Presentations




Applied Stylistics Symposium; Aston University (19 January 2024)

St George's Edgbaston, Birmingham (12 January 2024)

Religious Identity in Personal Narrative
Poetics and Linguistics Association Annual Conference; Bertinoro, Italy (13 July 2023)

Social Justice - Capturing the Individual Conference; Birmingham Newman University (6 June 2023)

Association of University Lecturers in Religious Education; Birmingham Newman University (18 May 2023)

Applied Stylistics Symposium; Aston University (5 May 2023)

English Language and Linguistics Research Seminar; University of Birmingham (26 April 2023)

Aston Stylistics Research Group Seminar Series; Aston University (1 December 2022)

Beyond Inclusivity: Higher Education for Social Justice; Birmingham Newman University (9 September 2022)

Poetics and Linguistics Association Annual Conference; Aix-Marseille Université, France (6 July 2022)

Applied Stylistics Symposium; Aston University (27 May 2022)

British Sociological Association Annual Conference Online (22 April 2022)

Informed Consent and Participant Observation in Community Organising
AHRC Network for Rethinking Research Ethics Frameworks and Processes in the Humanities, University of Manchester (21 April 2022)

Research Language and Religion in Different Contexts (Invited Talk)
Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK (27 Oct 2021)

Poetics and Linguistics Association Annual Conference; University of Nottingham (Online Only) (9 July 2021)

Panellist for workshop on Researching Representations of Nonreligion in Media
Nonreligion in a Complex Future, University of Ottawa and Centre for Multidisciplinary Research on Religion and Society, Uppsala University (6 May 2021) 
Centrum für Religionswissenschaftliche Studien (CERES), Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany (8 February 2021)

Analysing Religious Discourse Online: Theories, Methods, and Challenges (Invited Talk)
Digitalization and Religious Contact Workshop, Ruhr University, Bochum, Germany (14-15 November 2019)

Metaphor and religion in the ESOL classroom
West Tokyo Japanese Association of Language Teachers (JALT); Tokyo, Japan (14 September 2019)

Metaphor and Religion (Invited talk)
International Christian University; Tokyo, Japan (13 September 2019)

‘Okay okay Mashallah’: The Use of Arabic ‘Allah Phrases’ in Muslim YouTube discourse 
Poetics and Linguistics Association Annual Conference, University of Liverpool (10-14 July 2019)

Religion in social media discourse: understanding how users position themselves and their beliefs
International Research Network for the Study of Science and Belief in Society Annual Conference (4-6 July 2019)

Analysing Religious Discourse: Inspiration, authority, and interpretation (invited talk)
University of Sheffield (15 May 2019)

How technology influences what we believe (invited talk)
University of Cardiff: Centre for the Study of Islam in the UK (20 March 2019)

How religious belief and practice develop in discourse (invited talk)
University of Birmingham (12 February 2019)

University of Portsmouth (7 November 2018)

Analysing Religious Discourse: Approaches, Contexts, and Topics (invited talk)
University of Helsinki (23 August 2018)

‘Hey YouTube’: Positioning the Viewer in Vlogs
Poetics and Linguistics Association Annual Conference; University of Birmingham (25-28 July 2018)

Ask the Sheikh: authority and the text in YouTube dawah videos
Socrel 2018: Religion and Education (10-12 July 2018)

The role of Inter-Religious Dialogue in Contemporary Cultural Discourses of Toleration and Acceptance 
Global Challenges: Borders, Populism and the Postcolonial Condition, Linnaeus University (14-16 June 2018)

“When Noah Built the Ark”: Metaphorical stories and biblical quotes in Facebook Preaching
8th International Conference on Intercultural Pragmatics & Communication, University of Cyprus (8-10 June 2018)

Religious Discourse on Social Media
The International Linguistic Association 63rd Annual Conference; Saint John's University, New York City (20 April 2018)

Inter-religious dialogue and social media
Linnaeus University Centre for Concurrences in Colonial and Postcolonial Studies (5 April 2018)

Believing through a screen: religious experience in the multilingual city
Communication in the multilingual city, University of Birmingham (28-29 March 2018)

ESBB 2018 Conference and Symposium on English Academic Writing in a Global World (24-25 March 2018)

Religious Talk Online: the Evangelical Discourse of Christians, Muslims, and Atheists
Newman University Research Seminar; Newman University Birmingham (1 March 2018) (Video)

Religious Talk Online: the Evangelical Discourse of Christians, Muslims, and Atheists (Keynote Address)
Cathedral's Group Chaplin Conference; Newman University Birmingham (22 February 2018)

Corpus Linguistics Conference, University of Birmingham (24-28 July 2017)

Dear Mr Muslim, Dear Mr atheist: Evangelical Christian positioning in social media discourse
Society of Religion Study Group Annual Conference, University of Leeds (12-14 July 2017)

Loughborough University (21 June 2017)

Language and Religion in a Connected World, (Keynote Address)
English, religion and rural contexts: perspectives from the periphery, Kings College London (1 June 2017)

Self and other positioning in YouTube dawah videos
iMean 5; University of West England (7 April 2017)

Uncertain Futures? Perspectives of Female Muslim Students on Life in Britain (with Naomi Thompson)
Gender & Muslim Spaces Conferences; University of Leeds (29 March 2017)

Let's Talk about sex (student partnership workshop)
Engage 2016 (30 November 2016)

'Dear Mr atheist': Understanding inter-religious talk on Facebook (Invited Talk)
University of Glasgow (3 November 2016)

'When Noah built the ark...': metaphor and Biblical stories in Facebook preaching
Researching and Applying Metaphor Conference; Free University of Berlin (2 July 2016)
Poetics and Linguistics Association; University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Sardinia (27-30 July 2016)

Rocky, David, and the Karate Kid: Allegory in Evangelical Christian Facebook posts. (Invited Talk) University of Nottingham (10 March 2016)

Pedagogy of Partnership in Practice: two case studies. Co-presenter with Basra Khan, Aamina Ishak Amdavadi, Samreen Anwar and Tahne Yafai. Teaching & Learning Conference, Newman University (22 January 2016) 
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Investigating inter-religious dialogue on Social Media: keyword-led discourse analysis in action
ADDA Conference, Valencia, Spain (20 November 2015)

“What About the Wolves?”: The Reading and Interpretation of Scripture as Social Action in YouTube Arguments
Poetics and Linguistics Association Annual Conference, University of Kent (15 July 2015)

'What About the Wolves?': The Reading and Interpretation of Scripture as Social Action in YouTube Arguments
The Use of the Bible in Contemporary Culture, University of Chichester (27 June 2015)

Religious Talk on Social Media: Social positioning and register in inter-religious dialogue (Invited Talk)
Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield, UK (29 April 2015)

Research Ethics in YouTube Research [Plenary Talk]
BAAL New Media SIG, University of Cardiff, Wales (16 April 2015)

Religious Talk on Social Media
i-Mean 4, University of Warwick (9 April 2015)

Religious Talk on Social Media
Heythrop College Research Seminar, London, UK (7 January 2015)

Frenemies and Fans: The emergence of different YouTube communities (Invited Talk)
University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK (9 December 2014)

Frenemies and Fans: second-person address and engagement in different YouTube communities (Invited Talk)
University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK (30 October 2014)

Discourse dynamics in emerging communities: why complexity matters in humanities research
Newman University Research Seminar Series, Birmingham, UK (9 October 2014)

Dynamic metaphor use in YouTube 'drama' 
Researching and Applying Metaphor 2014 Conference; University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Sardinia (23 June 2014)

Talk about Language Forum; Middlesex University; London, UK (7 April 2014)
Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice (ALAPP 2013); University of Malaysia; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (12 December 2013)

'It's all red ink': the interpretation of Biblical metaphor among Evangelical Christian YouTube users
Poetics and Linguistics Association Annual Conference; Heidelberg, Germany (31 July 
2013)

Integrating Diverse Approaches to English in an Undergraduate Degree
Malaysian English Language Teaching Association conference Panel; Johor Bahru, Malaysia (29 May 2013)

Positioning in talk: how to make sense of what people do in discourse
The University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus (23 May 2013)

The development of 'drama' in YouTube discourse
Wesleyan University; Middletown, CT, USA (27 October 2011)

 Hofstra University; New York City, NY, USA (25 October 2011)

Student Forum; The Open University; Milton Keynes, UK (19 October 2011) 

Lancaster University (Invited Talk); Lancaster, UK (9 June 2011)

Student Forum The Open University; Milton Keynes, UK (24 May 2011)

 iMean2 conference University of the West England; Bristol, UK (14 April 2011)

Talk about Language Forum; Middlesex University; London, UK (7 March 2011)

Religion and Spirituality in Society Conference; University Center; Chicago, IL, USA (15 February 2011)

Middlesex University Learning and Teaching Forum Middlesex University; London, UK (10 December 2010) 

Work in Progress Multimodal Analysis Colloquium; The Open University; Milton Keynes, UK (29 November 2010)

British Association of Applied Linguistics Annual Meeting; University of Aberdeen; Aberdeen, Scotland (10 September 2010)

International Conference on Researching and Analysing Metaphor; Vrije Universiteit (VU); Amsterdam, Netherlands (1 July 2010)

Social Media and the Sacred Seminar; The Open University Centre, London, UK (28 June 2010)

Open Distance Learning Summer School;University of Birmingham, UK (9 July 2009)

Work in Progress Seminar The Open University; Milton Keynes, UK (10 March 2009)

Seventh International Conference on Researching and Analysing Metaphor; University of Extremadura; Cáceres, Spain (30 May 2008)

Teaching internet discourse: Computer-mediated communication and the future of the written word Teacher's Helping Teachers Seminar; Lao American College; Vientiane, Laos (24 March 2008)

The corpus and the Japanese high school teacher: Motivation
Japanese Association for Language Teaching Conference; National Olympics Memorial Youth Centre; Tokyo, Japan ( 23 November 2007)

Watch out! The corpus, Verb usage and non-native teachers of English Bangladesh English Language Teachers Association Conference; Presidency University; Bangladesh, Dhaka (24 August 2007)

Authenticity in the EFL classroom: News for kids, news for adults
Teachers Helping Teachers Seminar; St. Joseph Higher Secondary School; Bangladesh, Dhaka (23 August 2007)