My research is centred on historical sociolinguistics. I'm generally interested in language variation and change, more particularly in language policy, language standardisation, and language attitudes. My research specialisms are linguistic developments in 18th- and 19th-century German on the one hand, and the vernacularisation of late medieval documentary legal texts on the other.

With regard to the former, I published a monograph on the invisibilisation of Upper German variants in 18th-century Austria in 2018 and, with Bettina Lindner-Bornemann, a co-edited volume on German language use in the 18th century in 2022. Furthermore, I have been exploring intra-individual variation in private texts from the 19th century.

My research on vernacularisation, i.e. the replacement of Latin by vernacular languages, has so far mainly focussed on texts from Scotland and the Low German area, particularly the Aberdeen Council Registers (1398-1511) and the Lübecker Niederstadtbuch (1430-1451). Research on further Germanic sources is planned.

In addition, I am co-leading the German part of the Linguistics in MFL project, which aims to enhance uptake and results in Modern Foreign Languages by introducing students to the study of linguistics. We have published arguments for the inclusion of linguistics in an article in Modern Languages Open (2021) and in the British Educational Research Journal (2024).

In terms of leadership, I currently serve as the Impact Director for the School of Modern Languages, the co-president of the Forum for Germanic Language Studies (FGLS), and a steering group member of the North American Research Network in Historical Sociolinguistics (NARNiHS). In these roles, I am particularly keen to foster exchanges within and beyond academia and support post-graduate researchers.