My research interests lie in the area of figurative language and thought. I am currently working on the relationship between emotion, empathy, metaphor and creativity.

Research groups

• I am a founder member of the International Association, Researching and Applying Metaphor
• I am also a member of the Applied Linguistics and SLA research group, the Cognitive Linguistics and Psycholinguistics research group, and the Iconicity and Figurative Language research group

External research grants and awards received

• Dates: Sep 2016 - Sep 2018
  Title of Project: Death before Birth: Understanding, informing and supporting the choices made by people who have experienced miscarriage, termination, and stillbirth (Project Reference: ES/N008359/1)
  Funding Body: ESRC
  Amount: £537,225
  My role: Co-Investigator
• Dates: Oct 2015 - Oct 2017
  Title of Project: Exploring Multimodal Metaphor in Advertising (Project Reference: 659078)
  Funding Body: European Union (Marie Curie Fellowship Scheme)
  Amount: €183,455
  My role: Principal-Investigator (Research Fellow: Dr Paula Sobrino-Perez)
• Dates: Jan 2012-Dec 2014
  Title of Project: Metaphor use in one-to-one academic consultations in English: Implications for Spanish student mobility in Europe (FFI2011-22809)
  Funding Body: Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness
  Amount: €50,820
  My role: Co-Investigator
• Dates: May 2014 - Apr 2016
  Title of Project: Metaphor: From Embodied Cognition to Discourse
  Funding Body: Thyssen Foundation (Germany)
  Amount: €10,000
  My role: Co-Investigator
• Dates: Oct 2014-Sep 2017
  Title of Project: Cognitive modeling and meaning construction across languages: Theory, implications, and applications (FFI2013-43593-P)
  Funding Body: Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness
  Amount: €73,000
  My role: Co-Investigator
• Dates: Aug 2010-Jul 2011
  Title of Project: Verbal and gestural metaphor in cross-cultural communication
  Funding Body: The British Council
  Amount: £2,820
  My role: Principal Investigator
• Dates: Apr 2010-Mar 2011
  Title of Project: Investigating figurative proficiency at different levels of second language writing
  Funding Body: Cambridge ESOL
  Amount: £5,000
  My role: Principal Investigator
• Dates: Jan-Dec 2006
  Title of Project: The Development of Creativity in Japanese Learners of English
  Funding Body: Japanese DAIWA Foundation
  Amount: £1,200
  My role: Principal Investigator
• Dates: Aug 2000 - Feb 2003
  Title of Project: New Technologies and Language Learning: Pedagogical Approaches and Practical Applications (Project Number: 56563-CP-1-98-1-IE-LINGUA-LA)
  Funding Body: The European Union
  Amount: €146,000
  My role: Co-Investigator
• Dates: Jan 1997 - Jul 1999
  Title of Project: European Language Council Thematic Network Project in the area of Languages: (Project 25917-CP-2-97-1-DE-ERASMUS-ETN)
  Funding Body: The European Union
  Amount: €6,030,000
  My role: Co-Investigator

I have been working at the University of Birmingham since 1999. Before that, I taught and lectured in Spain, Japan and Belgium.