisations, such as laughter, sighs, and gasps.