Professor Suganthi John BA, MA, RSA Cert TESL, PhD

• 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 roles in the department (Admissions Tutor, Undergraduate Programme Director and Head of Department). I have also held a School role as Head of Internationalisation for EDACS and College and institutional roles in widening participation (2010-2020). I am currently Deputy Director of Education for Distance and Digital Education (2019-current) in the College of Arts and Law. 

Undergraduate

• The Practice of Writing
• Investigating Language
• English Language Teaching
• Language Dissertation

Postgraduate

• English for Specific and Academic Purposes

I supervise undergraduate research reports and projects/dissertations at second and third year levels.

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 Director of the Centre for Advanced Research in English which hosts international scholars in the School of English, Drama, American and Canadian Studies.
• I sit on the Advisory Board of the Academic Skills Centre as the representative from the College of Arts and Law.
• I have been involved with the Access to Birmingham scheme for 5 years and I am now the lead tutor for the scheme in the School of EDACS. I am moderator for all assessments through this scheme in the College of Arts and Law and serve as Humanities moderator at university level. Nationally, I am the university’s Humanities representative for the Realising Opportunities scheme.
• I am on the editorial board of the Journal of Transient Migration and serve as a reviewer of articles to a number of journals including the Journal of English for Academic Purposes, English for Specific Purposes and Writing and Pedagogy.