THE HILLSBOROUGH DISASTER
My research on the Hillsborough Disaster examines how language contributed to the construction and circulation of narratives about what happened on 15 April 1989, when 97 Liverpool fans were unlawfully killed in a crush at Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough stadium. I have worked extensively with archival material, including witness statements, police meeting minutes, evidence-gathering questionnaires and other documents, some of which are not publicly accessible. My analysis identified recurring patterns in the attribution and distribution of blame, including linguistic practices that positioned responsibility with supporters while deflecting attention from institutional actors and decision-making.
ARTICLES & BOOK CHAPTERS
(2025) ‘Forensic Stylistics’, International Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics, 3rd Edition. Elsevier.
This chapter outlines the current state of play within forensic stylistics including its key issues and concepts and offers an analysis of police authored witness statements following the Hillsborough Disaster. It employs a stylistic toolkit that uncovers institutional bias towards Liverpool fans.
(2021) ‘The Hillsborough disaster: a revealing analysis of the language in witness statements’, The Conversation.
(2021) [with Yufang Ho and Sara Bartl]: 'Worlds of evidence: Visualizing patterns in witness statements in the aftermath of the Hillsborough football stadium disaster'. English Text Construction, 14(1): 25–67.
(2020) 'Retelling Hillsborough', in Narrative Retellings: A Stylistic Approach, Marina Lambrou (ed.) Bloomsbury Press, pp. 143–162.
(2018) 'No ordinary crowd': Foregrounding a 'hooligan schema' in the construction of witness narratives following the Hillsborough football stadium disaster', Discourse and Society, 29(3): 237–255.
INVITED TALKS & CONFERENCE PAPERS
(2021): ‘Serial storytelling in police witness statements following the Hillsborough Disaster’, Chester Stylistics Series, Chester, UK.
(2019): 'We need to talk about Kelvin',
Plenary speaker at Poetics and Linguistics Association
Liverpool, UK.
(2018) [with Sara Bartl] 'The utility of stylistics:
Using Text-World Theory and Worldbuilder software
as an investigative tool in the analysis of witness
statements following the Hillsborough Football Stadium
Disaster. Germanic Society for Forensic Linguistics. York.
(2017): [with Phil Scraton] Speaker and panel member at 'Beyond Hillsborough': OU/ Ulster/ QUB ESRC Festival of Social Science, Queen's University, Belfast.
