Gudrun Reijnierse is Associate Professor of Language & Communication at the department of Language, Literature and Communication (Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities).
Gudrun's research is driven by a deep curiosity to understand how communication works and is characterized by methodological diversity and innovation. Her research covers three interrelated themes: 1) the language of science communication; 2) the use and effect of metaphors across discourse contexts; 3) tools for (automatic) metaphor analysis.
In her work, Gudrun aims to bring a 'language & communication' perspective to the emerging field of the science of science communication. She does so by focusing on the use and effects of metaphor -- and language choices more broadly -- in communication between experts and non-experts across a range of different domains such as journalism, education, and healthcare. Specifically, her publications demonstrate how language choices shape public discourse on societally relevant science-related topics such as COVID-19, immunotherapy, quantum technology, AI, and sustainability. Gudrun also has a longstanding interest in the development of tools for metaphor analysis.
Gudrun currently supervises two PhDs:
She was previously involved as supervisor (co-promotor) in:
She also served as lead linguist (including as postdoc in 2021-2022) in the EU Horizon 2020-funded PhD project of Nynke Bos (2021-2025; PhD awarded December 2025).
Other recently funded research projects include:
Gudrun teaches in the BA and MA programmes in Communication and Information Studies (Language & Media, Media & Journalistiek, Multimodal Communication, Journalistiek) where she also supervises theses and internships.
Subjects include: communication and cognition, social media analysis, genre design, and document design.
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