My research into English incomers in the Ariège Pyrenees, south-west France, is of interest to both academic and general audiences. For a summary of my work in conversation with Dr Michaela Benson, listen to a podcast recorded for the BrExpats research project.  In the podcast I summarise my research and describe how the applied linguistic focus works in such a setting.  I also bring my research up to date in the light of recent political developments.

Palgrave Macmillan published the academic book of my research in 2016.  This is an Applied Linguistics volume that is unique in its mixed methods analysis.  Three datasets were used: a corpus of British media texts, along with online forum data and interviews with English incomers. The book presents a detailed identification of how these English incomers represent themselves as part of the ‘Brits in France’ phenomenon.  Using linguistic analysis I show how a value system is both taken up and manipulated as a resource for negotiating a particular kind of identity. Using social theory to underpin the analysis of positioning strategies in interaction, the book demonstrates the complex possibilities within processes of self-identification in a migration context.

Link to the book on Amazon:

I’ve also published articles in peer-reviewed academic journals:

(2017) “Negotiating an agentive identity in a British lifestyle migration context: A narrative positioning analysis”. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 21/5: 650 – 671.
Free access to a read-only copy here: http://rdcu.be/yvWI

(2016) “Narrative positioning and ‘integration’ in lifestyle migration: British migrants in Ariège, France”. Language and Intercultural Communication, 17(1): 58 – 75.

(2015) Life in the ghetto: How the media represent British lifestyle migration to France.  JOMEC Journal, special issue: The Meaning of Migration, June 2015, Cardiff University.  Available from: http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/jomec/research/journalsandpublications/jomecjournal/7%20-%20june2015/index.html