girl with long wavy brown hair looking at the camera and smilingThank you for stopping by!

My name is Jen and I am a first year PhD student in Linguistics and English Language with the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. My current research is looking at involving the voices and opinions of children with specific learning difficulties in informing educational policy regarding the teaching of the Irish language in primary schools in Ireland.

I hold a Masters degree in Applied Linguistics from University College Cork, Ireland, where my research employed techniques from Critical Discourse Analysis to identify the strategies of legitimisation used in relation to a prominent referendum held in Ireland in May 2018. This referendum sought to amend the Constitution of Ireland to create the possibility to legislate for a safe abortion process.

I am also an avid runner, I have so far completed two marathons (hence the title of this site!) and one of my goals is to complete at least one every year for as long as I can! I love to chat about anything running-related!

With this page, I would just like to create a space here online where I can document my experience in pursuing a PhD, particularly in light of Covid-19 and all of its implications. Due to current circumstances, I was unable to move to Edinburgh to begin my PhD and so starting this chapter with a different university and not being able to physically be there has been extremely challenging. I would like to share some things that have been working for me and also some things that maybe don’t work as well in order to hopefully help others faced with a similar situation!

If you have any questions/comments please feel free to get in touch!

Jen