Before beginning at King’s as a Visiting Lecturer in 2008 I had been working for over 20 years in industry as a Systems Consultant, a career I gave up in 2002 to begin work on my PhD. Later I took a role as Communications Liaison at the City of London Academy Bermondsey, a position I continued on a part-time basis until 2011. As a KCL Visiting Lecturer I am called on to lecture on a range of topics appropriate to my specialisms, as required.

Research

My first line of research is concerned with language origins. I am interested in the social and cultural aspects of language, so my approach to language origins is anthropological and psychological rather than technological. In particular, I am looking at the role of self in language: where it comes from, how selfhood defines our relationship with language, and how our language defines selfhood.

My second line of research is concerned with artificial languages, also known as art languages or constructed languages. My involvement in the Nightschool on Anarres was one of the projects in the King’s College London presentation, Utopia 2016. The project and the resulting conlangs, tvo-Pravic and Pravlish, can be viewed here.

I also have an interest in neurolinguistics, how the brain creates and uses language. I do not actively research in this area, but I like to keep up-to-date with the research of others.

I am a fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute. My first book, published in 2010, was The Origins of Language: An anthropological perspective (Continuum), I am currently preparing my second book, The Origins of Selfhood: An anthropological perspective.

Teaching

BA English Language & Linguistics

Year 1: Language and Linguistics

Year 2/3: English Lexis; The Making of Language

(to be replaced two new modules, The Origins of Language and Language Construction)