This page shows the staff for the University of Nottingham's School of English in the UK. Please see here for the School of Education and English in China and the School of English in Malaysia.
Sarah Bennett
Research Student,
Contact
Teaching Summary
My professional background is in English Language Teaching (ELT). I am currently a British Council Aptis examiner and have undertaken several fixed-term contracts in English for Academic Purposes… read more
Research Summary
Current Status
PhD (full-time) - currently registered
Research Topic
The rhetoric of conspiracy theories
Research Summary
My research aims to address the central question: what hooks people into conspiracy theories? Ranging from the self-confessed ardent conspiracy theorist to a complete rejection of any conspiracy theory narratives, whilst equally labelled wildly between the highly implausible and the 'probably true but just not official', most people will at some point at least entertain one.
Taking a cognitive critical discourse analysis approach, whereby I employ tools from cognitive linguistics, my research looks more specifically at how and where conspiracy theories manifest in different areas of society online and the relationship between conspiracy theory groups and the perceived opposition. I also analyse key aspects of the rhetoric- such as tools of persuasion that draw (or don't) people in and how to go about constructing a conspiracy theory argument.
Research Supervisors
Prof. Peter Stockwell
Dr. Kevin Harvey
My professional background is in English Language Teaching (ELT). I am currently a British Council Aptis examiner and have undertaken several fixed-term contracts in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) teaching in universities alongside my PhD research.