Matthew Lovatt

Profile

I am a PhD student at the School of Media and Communication, University of Leeds, and is supported by a full WRoCAH AHRC studentship. My research looks at political storytelling, with a particular focus on the increasing use of personal stories and anecdotes by British politicians and political leaders. My work is supervised across two schools, by Professor Stephen Coleman from the School of Media and Communication, and Dr Fiona Douglas from the School of English. I hold an MA in Political Communication (2017) and a BA in English Language (2014), both obtained from the University of Leeds. I am currently an Educational Outreach Fellow, and a member of the school's political performance group. Outside my academic studies, I have previously worked as an EFL teacher in Barcelona.

Research interests

My primary research interest is the role that politicians' stories and anecdotes play in British politics, looking at how personalised and emotive styles of discourse, rhetoric, and performance interact with democratic processes of debate, argument, and political representation.

 

My other research interests include:

• Political rhetoric
• Performance and politics
• Emotional discourse
• Media framing
• Corpus linguistics

Qualifications

• BA English Language
• MA Political Communication