About
Hi, I'm Tom.
I am a PhD student and researcher in sociolinguistics with particular interests in bidialectalism and accentism, having recently graduated with a first class honours MRes degree in Linguistics from Queen Mary University of London, where I am now studying for my PhD. I grew up in Stourbridge, part of England's industrial Black Country, but have lived in Southampton, Lyon, Manchester and now London. When I'm not studying dialects, I like to spend time making music and planning adventures to see friends. I currently live on a narrowboat in west London with my wife Morgan.
My undergraduate and postgraduate research has focused mainly on bidialectalism and accentism; investigating the cognitive and social factors which shape bidialectal speech patterns as well as the effects of bidialectal shifting on speech perception. I am also interested in accentism, particularly in education, and how this affects children's outcomes and the future of marginalised dialects themselves. Other research projects have investigated the relationship between grammatical and social gender, comparing the experiences of non-binary speakers of gendered and non-gendered languages.