Email: c.harrison10@aston.ac.uk

Telephone: +44 (0) 121 204 4806

Office: NW922F

I am a Senior Lecturer in English Language and Literature based in the School of Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH). 

• BA (Hons) English Studies (University of Nottingham)
• MA Literary Linguistics (University of Nottingham)
• PhD Cognitive Stylistics (University of Nottingham)
• PGCHE (Coventry University)

I research in the field of stylistics, and have further interests in cognitive poetics, the application of cognitive grammar for literary analysis, reader response research and contemporary fiction. 

My monograph Cognitive Grammar in Contemporary Fiction was published in 2017 with John Benjamins and is the first extended application of cognitive grammar for the analysis of contemporary literature. This book presents analyses of a range of contemporary works of fiction, including texts written by Ian McEwan, Jennifer Egan, Neil Gaiman, Jonathan Safran Foer and Paul Auster. I have also recently co-written a textbook on Cognitive Grammar for stylistic application with Dr Marcello Giovanelli (Aston University), which was published in September 2018, and have recently collaborated on the edited collection New Directions in Cognitive Grammar and Style (Giovanelli, Harrison and Nuttall 2021; please see publication information for further details).

Alongside other research activities, I am currently involved in a reader response project with Dr Louise Nuttall (University of Huddersfield) in which we explore the cognitive and experiential processes involved in re-reading texts.  

Programme Director for Undergraduate English Language and Literature

Placements Coordinator

I would be interested in supervising doctoral research projects in:

• Cognitive stylistics;
• Linguistic approaches to contemporary literature;
• Applications of Cognitive Grammar for literary linguistic analysis;
• Reader response studies

Please get in touch via email if you are interested in working with me on any of the above.

I am Treasurer for the International Association of Literary Semantics, and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (HEA). I am a member of the Poetics and Linguistics Association, the International Society for the Empirical Study of Literature, and the International Association of Literary Semantics

Literature, Culture & Society

Stylistics

Written Text Analysis

Cognitive Poetics

Introduction to Discourse Analysis

Creative Writing