Emma is a Lecturer in Language and Social Interaction in the Communication and Media department in the School of Social Science and Humanities. Her research focusses on how gender-based violence is reported to the police and progresses through the criminal justice system.
Emma completed her PhD here at Loughborough, in 2014. Supervised by Professors Elizabeth Stokoe and Charles Antaki, her thesis ‘The order of ordering: analysing customer bartender service encounters in public bars’ was an ethnomethodological, conversation analytic (CA) study examining how we accomplish service at the bar counter.
Emma joins Loughborough from the Aston Institute of Forensic Linguistics, Aston University where she remains as Visiting Research Fellow. While there, her research focussed on understanding the investigative police interview from a CA perspective. She also has an interest in the quality of ‘evidence’ in the legal system in England and Wales. You can read more about Emma’s research interests under the Research tab.
Emma’s research interests centre on improving access to criminal justice for 'vulnerable' and/or ‘intimidated’ (as defined by law) victims and witnesses of crimes such as kidnap, domestic violence and sexual offence. She uses conversation analysis (CA) to examine how these crimes are reported and progressed from the initial reporting through to the decisions made by (mock) juries. Her research is applied; working in partnership with police in England she contributes to the development of training and guidance materials and seeks to understand how these documents are enacted in practice.
Emma is the Module Leader for Self and Identity.
Emma welcomes enquiries for PhD supervision from candidates using the methodology of conversation analysis and related to her research interests listed on the ‘Research’ tab.
The university has guidance on Funding and Studentships, you can also check current PhD funding opportunities in the School of Social Sciences and Humanities.
Current postgraduate research students
- Kathryn Jordin- ‘Learning To Be A Boy - How everyday conversation teaches and upholds heteronormative gender constraints to boys’ with Dr Marco Pino and Dr Laura Jenkins.
Kathryn's doctoral research uses conversation analysis to explore how interaction between pre-school age boys and adults teaches and upholds heteronormative gender constraints.
- Jixin Chen - 'Agency, Self-Expressions and Representations of the LGBTQ+ Community in Chinese Social Media' with Dr Iris Wiggerand Dr Lise Jaillant.
Jixin Chen's doctoral research explores how sexual minorities in China use social media for self-expression and public attitudes and perceptions towards them.