Professor Michaela Mahlberg PhD

• 2008 Certificate in Professional Studies (CPS) in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (University of Liverpool, UK)
• 2004 PhD in English Linguistics (Universität des Saarlandes, Saarbrücken, Germany)
• 2000 Staatsexamen, English and Mathematics, (University of Bonn, Germany)

After completing a Staatsexamen in English and Mathematics at the University of Bonn (in 2000), I became increasingly interested in corpus linguistics, so I went on to do a PhD on high-frequency nouns and graduated from the University of Saarbruecken in 2004. Before joining the University of Birmingham in 2015, I taught English Language and Linguistics at the University of Bari (Italy), Liverpool University College (UK), the University of Liverpool (UK) and the University of Nottingham (UK).

I have been teaching a range of modules on corpus linguistics, Dickens, literary linguistics, discourse analysis, grammar, and research methods. I am currently convenor of the second year module Voices in Fiction and teach on several MA modules.

Michaela Mahlberg is interested in supervising dissertations in a range of areas of corpus linguistics, Dickens’s fiction, literary linguistics, and discourse analysis. Please do get in touch if you want to discuss ideas for proposals.

Professor Mahlberg is also always looking out for potential PhD candidates who would like to get involved in research projects and work for the International Journal of Corpus Linguistics.

Find out more - our PhD English Language and Applied Linguistics  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

My main research interests are in corpus linguistics and contextual approaches to meaning. In the field of corpus linguistics I have published on the relationship between lexis and grammar and the way in which phraseology contributes to cohesion in texts. Another major focus of my research is corpus stylistics, an area of research that employs corpus linguistic methods for the study of literary texts.

I am particularly interested in textual patterns of body language presentation and have worked extensively on Dickens's fiction. I am currently Principal Investigator on the AHRC-funded project (with Co-investigator Peter Stockwell) "CLiC Dickens - characterisation in the representation of speech and body language from a corpus stylistic perspective".

I am the Director of the Centre for Corpus Research. I am the editor of the International Journal of Corpus Linguistics. Together with Wolfgang Teubert I edit the book series Corpus and Discourse (published by continuum). I am a member of the following Editorial/Advisory Boards: Corpora (peer-reviewed journal, EUP), Studies in Corpus Linguistics (book series edited by Elena Tognini-Bonelli, published by John Benjamins), Korpuslinguistik und Interdisziplinäre Perspektiven auf Sprache - Corpus linguistics and Interdisciplinary perspectives on language (CLIP) (book series edited by Holger Keibel, Marc Kupietz, Christian Mair, published by Gunter Narr), Diskursmuster - Discourse Patterns (book series edited by Ingo H. Warnke and Beatrix Busse, published by de Gruyter).

I am a member of the AHRC's Peer Review College, the Board of ICAME and the following professional societies: Pala, ISLE, BAVS.