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Biography As Associate Dean Academic (Quality Assurance and Enhancement) I lead on Teaching and Learning activities for the School of Arts, Media and Creative Technology. I support Programme Leaders, Subject Group Heads, and Directors across the School to develop new degree programmes and improve our current portfolio. Liaising with colleagues across the University, particularly in the Quality Enhancement Office, Marketing Team, Timetabling, and Estates, I assist in both the academic and practical delivery of our programmes and modules. Since I arrived at Salford as a Lecturer in 2008, I have held a range of roles in the School of Arts Media and Creative Technologies, including Admissions Tutor, Assessments Officer, Chair of Taught Ethics, Module Leader, Programme Leader and Associate Director. Research-led teaching has always been central to my work in Higher Education, and I continue to supervise students in the key areas of research in which I regularly publish.
Research Interests My most recent research project has involved looking at elements of academic governance, having completed an MBA to enhance my understanding of leadership and management. My more established research relates to the linguistic study of Scots and English. My PhD focused on the origins and history of Scottish place-names, and I have continued to publish in this field, becoming increasingly interested in critical approaches to place-names and their perception. I am a member of the Editorial Board for Onoma, the Journal of the International Council of Onomastic Sciences, and for Names, the Journal of the American Name Society. I have also worked on topics related to the Scots Language more generally, with many of my research publications developing from my lexicographical work. I am interested in all of the contexts in which Scots is currently used, particularly in the wake of Scottish devolution, and have published on the uses of Scots in contemporary literature. Having been a dictionary editor for ten years with the Historical Thesaurus of English at Glasgow University, the Oxford English Dictionary, and the Dictionary of the Scots Language, at present, with Independent Scholar Joshua Pendragon, I am developing the project website Beard’s Trove https://www.beardstrove.org/ to examine the unpublished manuscript dictionary of ‘Arms, Armour and Costume’, compiled by Charles Relly Beard.