Contact
Biography
BA, MA, PhD (Sheffield); PGCHE (Edge Hill); FHEA
I work in the area of language, gender and sexuality (or queer linguistics) within the broader field of sociolinguistics. My research makes use of critical discourse analysis and sociocultural linguistics alongside feminist and queer theory. In most of my research, I've used linguistic ethnography to explore identity construction in communities of practice, including an older lesbian group and LGBTQ+ youth groups, and I recently published the monograph Language and LGBTQ+ Youth: Analysing Marginalised Identities through an Intersectional Lens (Bloomsbury, 2026).
As part of my work with LGBTQ+ youth, and in collaboration with them, I have developed several public engagement and policy impact projects. The most recent example of this is Words We Live By: A Guide to LGBTQ+ Language, a glossary of words chosen and defined by young people to reflect the way they talk about their lives and identities. We also co-created the LGBT+ Youth Manifesto (a social media campaign sharing their vision of a more inclusive society) and a briefing paper for policy-makers. The briefing paper makes a series of recommendations for best practice regarding the support of young LGBTQ+ people; watch a short video summarising these recommendations or read the policy brief here.
Published research that I have produced in collaboration with colleagues includes critical discourse analysis of how same-sex marriage, HIV prevention, and trans inclusion in sports are represented in the mainstream media, of Twitter discourse around the hashtag #NotAllMen, and into the naming choices of people who get married. I've also analysed identity construction in transgender YouTube video diaries, as well as narratives produced by patients at a transgender health clinic.
Website: queerlinglang.wordpress.com/
Bluesky: lucyjones.bsky.social
ResearchGate: researchgate.net/profile/Lucy-Jones-55
ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-8947-9577
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lucyjonesphd/
Expertise Summary
I am currently President of the International Gender and Language Association (IGALA), having previously served on the committee from 2015-2021. I was elected to the BAAL Special Interest Group on Language, Gender and Sexuality board in 2013 and served on the committee until 2021. I am on the Organising Committee for the annual conference on Language and Sexuality (Lavender Languages and Linguistics), and hosted this at Nottingham in April 2017. I am also a member of the Linguistic Ethnography Forum, and the British Association of Applied Linguistics. I am co-Editor of the Bloomsbury Studies in Queer Linguistics book series, with William Leap and Rodrigo Borba. I was an Editorial Board member for the Journal of Language and Sexuality from 2013-18, and the journal's Editor for Book Reviews from 2018-2023. I served on the Editorial Board for the journal Gender and Language between 2017-2020, and have been a member of the Advisory Board for the Journal of Language and Discrimination since 2016. I also chair the North and Midlands Language, Gender and Sexuality Reading Group. I have been a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy since 2012.
Teaching Summary
Undergraduate modules
Language in Society
Language and Feminism
Studying Language
Postgraduate modules
Language, Gender and Sexuality
Selected Publications
I welcome research proposals from prospective postgraduate students with an interest in the relationships between language and identity, both in terms of interaction and representation, and particularly in relation to gender and/or sexuality; discourse analysis, including ethnographic approaches and those making use of critical discourse analysis; feminist and queer linguistics; media discourse.
My current and previous PhD students include:
Qiyui Gong #FemaleGrowth: A feminist critical discourse analysis of women's video narratives on Chinese social media
Max Reuvers The role of English in (multilingual) online trans communities
Riannon Davies-Parsons A sociolinguistic study of identity construction from self-identified lesbian youth on TikTok
Xinyue Long Narrating coming out in small stories: Exploring the positioning of intersected identities among Chinese bisexual women
Gabriel Jackson Identity negotiation in the context of internet surveillance: A sociolinguistic investigation into transgender people's discourse online
Sam Rosen Constructions of identity in an asexuality internet forum
Daniel Edmondson A mixed-methods investigation of language, identity and intersectionality in gender and sexual minority communities
Whitney Cull Teenage Abortion: A Sociolinguistic Analysis
Aimee Bailey How to be a queer woman: A corpus-assisted critical discourse analysis of online media
Victoria Howard Mastering the rules? Constructions of gender and political identities in the House of Lords.
Nada Altuwaijri Manipulation of women through advertising in Arabic and English magazines
Rachel Rade Representations of immigration in British political discourse
Melissa Yoong Postfeminism and neoliberalism in mass media discourses about professional women