Professor Joanna Gavins
School of English
Professor of English Language and Literature
+44 114 222 0214
Full contact details
School of English
Jessop West
1 Upper Hanover Street
Sheffield
S3 7RA
- Profile
-
I am a Professor of English Language and Literature and I am centrally interested in the relationships between language, cognition, and the environment. I teach courses and supervise PhD projects in cognitive linguistics, stylistics, and ecolinguistics.
I was a Co-Investigator on the projects Plastics: Redefining Single Use (funded by the EPSRC, 2018-2019) and Many Happy Returns: Enabling Reusable Packaging Systems (funded by the NERC, 2020-2024), both of which aimed to produce multidisciplinary solutions to single-use plastic pollution. I was Principal Investigator on a project to set up the Biobased and Biodegradable Materials Regulatory Network (BB-REG-NET), funded by Innovate UK in 2024. From 2026, I will be a Co-Investigator on the MAGICBIOMAT project, funded by Horizon Europe. This is another cross-institutional and multidisciplinary project and will investigate the general public’s attitude towards and disposal of biodegradable materials.
- Research interests
-
My research centres around the cognition of linguistic style. My work is interdisciplinary in nature and draws upon knowledge from the cognitive sciences in order to understand how human beings conceptualise and experience language.
My most recent research has focused on how the language we use reflects how we think about the environment and how reframing that language has the potential to influence our everyday behaviours. In 2018, I was a Co-Investigator on Plastics: Redefining Single Use, a multidisciplinary research project, funded by the EPSRC and working in partnership with a range of external organisations and companies. I was then a Co-Investigator on Many Happy Returns: Enabling Reusable Packaging Systems, funded by the NERC. I led the Language work package on the project, investigating the language people use to describe their interactions with plastics and the extent to which the public’s conceptualisation of plastic use and reuse is aligned with that of large organisations, such as manufacturers and retailers. Our research team produced a free guide for businesses and other organisations How to Talk About Plastics, which gives accessible advice on the kinds of language that can be used to encourage pro-environmental choices. We also produced a short film about Many Happy Returns and a podcast for the annual Off the Shelf festival is coming in October 2024.
In 2024, I was Principal Investigator on the Discovery Phase of the Biobased and Biodegradable Regulatory Network (BB-REG-NET) project, funded by Innovate UK. The project was a collaboration between the University of Sheffield, the Biobased and Biodegradable Industries Association (BBIA) and Green Rose Chemistry. We examined the current barriers to the wider adoption and development of novel materials and our investigatory work with over 100 industry stakeholders resulted in an open access report.
From 2026, I will be a Co-Investigator on the MAGICBIOMAT project, funded by Horizon Europe. This project will investigate the general public’s attitude towards and disposal of biodegradable materials and will involve the development of a series of experiments and linguistic interventions aimed at encouraging behaviour change.
My research explores the cognition of literary language, as well as non-literary communication. My most recent work on literary linguistic style has centred chiefly around the cognitive experience of reading contemporary poetry and I published a monograph for Edinburgh University Press in 2020 entitled Poetry in the Mind: The Cognition of Contemporary Poetic Style. I am currently working on another monograph on the poet and gardener, Ian Hamilton Finlay. This book explores how the language of Finlay’s poetry is conceptualised in its environmental setting, particularly in his garden Little Sparta. The book is due to be published by Edinburgh University Press in 2025.
- Publications
-
Books
- Poetry in the Mind: The Cognition of Contemporary Poetic Style. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
- World Building: Discourse in the Mind. London, England: Bloomsbury Academic.
- Reading the Absurd. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
- Reading the Absurd. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press.
- Text world theory: an introduction. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
- Text World Theory: An Introduction. Edinburgh, Scotland: Edinburgh University Press.
Edited books
- World Building: Discourse in the Mind. London: Bloomsbury.
- Cast: The Poetry Busines Book of New Contemporary Poets. Smith/Doorstop Books.
- Cognitive Poetics in Practice. London: Routledge.
Journal articles
- “I don’t think education is the answer” : a corpus-assisted ecolinguistic analysis of plastics discourses in the UK. Journal of World Languages.
- Linguistic co-creativity and the performance of identity in the discourse of National Trust holiday cottage guestbooks. Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics.
- Regina v John Terry: The discursive construction of an alleged racist event. Discourse and Society, 26(6), 712-732. View this article in WRRO
- Metaphor studies in retrospect and prospect. Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 12(2), 493-510.
- About the heart, where it hurt exactly, and how often. LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE, 21(1), 33-50.
- Leda and the stylisticians. Language and Literature, 21(4), 345-362.
- The year's work in stylistics 2008. LANG LIT, 18(4), 367-383.
- Review Article: The year's work in stylistics 2006. Language and Literature, 16(4), 389-403.
- The year's work in stylistics 2005. Language and Literature, 15(4), 381-393.
- The year's work in stylistics 2004 old dogs, new tricks. Language and Literature, 14(4), 397-408.
- (Re)thinking modality: A text-world perspective. J LITERARY SEMANTICS, 34(2), 79-93.
- The year's work in stylistics 2003. Language and Literature, 13(4), 349-364.
- Absurd tricks with bicycle frames in the text world of The Third Policeman. Nottingham Linguistic Circular, 15, 17-33.
- Gender and Discourse by Ruth Wodak (ed.), 1997. London: Sage, pp. ix + 303, ISBN 0 7619 5098 2 (hbk), 0 7619 5099 0 (pbk). Language and Literature: International Journal of Stylistics, 7(3), 284-285.
Chapters
- 7 Poetry in the Mind, Poetry in the Mind (pp. 148-156). Edinburgh University Press
- 6 Metaphor, Poetry in the Mind (pp. 125-147). Edinburgh University Press
- 5 Performance, Poetry in the Mind (pp. 97-124). Edinburgh University Press
- 4 Absence, Poetry in the Mind (pp. 75-96). Edinburgh University Press
- 3 Intertextuality, Poetry in the Mind (pp. 51-74). Edinburgh University Press
- 2 Time and Space, Poetry in the Mind (pp. 29-50). Edinburgh University Press
- 1 Reading Poetry, Poetry in the Mind (pp. 1-28). Edinburgh University Press
- 'Too much blague?': an exploration of the text worlds of Donald Barthelme's Snow White, The Language and Literature Reader (pp. 255-267). Routledge
- 3 Creativity and Cognition in the Discourse of National Trust Holiday Cottage Guestbooks, Cognitive Linguistic Approaches to Text and Discourse (pp. 54-72). Edinburgh University Press
- Creativity and Cognition in the Discourse of National Trust Holiday Cottage Guestbooks In Hart C (Ed.), Cognitive Linguistic Approaches to Text and Discourse: From Poetics to Politics (pp. 54-72). Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
- Afterword In Neurohr B & Stewart-Shaw L (Ed.), Experiencing Fictional Worlds (pp. 219-223). Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.
- Stylistic Interanimation and Apophatic Poetics in Jacob Polley's 'Hide and Seek' In Gavins J & Lahey E (Ed.), World Building: Discourse in the Mind (pp. 276-292). London: Bloomsbury.
- World building in discourse In Gavins J & Lahey E (Ed.), World Building: Discourse in the Mind (pp. 1-13). London: Bloomsbury.
- Text-Worlds, BLOOMSBURY COMPANION TO STYLISTICS (pp. 444-457).
- Stylistic Interanimation and Apophatic Poetics in Jacob Polley's 'Hide and Seek', WORLD BUILDING: DISCOURSE IN THE MIND (pp. 277-292).
- Text World Theory In Sotirova V (Ed.), The Bloomsbury Companion to Stylistics (pp. 444-457). London: Bloomsbury.
- Defamiliarisation In Stockwell P & Whiteley S (Ed.), The Cambridge Handbook of Stylistics (pp. 196-211). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- 5 Absurd Verses, Reading the Absurd (pp. 135-160). Edinburgh University Press
- 4 Absurd Fictions, Reading the Absurd (pp. 97-134). Edinburgh University Press
- 3 Absurd Minds, Reading the Absurd (pp. 58-96). Edinburgh University Press
- 2 Identifying the Absurd, Reading the Absurd (pp. 10-57). Edinburgh University Press
- 1 The Literary Absurd, Reading the Absurd (pp. 1-9). Edinburgh University Press
- Absurd Verses, READING THE ABSURD (pp. 135-160).
- Absurd Minds, READING THE ABSURD (pp. 58-96).
- Absurd Fictions, READING THE ABSURD (pp. 97-134).
- The Literary Absurd, READING THE ABSURD (pp. 1-+).
- Identifying the Absurd, READING THE ABSURD (pp. 10-57).
- The literary absurd In Bray J, Gibbons A & McHale B (Ed.), The Routledge Companion to Experimental Literature (pp. 62-74). Routledge
- "Appeased by the certitude": the quiet disintegration of the paranoid mind in The Mustache In McIntyre D & Busse B (Ed.), Language and Style (pp. 402-418). Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
- "And everyone and I stopped breathing": familiarity and ambiguity in the text world of 'The Day lady Died' In Lambrou M & Stockwell P (Ed.), Contemporary Stylistics (pp. 133-143). London: Continuum Publishing Corporation.
- Mental mapping of narrative In Herman D, Ryan ML & Jahn M (Ed.), Routledge encyclopedia of narrative theory (pp. 300-301). London: Routledge.
- Scripts and schemata In Herman D, Ryan ML & Jahn M (Ed.), Routledge encyclopedia of narrative theory (pp. 520-521). London: Routledge.
- Text world approaches to narrative In Herman D, Ryan ML & Jahn M (Ed.), Routledge encyclopedia of narrative theory (pp. 596-597). London: Routledge.
- 9. Double-vision, Text World Theory (pp. 146-164). Edinburgh University Press
- 8. Narratives, Text World Theory (pp. 126-145). Edinburgh University Press
- 7. Distances, Text World Theory (pp. 109-125). Edinburgh University Press
- 6. Attitudes, Text World Theory (pp. 91-108). Edinburgh University Press
- 5. Layers, Text World Theory (pp. 73-90). Edinburgh University Press
- 4. Processes, Text World Theory (pp. 53-72). Edinburgh University Press
- 3. Scenes, Text World Theory (pp. 35-52). Edinburgh University Press
- 2. Participating in Discourse, Text World Theory (pp. 18-34). Edinburgh University Press
- 10. Futures, Text World Theory (pp. 165-177). Edinburgh University Press
- 1. Conceptualising Language, Text World Theory (pp. 1-17). Edinburgh University Press
- Text World Theory, Encyclopedia of Language & Linguistics (pp. 628-630). Elsevier
- When the students become the teachers: practical pedagogical stylistics with third year undergraduates In Zyngier S & Watson G (Ed.), Literature and Stylistics for Language Learners: Theory and Practice (pp. 27-36). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
- Text World Theory in literary practice In Veivo H, Pettersson B & Polvinen M (Ed.), Cognition and literary interpretation in practice (pp. 89-104). Helsinki: Yliopistopaino Helsinki Univeristy Press.
- Contextualising cognitive poetics In Gavins J & Steen G (Ed.), Cognitive poetics in practice (pp. 1-12). London: Routledge.
- "Too much blague?" An exploration of the text worlds of Donald Barthelme's Snow White In Gavins J & Steen G (Ed.), Cognitive poetics in practice (pp. 129-144). London: Routledge.
- The absurd worlds of Billy Pilgrim: a text world analysis of Slaughterhouse 5 In Combrinck A & Biermann I (Ed.), Poetics, linguistics and history: discourses of war and conflict (pp. 402-416). Potchefstroom: Potchefstroom University Press.
Theses / Dissertations
- Text world theory: a critical exposition and development in relation to absurd prose fiction. Sheffield Hallam University.
- Poetry in the Mind: The Cognition of Contemporary Poetic Style. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
- Research group
-
I welcome applications from potential PhD students in all areas of cognitive linguistics, stylistics and ecolinguistics. I have recently supervised PhD projects on the cognition of comic book narratives of mental health; the cognition of contemporary poetry and fiction; the language of economic crises; and the language of contraceptive education in the UK.
- Teaching activities
-
At undergraduate level, I teach modules on stylistics, cognitive linguistics, and ecolinguistics. I also offer postgraduate teaching and supervision in all of these areas.
- Selected publications
- Books
-
- Gavins, J. and Lahey, E. (eds) (2016) World-Building: Discourse in the Mind, London: Bloomsbury Academic.
- Armitage, S., Gavins, J., Sansom, A. and Sansom, P. (eds) (2014) CAST: The Poetry Business Book of New Contemporary Poets, Sheffield: Smith Doorstop.
- Gavins, J. (2013) Reading the Absurd, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
- Gavins, J. (2007) Text World Theory: An Introduction, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
- Gavins, J. and Steen, G. (eds) (2003) Cognitive Poetics in Practice, London: Routledge. [Japanese translation by Shigeko Uchida published by Tuttle Mori in 2008]
- Articles and chapters
-
- Gavins, J. (2016) ‘Stylistic interanimation and apophatic poetics in Jacob Polley’s “Hide and Seek”’, in J. Gavins and E. Lahey (eds) World Building: Discourse in the Mind. London: Bloomsbury, pp.276-92
- Gavins, J. and Lahey, E. (2016) ‘World building in discourse’, in J. Gavins and E. Lahey (eds) World Building: Discourse in the Mind. London: Bloomsbury, pp.1-13
- Gavins, J. and Simpson, P. (2015) ‘Regina v John Terry: the discursive construction of an alleged racist event’, Discourse and Society, 27(1)
- Gavins, J. (2015) ‘Text World Theory’, in V. Sotirova (ed.) The Bloomsbury Companion to Stylistics. London: Bloomsbury, pp.444-57 G
- Gavins, J. (2014) ‘Metaphor studies in retrospect and prospect: an interview with Gerard Steen’, Review of Cognitive Linguistics, 12 (2)
- Gavins, J. (2014) ‘Defamiliarisation’, in P. Stockwell and S. Whiteley (eds) The Cambridge Handbook of Stylistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.196-211
- Gavins, J. (2012) ‘Leda and the stylisticians’, Language and Literature, 21(4): 345-62 Gavins, J. (2012) ‘The literary absurd’, in J. Bray, A. Gibbons and B. McHale (eds) The Routledge Companion to Experimental Literature. London: Routledge, pp.62-74
- Gavins, J. and Stockwell, P. (2012) ‘About the heart, where it hurt exactly, and how often’, Language and Literature, 21(1): 33-50
- Gavins, J. (2010) ‘“Appeased by the certitude”: the quiet disintegration of the paranoid mind in The Mustache’, in D. McIntyre and B. Busse (eds) Language and Style. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan, pp.402-18
- Gavins, J. (2007) ‘“And everyone and I stopped breathing”: familiarity and ambiguity in the text-world of “The Day Lady Died”’, in M. Lambrou and P. Stockwell (eds) Contemporary Stylistics. London: Continuum, pp.133-43
- Gavins, J. and Hodson, J. (2006) ‘When the students become the teachers: practical pedagogical stylistics with third-year undergraduates’, in G. Watson and S. Zyngier (eds) Literature and Stylistics for Language Learners: Theory and Practice.Basingstoke: Palgrave, pp.27-36
- Gavins, J. (2005) ‘Text World Theory in literary practice’, in B. Petterson, M. Polvinen and H. Veivo (eds) Cognition in Literary Interpretation and Practice. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press, pp.89-104
- Gavins, J. (2005) ‘(Re)thinking modality: a text-world perspective’, Journal of Literary Semantics, 34 (2): 79-93 Gavins, J. (2003) ‘“Too much blague?” An exploration of the text worlds of Donald Barthelme’s Snow White’, in J. Gavins and G. Steen (eds) Cognitive Poetics in Practice. London: Routledge, pp.129-44. [Reprinted in 2008 in R. Carter and P. Stockwell (eds) The Language and Literature Reader. London: Routledge, pp.255-67.]
- Steen, G. and Gavins, J. (2003) ‘Contextualising cognitive poetics’, in J. Gavins and G. Steen (eds) Cognitive Poetics in Practice. London: Routledge, pp.1-12
- Gavins, J. (2000) ‘Absurd tricks with bicycle frames in the text world of The Third Policeman’, Nottingham Linguistic Circular, 15: 17-33