@emma-putland
Applied Linguist at Lancaster University | Senior Research Associate on the Public Discourses of Dementia project. Especially interested in health and environmental discourses, multimodality, critical discourse studies, corpus linguistics, metaphor, etc.
Out now: 'Dementia, Death and Discourse', chapter with @emma-putland.bsky.social in Handbook of Language and Death, ed. by @dgalasinski.bsky.social & Justyna Ziółkowska. See OA pre-print below, and make sure to look up the rest of the volume! @sosslancaster.bsky.social @lancslinguistics.bsky.social
Book cover for The Bloomsbury Handbook of Language and Death, edited by Dariusz Galasinski and Justyna Ziólkowska.
Our team, @emma-putland.bsky.social and @gavinbrookes.bsky.social, have a new chapter out!
'Dementia, Death and Discourse' in The Bloomsbury Handbook of Language and Death, ed. by D. Galasinski and J. Ziólkowska.
The chapter pre-print is available #openaccess here: wp.lancs.ac.uk/public-disco...
Thanks so much for the endorsement, Joanne, it’s been a privilege to hear about your research over the years and your presence is always much appreciated! 😊
Great news they are extending the deadline. I've presented as BAAL Health & Science SIG and each time it's been a very warm and welcoming environment, that encourages the sharing of ideas. Good first conference to present at for #GraduateStudents and it's online!
‼️ Deadline Extension ‼️
The deadline to submit abstracts for our 2026 webinar has now been extended to Monday, March 9th @ 5pm
We’d love to hear from you!
Out now: 'Critical Discourse Studies and Health Communication'. Chapter in Handbook on Critical Discourse Studies, ed. by B. Forchtner and F. Zappettini. Honoured to publish in this book alongside many whose work has inspired me. Chapter pre-print #openaccess here: wp.lancs.ac.uk/public-disco...
Interested in what different members of the International Consortium for Communication in Health Care (IC4CH) are working on?
Today we're putting the spotlight on Professor May O. Lwin (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore):
ic4ch.wordpress.com/2026/02/11/s...
Registration for the 2026 Corpora and Discourse Conference is now... open! Please follow the link below to register, and do so by 5th April to get the early bird price! wp.lancs.ac.uk/cad-2026/reg... @lancslinguistics.bsky.social @sosslancaster.bsky.social
In 2026, our CASS Summer Schools offer two free-to-attend courses in corpus linguistics, focused on Language, Discourse and Society, and Language Teaching, Testing and Assessment.
Applications are now open!
wp.lancs.ac.uk/corpussummer...
#LancsSS26
Out now: 'What is good care, and who is it good for? A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of UK care home websites'. Chapter led by @emma-putland.bsky.social with Kevin Harvey in the Handbook on Critical Discourse Studies: www.e-elgar.com/shop/gbp/han.... Accepted version in original post below!
Our team, @gavinbrookes.bsky.social and @emma-putland.bsky.social, have a new chapter with Kevin Harvey!
'What is good care, and who is it good for? A
Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis of UK care
home websites'
Interested? You can read the author copy here wp.lancs.ac.uk/public-disco...
Applications for the free-to-attend 2026 CASS Summer Schools are now open!
Intensive, expert-led training in corpus linguistics. No course fees (travel and accommodation are self-funded) #LancsSS26
Apply via the CASS website: wp.lancs.ac.uk/corpussummer...
📣 Reminder!
👇 Just 3 weeks to go until the deadline for our 2026 online webinar.
We look forward to seeing your submissions!
👇Exciting opportunity for a postdoc position at Queen Mary, University of London.
This project is situated at the intersection of digital linguistics, visual studies, and critical autism studies.
Call for Papers for our 2026 webinar: ‘Key Health and Science Communication Challenges in the 2020s’
We’re delighted to share the cfp for our upcoming event. If you’re considering submitting, we’d love to hear from you.
The deadline for submission is 5pm, February 9th 2026.
wp.me/pcqSKn-dv
Thanks so much, Tamsin! 😊
Image shows a banner advertising the book, titled Navigating Dementia and Society: Exploring How People Affected by Dementia Negotiate and Reshape Popular Discourses. It is open access as an e-book.
Review: ‘This brilliant, insightful book showcases people with dementia as creators of their own identities. By re-interpreting tired tropes and dehumanising discourses, this work creates space for hope. If we want a better future for dementia care, these are the voices we need to listen to.’ - Cheyann Heap, University of York, UK
Review: ‘Navigating Dementia and Society is a fresh exploration of the experience of dementia that problematises prevailing dichotomous discourses of “tragedy” or “living well”. In her creative multimodal investigation, Emma Putland illuminates the complexity with which individuals affected by dementia engage with media stereotypes. Kudos for this innovative and hopeful study!’ - Heidi E. Hamilton, Georgetown University, USA
Review: ‘This book offers a unique perspective on the way that dementia is described and understood and makes visible the power of language and images in influencing discourse. The author unpacks dementia discourse drawing on the lived experiences of people with dementia – and those closely connected – and challenges us to engage with a much more nuanced set of understandings. She manages to explore the territory in an engaging, thoughtful, intelligent and, at times, amusing way.’ – Alisoun Milne, University of Kent, UK
I'm delighted to share that my book is out and available to read online for free! Thank you to the many people who either participated in my research or supported me to do it 😊
Book page: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/navigatin...
Free online access: www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph?do...
You too, Lily! Hope all is going well 😊
Congratulations, Lily! 🎊
This has been in the works for a while so it's great to see it out! It's part of a special issue on Language, Gender, and Health Inequalities, edited by Laura Coffey-Glover for the Journal of Language and Discrimination.
You can see the full issue here: utppublishing.com/toc/jld/curr...
Image shows the front page of our new article, entitled: “We No Longer Recognized Her as a Human Being”: A Critical Discourse Analysis of AI-Generated Character Descriptions of Men and Women With Dementia. ABSTRACT: Motivated by the gender inequalities observed in relation both to dementia and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), this article takes a critical discourse analysis approach to explore how gender and dementia intersect in 52 AI-generated character descriptions of men and women with dementia. Using “woman/man”as entry points through which to explore discursive constructions masculinities and femininities in the data, we find gendered distinctions in how characters’ bodies are evaluated, social roles attributed, and violence presented. We also find that a deficit approach to dementia dominates, emphasizing suffering, loss, and hopelessness. Characters with dementia are stereotyped as older and frail, either near death or already dead in body and/or mind. Overall, the AI-generated texts recycle (and potentially amplify) pervasive discourses regarding both dementia and gender. Our findings therefore reinforce the need for further critical engagement with GenAI, from design to use, to interrogate and challenge its capacity to perpetuate inequalities.
Out now: 'A Critical Discourse Analysis of AI-Generated Character Descriptions of Men and Women With Dementia', with Chris Chikodzore-Paterson and @gavinbrookes.bsky.social:
📑Journal article: utppublishing.com/doi/epdf/10....
📝Author copy (open access): eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/22...
Out now: 'Historical Medical Discourse: Corpus Linguistic Perspectives', edited with @niallrcurry.bsky.social @emma-putland.bsky.social & @tonymcenery.bsky.social. Features 11 chapters using corpora to explore medical discourse over four centuries! www.routledge.com/Historical-M...
Such amazing news, congratulations!! 🎊
@baal-health-sig.bsky.social are now looking for a SIG Secretary. This post offers a great opportunity to get involved with the linguistics health and science communication community, BAAL more broadly and to help steer the direction of the SIG. For info, please go to baalhealthsci.wordpress.com
Thank you to all contributors to this @corpussocialsci.bsky.social event: two days of thought-provoking presentations on different issues in health communication, using different methodologies and with data from Europe, Africa, Asia and the US. See you all at the next @ic4ch.bsky.social event!
"Since 1800, there’s been a sharp decline in nature-related words in English language books. It closely matches a simulation of nature–human interactions." A new piece in @grist.org by Kate Yoder, with some #ecolinguistics input from @repoole.bsky.social grist.org/language/nat...
5. There's so much more than can be put into a post! During the book prize panel, an editor asked a question that is one of many that I'm still seriously thinking about: 'who does our research serve?'
I've had many wonderful conversations with colleagues and look forward to the rest of #baal2025!
Image summarises principles of intersectional sociocultural linguistic analysis: 1. Intra-categorical in outlook 2. Considers both oppression and privilege 3. Takes a thick approach to account for individual social locations 4. Understands speakers to be agentive 5. Is reflexive
4. Another highlight was @lucyjones.bsky.social's plenary in the afternoon - as ever from Lucy, it was both thought-provoking and inspiring. I learnt a lot from her discussion of the different aspects of taking an intersectional lens and enjoyed her openness about learning from mistakes!
3. I loved attending the @baal-health-sig.bsky.social panel, featuring Olivia Knapton's great work with people with insect/bug phobias, Esranur Efeoglu-Ozcan's innovative comparative study of climate crisis framings, and Mimi Huang's important work with volunteer waterside responders.
2. It was a pleasure to follow Run Li when I presented on representations of dementia and generative AI. I loved hearing about his work with Xiang Huang on multimodal discursive strategies in public health communication. We were lucky to have great questions from the audience!