Dr Kate Scott
Faculties, deparments and locations
- Kingston School of Art
- Department of Graphic Design
- Department of Illustration Animation
- Department of 3D Design
- Department of Fashion
- School of Design
- Penrhyn Road
Senior Lecturer
- Email:
- kate.scott@kingston.ac.uk
About
I completed my PhD in 2010 at UCL under the supervision of Professor Deirdre Wilson. I then taught at UCL and at Middlesex University before joining Kingston in 2012. My background is in language and linguistics, but my interests are broad and encompass visual communication in various written and non-verbal forms. My publications include work on digitally-mediated communication (hashtags, emoji, memes and clickbait) and I am particularly interested in how context influences the production and interpretation of online communication.
I was Head of Department for Humanities from May 2019 to February 2021, overseeing courses in English, Creative Writing and Philosophy.
I am the School Director for Research, Business and Innovation at the Design School, KSA, and I am the research director for the Writing Cultures Group.
Qualifications
- PhD in Linguistics
- MA in Linguistics
- BA in English Literature with Drama
- Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education
- Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults
Domains
As the head of department for Humanities, I had responsibility for overseeing the learning and teaching across a suite of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. I have designed, taught and assessed modules across all university levels (3-7), and I have supervised a range of undergraduate and taught MA dissertations.
I have a particular interest in developing effective employability-focused modules, and have adapted materials in this area to support course across the School of Design.
As course leader (2017-2020), I oversaw the introduction of criteria-based marking, and I have disseminated this work at School Learning and Teaching events. The good practice developed in this area is now being rolled out across the department.
My textbook for Cambridge University Press (2022) has been described as 'a masterful introduction to the major pragmatic theories' and 'a must-read for all students of pragmatics'.
In 2014 I secured an HEA grant of £1000 to organise a cross-university workshop entitled ‘Teaching in Linguistics: Creativity and Innovation in Practice'. The workshop attracted over 40 registrations from more than 15 institutions throughout the United Kingdom. A range of invited speakers shared innovative practice on a range of topics related to the learning and teaching of English Language and Linguistics.
I have given guest lectures as part of Masters programmes at The University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland and The University of Pittsburgh, USA.
I am an external examiner at Dublin City University.
Qualifications
- Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education
- Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults
- Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Authority (SFHEA)
My research focuses primarily on the pragmatics of communication, and I have applied ideas from the relevance theory framework to a range of data and texts. My PhD thesis focused on the pragmatics of reference, and this work has since been published as a monograph by Cambridge University Press.
I am particularly interested in how ideas from cognitive pragmatics can be applied to new areas including illustration, graphics, and design, and how we can use ideas from relevance theory to understand how users interpret visual stimuli.
I have published on the pragmatics of digitally-mediated communication, focusing on how users adapt their communicative practices based on the multimodal, graphical, and typographical resources available to them in online spaces. I am currently preparing a monograph for Routledge on the Pragmatics of Digital Communication and my journal article on the pragmatics of hashtags has been cited over 100 times. I'm currently preparing papers on the pragmatics of sharing, memes and clickbait.
In a final strand of my research, I have applied ideas from relevance theory to the analysis of texts, including a paper on the typography of written texts.
I have supervised PhD and MA by Research students working on pragmatics, second language acquisition (Brighton University) and digitally mediated communication. I welcome proposals from prospective PhD or MA by Research students working in pragmatics, visual communication, typography, relevance theory, or digitally-mediated communication.
I regularly review for a number of academic journals and sit on the scientific committees of two international conferences.
Qualifications
- Research Director of Writing Cultures Research Group, Kingston University
- Co-director of Relevance Researchers' Network
Specialisms
- Pragmatics
- Digitally-Mediated Communication
- Typography
- Reference
- Relevance Theory
Scholarly affiliations
- UCL Summer Course in English Phonetics
- Scientific Committee for EPICS IX International Symposium
- Scientific Committee for Beyond Meaning International Conference
As the Director of Research Business and Innovation in the KSA School of Design, I have oversight of all enterprise and knowledge transfer activity within the School
I have completed PraxisAuril training on Essentials of Business Development and Developing Strategic Partnerships.
Professional and Bid Writing Project
Sitting with the Writing Cultures Research Group and in collaboration with Meg Jensen and Brian Brivati, I co-lead this project which uses research, knowledge and best practice in professional writing to develop skills and capacity within a network of charities, local industries and KU staff. This project arose from the Creative and Professional Writing Academic Excellence project, funded by the Vice Chancellor, which aimed at increasing the access of our diverse student cohort to the Creative Industries by developing unique and sought-after employability skills.
It became clear that the resources and teaching materials developed as part of this project would be of benefit not only to students but also to university staff and industry professionals. We have created an adaptable, transferable bid writing, professional writing and community of practice ‘toolkit,' tested it with a small number of students, KSA staff, local third sector and SMEs.
Activities to date include:
- A series of bid writing sessions for KSA staff on bid writing
- A series of networking events including knowledge exchange sessions with members of Kingston Voluntary Action (KVA)
- Workshops for local SMEs as part of the South London Partnership BIG Innovation Networks initiative.
I am currently the School Director of Research, Business and Innovation in the Design School, KSA, overseeing the research and enterprise activities across the departments of Graphic Design, Illustration Animation, Fashion and 3D Design.
Between May 2019 and February 2021 I was the head of department for Humanities, School of Arts, Culture and Communication. I oversaw the day-to-day running of the Foundation, Undergraduate and Postgraduate programmes in humanities subjects, and I also had overall responsibility for the Kingston Language Scheme (KLS) and the English for Academic and Professional Development Programme (EAPD) provision.
University responsibilities
- School Director of Research, Business and Innovation
- Head of Department (May 2019 - February 2021)
Publications
Pragmatics online
Scott, Kate (2022). (Routledge)
Pragmatics in English : an Introduction
Scott, Kate (2022). Cambridge, U.K.: (Cambridge University Press)
Referring expressions, pragmatics, and style : reference and beyond
Scott, Kate (2020). Cambridge, UK: (Cambridge University Press)
Relevance, pragmatics and interpretation
(2019). Cambridge, UK: (Cambridge University Press)
'Deceptive' clickbait headlines : relevance, intentions, and lies
Scott, Kate, 2023, Journal of Pragmatics (218), pp 71-82
Editorial : relevance in mind
Wharton, Tim, Scott, Kate, Maillat, Didier and Jagoe, Caroline, 2023, Frontiers in Psychology (14)
Nutritional labelling, communication design, and relevance
Scott, Kate, 2023, Frontiers in Communication (8)
The pragmatics of rebroadcasting content on Twitter : how is retweeting relevant?
Scott, Kate, 2021, Journal of Pragmatics (184), pp 52-60
You won't believe what's in this paper! Clickbait, relevance, and the curiosity gap
Scott, Kate, 2021, Journal of Pragmatics (175), pp 53-66
Memes as multimodal metaphors : a relevance theory analysis
Scott, Kate, 2021, Pragmatics and Cognition (28), 2, pp 277-298
"Hashtags work everywhere" : the pragmatic functions of spoken hashtags
Scott, Kate, 2018, (22), pp 57-64
Book Review of: 'Relevance theory : recent developments, current challenges and future directions' by M. Padilla Cruz (ed.)
Scott, Kate, 2018, Journal of Pragmatics (123), pp 113-115
Pronouns and procedures : reference and beyond
Scott, Kate, 2016, Lingua (175-6), pp 69-82
The pragmatics of hashtags : inference and conversational style on Twitter
Scott, Kate, 2015, Journal of Pragmatics (81), pp 8-20
Pragmatically motivated null subjects in English: A relevance theory perspective
Scott, Kate, 2013, Journal of Pragmatics (53), pp 68-83
This and that: a procedural analysis
Scott, Kate, 2013, Lingua (131), pp 49-65
A procedural analysis of 'This' and 'That'
Scott, Kate, 2009, UCL Working Papers in Linguistics (21), pp 151-181
Contrastive stress in English : meaning, expectations and ostension
Scott, Kate (2021). In: Ifantidou, Elly, (eds.), de Saussure, Louis, (eds.) and Wharton, Tim, (eds.), Beyond meaning. Amsterdam, Netherlands: John Benjamins, pp 29-41
When EVERYTHING STANDS OUT, nothing does : typography, expectations and procedures
Scott, Kate and Jackson, Rebecca (2020). In: Piskorska, Agnieszka, (ed.), Relevance theory, figuration and continuity in pragmatics. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins Publishing, pp 167-192
Misleading and relevance in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night
Scott, Kate (2019). In: Chapman, Siobhan, (eds.) and Clark, Billy, (eds.), Pragmatics and Literature. Amsterdam, The Netherlands: John Benjamins, pp 94-114
Introduction
Carston, Robyn, Clark, Billy and Scott, Kate (2019). In: Scott, Kate, (eds.), Clark, Billy, (eds.) and Carston, Robyn, (eds.), Relevance, Pragmatics and Interpretation. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp 1-10
Prosody, procedures and pragmatics
Scott, Kate (2017). In: Depraetere, Ilse, (eds.) and Salkie, Raphael, (eds.), Semantics and pragmatics : drawing a line. Berlin, Germany: Springer International Publishing, pp 323-341
Beyond Reference : Concepts, Procedures and Referring Expressions
Scott, Kate (2011). In: Escandell-Vidal, Victoria, (eds.), Leonetti, Manuel, (eds.) and Ahern, Aoife, (eds.), Procedural Meaning: Problems and Perspectives. Bingley, U.K.: Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp 183-203
Relevance, imagined audiences, and third-party utterances
Scott, Kate(2022). In: Tenth International Symposium on Intercultural, Cognitive and Social Pragmatics (EPICS X), 23-25 May 2022 :Seville, Spain
The pragmatics of clickbait headlines : relevance and the information gap
Scott, Kate(2022). In: International Workshop : The Pragmatics of Headlines, 10-11 Mar 2022 :Mainz, Germany
The pragmatics of rebroadcasting content on Twitter : how is retweeting relevant?
Scott, Kate(2021). In: Cognitive Sciences Seminar, 04 Nov 2021 :Held online
Relevance and communication design
Scott, Kate(2021). In: Relevance Researchers Network Seminar, 27 Oct 2021 :Held online
You won’t believe what’s in this paper! The pragmatics of clickbait
Scott, Kate(2019). In: Approaches to Digital Discourse Analysis - ADDA 2, 23 - 25 May 2019 :Turku, Finland
Relevance theory and layering in dramatic works
Scott, Kate(2019). In: Pragmatics and literature : a study day at the University of Sussex, 22 Feb 2019 :Brighton, U.K.
"The popular orange vegetables" : culture, context and definite descriptions
Scott, Kate(2018). In: 8th International Symposium on Intercultural, Cognitive and Social Pragmatics (EPICS VIII) : "Communication, Culture and Cognition", 02 - 04 May 2018 :Seville, Spain
When EVERYTHING STANDS OUT nothing does : typography, expectations and procedures
Scott, Kate and Jackson, Rebecca(2017). In: Beyond Meaning : International Conference, 13 - 15 Sep 2017 :Athens, Greece
Ostension, expectations and non-encoded meaning
Scott, Kate(2017). In: Beyond Meaning : International Conference, 13 - 15 Sep 2017 :Athens, Greece
Lies, misleading and the role of inference in Twelfth Night : a relevance-theoretic analysis
Scott, Kate(2016). In: PALA 2016 : In/Authentic Styles : Language, Discourse and Contexts, 27 - 30 Jul 2016 :Cagliari, Italy
The relevance of referring expressions: the case of diary drop in English
Scott, Kate (2010), PhD thesis, University College London