Biography
I joined the Tourism and Languages group within the Business School at Edinburgh Napier University as Lecturer in Languages and Intercultural Communication (German) in January 2019 and became Programme Leader for the BA (Hons) in Languages and Intercultural Communication in August 2019. I previously worked at the universities of Leeds, Aberystwyth and Lancaster after completing a PhD in German Studies at the University of Glasgow.
My research interests and expertise lie in the broad areas of border studies, migration and intercultural communication. My current research project, 'Representations of Migration and 'Post-Migration' in Recent German-Language Drama', explores thematic and aesthetic responses to migration to and settlement in (West) Germany and Austria from the 1960s to the current day. Using theories of borders and hospitality, I look at dramatic and theatrical engagement with both the 'guest worker' era of temporary labour migration in the 1960s and 1970s, which led to the long-term settlement of many people from southern Europe and north Africa, and the more recent arrival of refugees from Africa and the Middle East. I am a member of Edinburgh Napier's Mobilities and Movement Research Network (MMRN).
I recently published a chapter on 'The Intercultural Speaker' for the 2nd edition of the Routledge Handbook of Language and Intercultural Communication, edited by Jane Jackson (2020).
I am currently supervising 3 PhD students working on interculturality, mindfulness and migration; translation markets in the UK and the EU; and language planning in ethnic minority areas (see postgrad tab for details of their projects).
I lead and teach on postgraduate modules in intercultural communication and on undergraduate modules in intercultural communication, translation and German language.
I am a fellow of the HEA.