Our research
Find a PhD
Use our research finder to find the right PhD for you. Studying for your PhD gives you the chance to investigate your topics in
depth and develop new high-level skills, opening doors to many careers.
Leaders in research
We're a leading UK university for language and linguistics research (REF 2014) and a place where talented students become part of an
academic community that undertakes world-leading research.
We're ranked 8th in the UK for research quality (REF
2014) with more than three-quarters of our research rated 'world leading' or
'internationally excellent', and ranked among the top 200 departments
on the planet according to the
QS World University Rankings (2017).
At Essex, you become part of a large and thriving research community,
supported by excellent
facilities and surrounded by
academics who are leaders in their fields.
Publications in top journals
Our staff are not only actively publishing recent research in top-ranked
international journals, but have authored many of the most widely used
linguistics textbooks in the world.
Areas of specialism
Our department has ten research groups
covering many areas of language and linguistics research.
World-class department
Dr Rebecca Clift talks about
her interest in languages, our department, and how she read the books that her
colleagues wrote as a student.
Research events
During term-time, we run a
weekly departmental seminar with guest speakers from other universities
discussing their work. Open to everyone, these seminars promise a lively and
informative discussion.
We also host special events. Recenlty, we held a seminar series funded by an
ESRC grant to look at the issues involved in evaluating language data from
asylum seekers.
Our conferences and
workshops cover a range of topics including sociolinguistics, applied
lingusitcs and psycholinguistics where our students present their research. We
also host conferences for student researchers and modern language teachers.
Our research students
Working on a wide range of projects, our
research students have carried out ground-breaking research, from improving
methods used to teach foreign languages, through the description of little-known
varieties of language, to the study of how language is acquired and represented
in the mind.