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Biography I joined the Tourism and Languages group within the Business School at Edinburgh Napier University as Lecturer in Intercultural Business Communication in January 2019 and became Programme Leader for the BA (Hons) in Languages and Intercultural Communication in August 2019. I previously worked at the universities of Leeds, Aberystwyth and Lancaster after completing a PhD in German Studies at the University of Glasgow.

My research interests and expertise lie in the broad areas of border studies, migration and intercultural communication, and I am currently working on the following projects:
- 'Creating cross-border communities: The European Capital of Culture 2022, Esch-sur-Alzette' explores the representation and creation of place, sense of place and cross-border community in some of the participatory, 'grassroots' projects and events featured in the Capital of Culture programme. I am particularly interested in multilingual events, including theatre productions, which focus on the border between Luxembourg and France and on expressions and constructions of local, regional, national and 'European' identities.
- 'Representations of Migration and 'Post-Migration' in Recent German-Language Drama', explores thematic and aesthetic responses to migration to and settlement in (West) Germany and Austria from the 1960s to the current day. Using theories of borders and hospitality, I look at dramatic and theatrical engagement with both the 'guest worker' era of temporary labour migration in the 1960s and 1970s, which led to the long-term settlement of many people from southern Europe and north Africa, and the more recent arrival of refugees from Africa and the Middle East.

In May 2023, I worked with colleagues in Intercultural Communication to organise the international research symposium 'Imagining and Experiencing Hospitalities in a Mobile World' at Edinburgh Napier. This symposium featured a range of papers exploring the intersections between 'hospitalities' and 'interculturalities' in diverse contexts, including migration and asylum, internationalisation of Higher Education, and tourism.

I am currently supervising 4 PhD students working on interculturality, mindfulness and migration; translation markets in the UK and the EU; students' reverse intercultural adaptation in Chinese universities; and translation of intangible cultural heritage texts in China.

I lead and teach on postgraduate modules in intercultural communication and on undergraduate modules in intercultural communication, translation and German language.

I am a member of the International Association for Languages and Intercultural Communication (IALIC) and of Edinburgh Napier's Mobilities and Movement Research Network (MMRN).

I am a fellow of the HEA.
Research Interests Representations of migration in the arts, particularly theatre
Migration and mobilities
Borders and border crossings
Interculturality and intercultural communication
Teaching and Learning Intercultural communication
Translation
German language and culture
PhD Supervision Availability Yes
PhD Topics Migration and mobilities
Borders
Interculturality in the arts
Interculturality in the media
Intercultural communication and intercultural competence
Translation (particularly with a focus on intercultural communication)