UCom - Ulster University Centre on Multilingualism

Dr Catrin Rhys

Head of School of Communication and Media

Dr Catrin S. Rhys is Head of School in the School of Communication and Media and a Senior Lecturer in linguistics. She joined the university in 1995 after an ESRC funded PhD in Chinese Syntax from the Centre for Cognitive Science at the University of Edinburgh and lecturing posts in York University and the University of Leon, Spain.

Dr Rhys’ research employs Conversation Analysis to examine language and social interaction in a range of different institutional and mundane settings. Her NIHR funded Real Complaints project, in collaboration with Bethan Benwell, focuses on the role of communication in complaints handling in the NHS, using conversation analysis to understand the longitudinal experience of complaining and to provide training materials for healthcare professionals handling complaints.

Dr Christina Sevdali

Senior Lecturer

Life Before Ulster

Dr Christina Sevdali was born in Greece and obtained her Bachelor’s Degree in Greek Philology with a major in Linguistics from the University of Crete in 2000. In 2002 she obtained her MPhil in theoretical linguistics from the University of Cambridge and then moved on to do a PhD, which she obtained in 2007.

Her PhD dissertation ‘Infinitival clauses in Ancient Greek: overt and null subjects, the role of Case and Focus’ from the University of Cambridge, supervised by Ian Roberts, investigates the challenging interaction between the Accusativus cum Infinitivo construction and control in Ancient Greek. During her PhD, Christina also spent a semester at MIT as a visiting student, working with Sabine Iatridou.

Teaching

Christina is the Course Director of the Language and Linguistics degree at the School of Communication and Media and teaches linguistic modules in both the undergraduate and the postgraduate provision.

Her teaching centres around morphology, syntax as well as historical linguistics. She has supervised PhD dissertations on the syntax of Irish noun phrases, trilingualism, dialects, aphasia, as well as Greek diachrony, bilingualism and acquisition of case.

Research

Christina’s research interests include synchronic and diachronic syntax, Greek linguistics, syntax – morphology interface and multilingualism. More specifically she is interested in finiteness and its relationship to subjects, the theory of Control and specifically Partial Control, Case/case in synchrony and diachrony especially in relation to phenomena such as focus and emphasis, datives and quirky subjects, object drop and cognate objects and the diachrony of complementation.

In 2017, she secured an AHRC grant alongside Professor Elena Anagnostopoulou (University of Crete) on “Investigating Variation and Change: Case in diachrony.” The project looks into on the diachrony of the Greek case system, with particular focus on dative and genitive and, couched within the generative framework, it aims to contribute to the question of the place of case in grammar, as a phenomenon that relates to both syntax and morphology.

Christina has published in leading journals of the field such as Language, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, Syntax, Lingua, Journal of Historical Syntax, Lingue e Linguaggi, Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics and the Proceedings of NELS. She also co-edited an Oxford University Press volume “Syntax and its limits”, with Raffella Folli (Ulster University) and Robert Truswell (University of Edinburgh).

Civic Roles

Christina is a member of UCoM (Ulster Centre on Multilingualism) and leads the Language made fun project, in collaboration with Barnardo’s NI.

This project, funded by the Lottery trust, aims to assist children of refugees and asylum seekers with their English while also promoting multilingualism.

Professor Philip McDermott

Professor of Sociology

Philip McDermott is Professor of Sociology with teaching interests in the areas of Irish society, cultural and media studies, and social research methods. He acquired Senior Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) in 2018. He was also awarded Ulster University’s Distinguished Research Fellowship for the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences in 2022.

Philip teaches on the undergraduate programme in Sociology on the Belfast Campus and on the ‘Patients, Populations and Society’ Strand of the Graduate Entry Medical School.

His research is concerned with the relationship between the state and the heritage of minority groups – especially migrant and linguistic minorities.

He is particularly interested in the intersection between social policy and cultural heritage policy as a space for empowerment.

A further strand of Philip’s work relates to language and identity in public settings. He has an interest in the perception of migrant languages in public places and the ways that government and communities deal with linguistic diversity.

Philip has presented at multiple international conferences, including keynote presentations at UCL, Cambridge and Humak University (Helsinki). His 55+ publications include a monograph, several edited collections and book chapters. His research has appeared in high impact international peer reviewed journals.

Professor McDermott served a term as editor of the Irish Journal of Sociology (Sage) (2020-2023) and is currently an editor of the Anthropological Journal of European Cultures (Berghahn).

Philip’s research has been funded by the British Academy, the National Trust, and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). He held a prestigious Charlemont Scholarship from the Royal Irish Academy (2015-16).

His international esteem is evidenced by his roles as an independent expert for the European Commission (Horizon), the National Research Council of Poland and the Velux Foundation, Denmark.

His research continues to be impact focused. In 2024, with Professor Patricia Lundy (Sociology) he organised a major international symposium at Ulster University to explore ‘heritage activism and difficult pasts’ funded by the AHRC IAA Stream.

He continues to work closely with several NGOs representing migrant populations in Northern Ireland.

For this civic work, Professor McDermott was awarded a Breaking Barriers award at the 2021 NI Advancing Racial Equality Awards. In 2023, he was elected as a board member of Northwest Migrants Forum a leading community organisation representing migrant communities in the wider Derry Area.

Professor Raffaella Folli

Research Director - Modern Languages & Linguistics

Professor Raffaella Folli studied Philosophy at the University of Milan. In 1998 she completed an MPhil in Linguistics at the University of Oxford and in 2001 a DPhil in Linguistics, also at the University of Oxford. She joined Ulster University in 2005 having previously held research positions at the University of Arizona and then the University of Cambridge. Her main research area is theoretical syntax. Her standing in linguistics is evidenced by her extensive publications in top journals in the field, various grants from different research councils and extensive collaborations with academics in the UK and the US. In 2011 she was awarded a Distinguished Research Fellowship award in recognition of her research achievements.

Raffaella is part of the linguistics team that in 2012 established the Ulster Centre on Multilingualism (UCoM), an information service for people raising or working with children growing up with more than one language.