Professor Suganthi John PhD, FEA, FHEA

• PhD in English Language, 2005, University of Birmingham
• MA in Applied Linguistics, 1993, University of Sheffield
• Certificate in Teaching English as a Second Language to Adults, 1993, Royal Society of Arts, British Council, Singapore
• BA (Honours) in English Language and Literature, 1992 National University of Singapore

I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy

Before pursuing my PhD at the University of Birmingham in 2000, I lived and worked in Singapore. I graduated in 2005 with a PhD from Birmingham and moved back to Singapore for a brief period. In 2007, I was offered a position at Birmingham. I was initially in the English for International Students Unit (now known as the Birmingham International Academy) and joined the Department of English Language and Linguistics in 2009.

I have held several leadership roles in the department (Admissions Tutor, Undergraduate Programme Director and Head of Department). I was Head of Internationalisation for the School of EDACS (2016-2020) and I have also held college, institutional and national roles in widening participation (2010-2021). I was Deputy Director of Education for Digital Education and Distance Learning (2019-2024) in the College of Arts and Law. 

Undergraduate

• Language Education and Literacy
• ELL/DMC Dissertation

Postgraduate

• English for Specific and Academic Purposes

I am currently supervising several students working on academic discourse, the teaching of academic writing, identity in writing and academic writing development. I am interested in supervising PhD research in the areas of:

Academic discourse
English for academic purposes
Advanced academic literacy

Find out more - our PhD English Language and Applied Linguistics  page has information about doctoral research at the University of Birmingham.

The primary focus of my research is on identity creation in academic discourse and advanced academic literacy. My other research interests include English for research publication purposes, English for academic purposes, particularly, academic writing, and second language learning and teaching.

• I am a Fellow of the English Association and a member of the British Association for Applied Linguistics. I am also on the Committee for Linguistics in Education. I have a keen interest in promoting the study of English Language and Linguistics at all levels of education.
• I have served as External Examiner to universities in the UK and for the Arab Open University (2017-2023). I was on the Advance HE Subject Benchmarks Advisory Group for Linguistics in 2023.
• I work in close collaboration with academic colleagues at the University of Barcelona and the University of Zaragoza where we share research interests in the dissemination of scientific research and communication.