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Sheena joined the Department of English and Languages in July 2011 from the University of Birmingham, where she was Reader in Educational Linguistics and member of the MOSAIC Centre for Research on Multilingualism Sheena has a background in Functional Linguistics, English Language Teaching (Germany, Sudan, Ukraine), EFL, ESL and EAL Teacher Education and Applied Linguistics (Canada and UK), with experience in Malaysia, Botswana, Pakistan, and China. She enjoys teaching grammar and genre analysis, and has been involved in the development of national and international pre-university, undergraduate, postgraduate and workplace programmes This varied international background informs her current role as Head of the Department of English and Languages, with its combinations of Linguistics, Literatures, Cultures, Languages for Business, Creative Writing, TEFL, Academic English and the many languages taught including English, French, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and Arabic Sheena’s research interests lie in the linguistic analysis of educational discourse from systemic functional and other perspectives to enhance our understanding of how languages work in context, and to inform teaching and learning. Two major research projects are an investigation of genres of university student writing and an exploration of classroom based assessment of English as an additional language among young learners. Sheena was also co-investigator for the follow on project 'Writing for a Purpose' (ES/J01095/1) Sheena has always valued the synergies between teaching and research; her research not only focuses on educational practices but also informs her teaching. Her more than 70 publications include teaching materials, and internationally refereed journal articles in TESOL Quarterly, Language and Education, Language Awareness, Language Teaching Research, English Language Teaching Journal, TESL Canada Journal, Journal of English for Academic Purposes and the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism.