Professor Susana Afonso

I am Associate Professor of Language, Cognition and Society. My research expertise is in Cognitive Linguistics, a theoretical framework concerned with the conceptual representation in language, in particular Cognitive Sociolinguistics, a field that proposes to investigate sociolinguistic variation within the cognitive linguistics framework. My focus in this area is on the Portuguese as a global language, in particular variation of Portuguese (constructional alternations between European and Brazilian Portuguese), having published in Cognitive Linguistics and Linguistics Vanguard.

I also engage in interdisciplinary collaborative research focusing on how alternative conceptualizations which are communicated in verbal interaction in social contexts impact people’s lives in real terms. I have conducted interdisciplinary research in Science Communication in non-formal contexts with academic colleagues from Museum Studies and from Education in Portugal and Brazil. My overall aim is to contribute to social justice by researching how speakers use language to convey ideas about science, about their role in the interaction, and to what extent the way people use language may enable others to use their voice through co-production of meanings, or maintain well established power dynamics. The results from this research collaboration have been published in Curator: the Museum Journal and Science Education.

My teaching reflects my research interests. I have led and taught undergraduate modules that focus on global languages, and the relationship between language, cognition and society. I also contribute to modules on intercultural communication. My undergraduate teaching also includes Portuguese language teaching at intermediate and advanced levels.

At postgraduate level, I developed with Professor Francesco Goglia the MA in Intercultural Communication. I designed, convene and teach two modules: SMLM089 Language and Globalisation and SMLM091 Language, Discourse and Society.

I am currently the co-Director of the MA in Intercultural Communication and the departmental co-Director of Global Engagement.

Research supervision:

I am interested in hearing from prospective research students with proposals in the following areas:

- Cognitive Linguistics

- Cognitive Sociolinguistics

- Construction Grammar

- Conceptual Metaphor

- Language, Cognition and Discourse (discourse analysis and cognitive discourse analysis)

- Applications of Cognitive Linguistics in Education, Science Communication, Museums, amongst other contexts.

- Language planning and language policy

- Pluricentric languages

- Language and globalisation

- Intercultural Communication