Tell us about your contribution that has been recognised through the associate professorship.

I have been recognised for an outstanding contribution to Teaching and Learning (T&L) and a significant contribution to Research and Innovation (R&I), but both strands are equally important to me.

I think the contributions to T&L that probably stand out the most are (in no particular order):

• the development of an EAP lecturer career evaluation/progression process for City University, Hong Kong;
• writing for publication consultancy for academics in Sweden and the CARA project for academic refugees;
• the development of writing for publication programmes for colleagues at the Sheffield Institute of Education (SIoE);
• and the development of staff development materials for Sheffield Hallam and the University of Surrey.

In terms of R&I, I think my contribution to the REF was important. Four of my papers were entered and I am told were internally judged as 3 or 4*. I have co-authored with multiple international authors, and this was helpful for the REF research environment statement. I have been an associate editor of the Journal of English for Academic Purposes and am now on the editorial board. I have been invited to give plenaries at conferences in the UK, Norway and Crete and I think all this demonstrates an emerging international reputation, which is an important criterion for promotion to associate professor.

What does it mean personally to you to be an associate professor at Sheffield Hallam? What do you value about it?

Like everyone else, I have worked hard over the last few years! It’s nice that my contribution and work is recognised. I am hoping that the position will enable me to pursue more projects that help raise understanding of what it means to write effectively in the academy and how we can support students and colleagues to do so.

Tell us a bit about your career story so far.

I began my career in secondary schools teaching French, German and English, and leading the languages department in a large city comprehensive. My husband’s academic career then took us to Stockholm, where I started teaching English at the Swedish Defence University and Stockholm University. After a couple of years, I was offered a fully funded PhD at Stockholm. I obtained my PhD in May 2015 and continued lecturing at Stockholm in the English Department. In September that year, I moved to Sheffield Hallam as a lecturer, then senior lecturer and am now associate professor in SIoE.

If you could go back in time and give yourself some career advice, what would it be?

Think carefully about when to say “yes” and when to say “no”.

And get a dog.

What’s next? Tell us about how you want to further develop your contribution.

I am editing a special issue of the Journal of Second Language Writing on innovation in writing task design, and I put in a bid over summer 2022 with colleagues at two other universities on working with subject specialists on developing their capacity to support students with academic writing. I am really focused on making a success of the “writing better for international publication” programme and am going to be editing the SIoE blog.