Come and work with me! ICYMI: I'm advertising a fully funded PhD studentship at Aston in cognitive stylistics, starting in October 2026

Details are also now up on the university website --www.aston.ac.uk/study/courses/re-reading...

Any questions, please get in touch

These short, research-led courses explore key topics and frameworks at the intersection of literary and linguistic study.

Seminars will take place online, in the evening, to fit around your schedule. You can find out more info on our course pages (linked above)

The Department of Communication and Culture at Aston University are delighted to announce the launch of 2 new standalone, CPD modules:

🔹 Cognitive Poetics: aston.ac.uk/study/course...

🔹 Language and Literature in Education:
aston.ac.uk/study/course...

📩 Feel free to get in touch with any questions: c.harrison10@aston.ac.uk.

Please share with anyone who might be interested.

· Explore the relationship between re-reading and empathetic alignment, emotional responses and/or reader wellbeing.

👉 Full details and application info are here: lnkd.in/eRc_AYyQ

· Critically review interdisciplinary work on re-reading and attention, including empirical work in narratology, stylistics, literary studies, psychology and cognitive linguistics;
· Design and implement a reader response study to capture readers’ re-reading processes and practices;

· Explore how and why people re-read texts;
· Examine how cognitive stylistic frameworks can explain the distinctive attentional and emotional changes experienced by readers during first and subsequent readings of a text;

This PhD project will investigate the phenomenon of 𝐫𝐞-𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠, asking how and why readers return to texts, and what changes when they do.

The successful candidate will work under the supervision of Dr Chloe Harrison and Dr Natalia Stanulewicz-Buckley (School of Psychology) in order to:

🌟 𝐅𝐮𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐏𝐡𝐃 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐢𝐧 𝐬𝐭𝐲𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬 🌟

I am very pleased to announce a fully funded PhD studentship at the Aston Stylistics Research Centre (ASRC), based in the School of Law and Social Sciences at Aston University.

I explore how linguistic patterns shape 'containment' image schemas, mapping out some of the novel's container/content relationships.

There's also a short classroom activity, if anyone wants to road-test some stylistics 😎

A nice surprise in the post today!

A copy of the September issue of emagazine (for A Level English teachers and students, published by the English and Media Centre) -- featuring my article on different types of imprisonment in The Handmaid’s Tale

The Routledge Companion to Literature and Cognitive Studies The Routledge Companion to Literature and Cognitive Studies offers a comprehensive survey of cognitive approaches to literature, introducing the influential theoretical tools and latest developments i...

My chapter with @chloeharrison.bsky.social on Cognitive Grammar in literary analysis has now been published in this wonderful collection edited by Jan Alber and Ralf Schneider. An honour to be part of such a stellar line-up of authors. www.routledge.com/The-Routledg...

Display of Bloomsbury Linguistics books and flyers on a blue tablecloth

Book highlights at #PALA2025 include:

📖 the new edition of Cognitive Grammar in Stylistics by Marcello Giovanelli & @chloeharrison.bsky.social
📖 Arden Encyclopedia of Shakespeare's Language, ed. J Culpeper
📖 new books in @michamahlberg.bsky.social Corpus and Discourse series

+ more at 35% off!

Conference Programme Download the full programme Download Book of Abstracts Download the floor plan Wednesday 9th July Registration from 10.30am (Conference Reception, Main Building) 12-1pm: Lunch (G63) 1-1.30pm: Openi…

One of the final panels on the final day, nappers welcome

pala2025.com/conference-p...

Looking forward to presenting some ✨ new ✨ research at PALA 2025 on the unusual stylistic profile of app-based 'sleep stories', introduced by the meditation app Calm.

I'll be exploring how this new genre reduces cognitive load for listeners & facilitates sleep onset 😴

PALA2025 is edging ever closer!! Looking forward to seeing you at Aston University, Birmingham, soon!!

PALA is thrilled to finally be on Blue Sky!! Feel free to follow and/or suggest followees! 🥳🎉

Early bird registration for PALA 2025 closes today!

🦤🦉🦜

Canada geese attending the PALA 2025 Digital Stylistics conference

📣#PALA2025📣

Poetics and Linguistics Association 2025 conference, 7th - 12th July

A reminder that the early bird (/goose??) registration closes 2 weeks from today, on the 16th May!

Register here -- pala2025.com/registration/

Interested in an MA in English?

The MA English at Aston offers the chance to explore English language, literature, and stylistics at postgraduate level—on campus or online, with full-time & part-time options.

Join our info webinar to find out more. All welcome!

#Ecolinguistics and #cognitivelinguistics followers: does anyone know of any Greek-speaking researchers working on or interested in (non-literary) language, cognition and the environment? I’d be grateful if you could point them in my direction for a potential funding/project opportunity.

Call for Papers Call for Papers PALA 2025 Aston University, Birmingham, UK Digital Stylistics The conference theme is Digital Stylistics. We invite proposals for twenty-minute papers that explore the relationship …

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Poetry often deviates from schematic templates. In this paper, I will discuss...

P. s. You have until 14th Feb to submit an abstract for #PALA2025
💜

pala2025.com/cfp/

Toolkit launched to support young women with body image A toolkit designed to promote a positive body image among young people in Portsmouth has been launched.

We launched some of the materials from our British Academy funded project on Wednesday night on Young Women & Body Image @c19thceleb.bsky.social @stephenpihlaja.bsky.social

Senior Lecturer in General Linguistics The Department of Linguistics offers courses and programmes in two main areas: linguistics and sign language. Our researchers are active in areas such as child language development, computational ling

Stockholm University 🇸🇪 looking for an Associate Professor of General #Linguistics.

Typology and neurolinguistics are current themes in their group; dept also works in phonetics, lang acquisition and sign language.

Application deadline: January 2025

su.varbi.com/en/what:job/...

A very late contender for favourite book read this year💛
This was so. so. good.

The Language of Margaret Atwood This book explores Margaret Atwood’s use of language and style across a selection of her prose texts, through reader-centred, cognitive stylistic analyses.

To paraphrase Haj Ross, #linguist folks, to study language with its aesthetics drained away is ultimately pointless. So get some aesthetics with @chloeharrison.bsky.social’s link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Yet more cuts at Coventry University. They’re cutting the English literature and language BA, & by the looks of it most if not all of the modern languages staff. Dismal. @ucu.org.uk

Contemporary Cognitive Stylistics for Teachers A FREE 1 day event with Aston's English team. Learn about concepts and tools from cognitive stylistics and how to use them in your teaching

We’ve had two spaces open up for our FREE ‘Contemporary Cognitive Stylistics for Teachers’ day CPD event on Friday 10th January 2025 at Aston.

Come hear about the latest research in stylistics and how to integrate it into your teaching. Includes lunch!

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/contempora...

Presentation title slide that reads: Young Women and Body Image Workshop. Project team: Dr Helen Ringrow and Dr Charlotte Boyce (University of Portsmouth) and Dr Stephen Pihlaja (Aston University)

Had a great time this morning speaking to girls at Portsmouth High School about body image, drawing on examples from historical magazines.

Part of a project I’m working on with the brilliant @helenringrow.bsky.social and @stephenpihlaja.bsky.social

"University should be concerned with encouraging rational inquiry and the free play of the intellect; it is not about the creation of useful drones and it’s unfortunate that tuition fees have made the experience to some degree transactional."