Dr Kate Scott

Kingston School of Art
Department of Graphic Design
Department of Illustration Animation
Department of 3D Design
Department of Fashion
School of Design
Penrhyn Road
Design, Arts and Creative Practice

Associate Professor and School Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange

[email protected]

ORCID

About

I am Associate Professor, School Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange, and Leverhulme Research Fellow (2025-2026). As School Director, I sit on the School Management Group and KERI leadership team, providing strategic oversight of research and knowledge exchange across the four departments of the School of Design and contributing to faculty-level initiatives. I am Senior Researcher Representative on the University Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee, faculty Deputy Ethics Lead, and Chair of the Big South London Creative and Digital Innovation Cluster.

I was Head of Department for Humanities from 2019 to 2021, with strategic and operation responsibility for English, Creative Writing and Philosophy, as well as the Pre-sessional English provision and Kingston Language Scheme.

Qualifications

PhD in Linguistics
MA in Linguistics
BA in English Literature with Drama
Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education
Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults

Domains

My research focuses on pragmatic inference across linguistic, visual and digitally mediated communication. Grounded in relevance theory, my work examines how utterances, images, literary and multimodal texts are interpreted, with a particular focus on digitally mediated and mass communication.

I am currently undertaking a funded Leverhulme Research Fellowship (2025-2026) which develops a new theoretical model of utterance interpretation in non-dyadic and mass-audience contexts.

I have published widely, including two monographs, two edited volumes, book chapters, and articles in internationally recognised journals. I have presented my work internationally including as an invited and keynote speaker.

I am an experienced research leader and mentor, directing research across the School of Design, leading the research activities of the Writing Cultures Research Group, and co-directing the Relevance Researchers' Network. I am Deputy Ethics Lead, REF internal review panel member, Senior Researcher Representative on the University Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee, and a member of the leadership team for the Design, Arts and Creative Practice KERI.

I am an active supervisor and examiner of postgraduate research projects. I have supervised PhD and MA by Research students working on pragmatics, second language acquisition, 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 lead workshops in research skills development for postgraduate research students and early career academics.

I regularly review for leading journals and publishers and serve as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Pragmatics.

Qualifications

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

Specialisms

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

As School Director of Research and Knowledge Exchange in the School of Design, KSA, I provide strategic leadership for research and knowledge exchange activity across the departments of Graphic Design, Illustration Animation, Fashion and 3D Design. I sit on the School Management Group and am a member of the Design, Arts and Creative Practice KERI leadership team, contributing to School and Faculty-level research strategy and delivery.

From 2019 to 2021 I was the Head of Department for Humanities, School of Arts, Culture and Communication, KSA, with responsibility for all undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in English, Creative Writing and Philosophy, alongside the pre-sessional English provision, Kingston Language Scheme (KLS) and the English for Academic and Professional Development Programme (EAPD) programmes. I line-managed more than 30 academic staff and held responsibility for departmental budgets, staffing, workload planning, and quality-assurance processes and resources. This role included leading the department through a period of significant change during the Covid‑19 pandemic. I have also acted as Head of Department for both Drama and Graphic Design to cover absences and I have deputised for Heads of School, Associate Dean for Research and KERI Director.

At university and faculty level, I hold a number of governance and leadership roles. I am Faculty Deputy Ethics Lead, Senior Researcher Representative on the University Research and Knowledge Exchange Committee, and a member of the internal REF review panel. I also direct the research activities of the Writing Cultures Research Group, and am the co-founder of the Relevance Researchers Network, an international research community. I serve as the Chair of the Big South London Creative and Digital Innovation Cluster, leading collaborative initiatives that support creative and digital businesses across the region and strengthen civic engagement and knowledge exchange.

My leadership approach centres on fostering inclusive, interdisciplinary research cultures, supporting excellence and ambition in research and knowledge exchange practice, and aligning local academic priorities with institutional values and strategic goals.