Much of my research is at the intersections of applied linguistics and higher education. I currently have active research interests in writing and literacy as a social practice, and contemporary digital literacy and epistemology.

Between 2021-23, I was a recipient of a Leverhulme Research Fellowship for a study called Literacy & Harmony: A Study of Sino-Muslim Heritage Literacy in China.  This researched involved working with a team across the provinces of Ningxia, Shaanxi, Qinghai, Jilin, and Yunnan. More on the project here.

My most recent book, titled A Semiotics of Muslimness in China, is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press (Elements in Applied Linguistics) and draws from extensive fieldwork in Sino-Muslim communities across China.

Prior work includes: The Epistemology of Deceit (2021) by Springer; a 2019 co-authored monograph Academics Writing: The Dynamics of Knowledge Creation; my 2017 monograph Assignments as Controversies (both published by Routledge/T&F); as well as various published research articles in these areas of interest.

Prior to joining Queen’s University Belfast, I was a Senior Researcher on a 2 year ESRC project which investigated the changing nature of academic work, writing, and knowledge creation in English universities. Previous affiliations include Lancaster University and the University of Bradford. I received my PhD from the University of Leeds (ESRC funded) for a thesis which investigated the impact of digital media on the literacy practices of adult learners.

I have not always worked in Universities. My career began in community learning, Further Education where I taught on and managed Adult ESOL and Literacy courses, and awarding bodies. It is from this context that my interest in literacy and language learning began to emerge: through observing how people who were otherwise marginalised and displaced could – through their digital literacies – become core participants of communities in digital environments, and thus radically transform their lives.

I am a trustee and Governing Council member for the Society for Research into Higher Education (SRHE), and co-convened the Society’s Digital University Network between 2016-2022. I am also an Executive Editor for the T&F journal Teaching in Higher Education, and serve on the Editorial Board of Springer’s Post Digital Science & Education.

I have conducted Visiting Professor activities at Jilin University (China), and also Jogjakarta State University and Sultan Ageng Tirtayasa University (both in Indonesia).