Overview

Dr Catrin S. Rhys is Senior Lecturer in linguistics and Associate Head of School in the School of Communication. 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. She is currently collaborating on a project on the language of complaints handing in the NHS with colleagues at the University of Stirling. With her background in formal linguistics, there is a focus in all her research on the interface between the interactional and the linguistic properties of language use.

Dr Rhys’ research findings have been published in key international journals including Research on Language and Social Interaction and Clinical Linguistics and Phonetics and she is Associate Editor of Pragmatics. She is a member of the IPrA (International Pragmatics Association) and of ISCA (International Society for Conversation Analysis).

She was also a co-founder of UCoM (Ulster Centre on Multilingualism) and is a key member of the Language Made Fun project: a National Lottery Funded 5 year collaboration between Barnardo’s and UCoM. Through UCoM, she has delivered workshops for schools, community groups, Irish language festivals and speech therapists.