Dr Kate Scott

As the head of department for Humanities, I had responsibility for overseeing the learning and teaching across a suite of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. I have designed, taught and assessed modules across all university levels (3-7), and I have supervised a range of undergraduate and taught MA dissertations.

I have a particular interest in developing effective employability-focused modules, and have adapted materials in this area to support course across the School of Design.

As course leader (2017-2020), I oversaw the introduction of criteria-based marking, and I have disseminated this work at School Learning and Teaching events. The good practice developed in this area is now being rolled out across the department.

My textbook for Cambridge University Press (2022) has been described as 'a masterful introduction to the major pragmatic theories' and 'a must-read for all students of pragmatics'.

In 2014 I secured an HEA grant of £1000 to organise a cross-university workshop entitled ‘Teaching in Linguistics: Creativity and Innovation in Practice'. The workshop attracted over 40 registrations from more than 15 institutions throughout the United Kingdom. A range of invited speakers shared innovative practice on a range of topics related to the learning and teaching of English Language and Linguistics.

I have given guest lectures as part of Masters programmes at The University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland and The University of Pittsburgh, USA.

I am an external examiner at Dublin City University.

Qualifications and expertise

• Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education
• Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults
• Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Authority (SFHEA)

Publications

My research focuses primarily on the pragmatics of communication, and I have applied ideas from the relevance theory  framework to a range of data and texts. My PhD thesis focused on the pragmatics of reference, and this work has since been published as a monograph by Cambridge University Press. 

I am particularly interested in how ideas from cognitive pragmatics can be applied to new areas including illustration, graphics, and design, and how we can use ideas from relevance theory to understand how users interpret visual stimuli.

I have published on the pragmatics of digitally-mediated communication, focusing on how users adapt their communicative practices based on the multimodal, graphical, and typographical resources available to them in online spaces. I am currently preparing a monograph for Routledge on the Pragmatics of Digital Communication and my journal article on the pragmatics of hashtags has been cited over 100 times. I'm currently preparing papers on the pragmatics of sharing, memes and clickbait.

In a final strand of my research, I have applied ideas from relevance theory to the analysis of texts, including a paper on the typography of written texts. 

I have supervised PhD and MA by Research students working on pragmatics, second language acquisition (Brighton University) and digitally mediated communication. I welcome proposals from prospective PhD or MA by Research students working in pragmatics, visual communication, typography, relevance theory, or digitally-mediated communication. 

I regularly review for a number of academic journals and sit on the scientific committees of two international conferences.

Qualifications and expertise

• Research Director of Writing Cultures Research Group, Kingston University
• Co-director of Relevance Researchers' Network

Areas of specialism

• Pragmatics
• Digitally-Mediated Communication
• Typography
• Reference
• Relevance Theory

Scholarly affiliations

• UCL Summer Course in English Phonetics
• Scientific Committee for EPICS IX International Symposium
• Scientific Committee for Beyond Meaning International Conference

Research student supervision

• Miss Gayathri Anthey
• Michael Blackburn

Publications

As the Director of Research Business and Innovation in the KSA School of Design, I have oversight of all enterprise and knowledge transfer activity within the School

I have completed PraxisAuril training on Essentials of Business Development and Developing Strategic Partnerships.

Professional and Bid Writing Project

Sitting with the Writing Cultures Research Group and in collaboration with Meg Jensen and Brian Brivati, I co-lead this project which uses research, knowledge and best practice in professional writing to develop skills and capacity within a network of charities, local industries and KU staff. This project arose from the Creative and Professional Writing Academic Excellence project, funded by the Vice Chancellor, which aimed at increasing the access of our diverse student cohort to the Creative Industries by developing unique and sought-after employability skills. 

It became clear that the resources and teaching materials developed as part of this project would be of benefit not only to students but also to university staff and industry professionals. We have created an adaptable, transferable bid writing, professional writing and community of practice ‘toolkit,' tested it with a small number of students, KSA staff, local third sector and SMEs.

Activities to date include:

• A series of bid writing sessions for KSA staff on bid writing
• A series of networking events including knowledge exchange sessions with members of Kingston Voluntary Action (KVA)
• Workshops for local SMEs as part of the South London Partnership BIG Innovation Networks initiative.

I am currently the School Director of Research, Business and Innovation in the Design School, KSA, overseeing the research and enterprise activities across the departments of Graphic Design, Illustration Animation, Fashion and 3D Design.

Between May 2019 and February 2021 I was the head of department for Humanities, School of Arts, Culture and Communication. I oversaw the day-to-day running of the Foundation, Undergraduate and Postgraduate programmes in  humanities subjects, and I also had overall responsibility for the Kingston Language Scheme (KLS) and the English for Academic and Professional Development Programme (EAPD) provision.

University responsibilities

• School Director of Research, Business and Innovation
• Head of Department (May 2019 - February 2021)