Katie Mansfield
Lecturer in English Language
Institute of Arts and Humanities
English Media and Culture
email: k.mansfield@worc.ac.uk
Katie is a Lecturer in English Language and will be joining the Department of English, Media and Culture in January 2026, following previous roles at the University of Sheffield, the University of Gloucestershire and Birmingham City University.
Katie will be leading the BA (Hons) English Language, a rich and dynamic course that develops students' understanding of how language works in the real world and the impact it has on society at multiple levels. Katie's research is interdisciplinary and sits at the interface of sociolinguistics, psychology, and education. She explores how language and social class intersect in the production and maintenance of educational inequalities, with a particular focus on education policy and classroom practice. Katie is currently completing an AHRC-funded PhD at the University of Sheffield under the supervision of Professor Emma Moore, examining how linguistic expectations in UK education policy and practice shape the educational experiences and outcomes of children from working-class backgrounds.
She is deeply committed to teaching innovation, data-led pedagogy and widening participation. As a proud working-class academic, her background strongly informs her research and teaching, which are both driven by a commitment to social justice and educational equity.
Qualifications
BA (Hons) English Language and Linguistics (First Class Honours) - University of SheffieldMA English Language and Linguistics (Distinction) - University of Sheffield
Teaching interests
- Sociolinguistics
- Language variation and change
- Language and social inequality
- Language, education and policy
- Language and power
- Discourse analysis
- Research methods in Linguistics
- Data-led approaches to language study
Research interests
- Sociolinguistics
- Language variation and identity
- Language and inequality
- Language and cognition
- Spoken and written discourse analysis
- Identity politics and representation
- Language attitudes and ideologies
- Ethnographic approaches to studying language
- Experimental approaches to studying language
- Gamified pedagogy
Recent publications
Mansfield, Katie. (2024) ‘Review of Ian Cushing, Standards Stigma, Surveillance: Raciolinguistic Ideologies and England’s Schools’, Language in Society, 53(2): 366- 367.
Forthcoming:
Mansfield, Katie. under review. Policy, Practice and Playground Talk: An Ethnographic Study of Was/Were Variation. Manuscript submitted for publication.
Mansfield, Katie. in preparation. From Tests to Quests: The Impact of Gamification on Children's Performance and Experience in Cognitive Tests. Manuscript prepared for publication.
Mansfield, Katie. in preparation. Adversity and Community Embeddedness: Children's Use of Levelled Was in a Socioeconomically Deprived Community. Manuscript prepared for publication.
Mansfield, Katie. in preparation. Between the Classroom and the Playground: Cognitive, Social, and Experiential Influences on Children's Stylistic Variation. Manuscript prepared for publication.