I work as an assistant professor of English linguistics within the Department of Language, Literature & Communication. I am also academic director of the Academic Language Programme (ALP) of the Faculty of Humanities.
My research interests include syntax, information structure, language change and contrastive Dutch-English linguistics. In my PhD thesis, I investigated the introduction of unusual types of passives in fourteenth-century English and the interaction between this development and the loss of verb second. Most of my current research can be summarized as work on unusual types of subjects and subjects in unusual places. Unusual subjects are subjects that are not animate and agentive, as in middles – she photographs well – and so-called permissive subjects – the tent sleeps four people. In my most recent paper I investigated the historical development of these permissive subjects. Subjects in unusual places are sentences such as Into the room stepped a tall, handsome man, where the subject follows the verb, going against general word order principles in English. I investigate the history of this word order pattern as member of the Scientific Network ‘Non-canonical Syntax in English’, funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG).
I teach courses within our own department for students of CIS and L&S, at a Bachelor and Master level. In addition, I teach and/or coordinate a range of courses on academic grammar and writing for students across the university. This includes the University Minor in English, which I coordinate, and courses for the Academic Language Programme. I am also involved in the GMAT preparation course offered by the School of Business and Economics.
I supervise students from the Master CIW: Schrijven & Vertalen, on topics ranging from translation, clickbait, metadiscourse, contrastive Dutch-English writing, and academic writing in English by Dutch students.
In February 2023, I received a grant from the Centre for Teaching and Learning to examine how to deal with ChatGPT in academic writing. One outcome of this project is a series of podcasts where I discuss this question with various guests.
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