Dr Virpi Ylänne-Thomas
Reader
- ylanne@cardiff.ac.uk
- +44 (0)29 2087 5049
- 3.34, John Percival Building, Colum Drive, Cardiff, CF10 3EU
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Overview
I am a member of the Centre for Language and Communication Research. My specific areas of expertise are in Discourse Analysis, Interactional Sociolinguistics, and qualitative research methods. My research focuses on ageing and identity in talk, text and image (e.g. advertising), and institutional discourse.
My administrative role is Director of the Centre's MA programmes (PGT Programme Director). We have four MA programmes (Applied Linguistics; Forensic Linguistics; Language and Linguistics; Language and Communication Research), which are described on our web pages: https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/english-communication-philosophy/courses/postgraduate-taught
I'm a member of the ENCAP Research Ethics Committee.
Biography
I gained my BA Humanities (Linguistics) from Hatfield Polytechnic (now University of Hertfordshire), PGCE in TES/FL and MA in Applied Linguistics from University of Wales, Bangor, and PhD from University of Wales, Cardiff.
Recently my research projects have examined discourses of parenting at a later age, focusing on news media and personal narratives and I continue researching media representations of older adults, for example in advertising and news discourse. I have just edited a volume Ageing and the Media. International Perspectives for Policy Press (2022). In terms of institutional talk, I'm also a member of a research team that has investigated nurse handover interactions in hospital wards (see publications).
I am also currently collaborating on a BA/Leverhulme funded project on 'Minority ethnic older adults’ perception of COVID-19 public health campaigns', which involves an interview study with older adults from minority ethnic groups.
In the past, I have been involved in research projects such as
- the 'Language and Tourism as a Global Cultural Industry' strand of the Centre's Leverhulme-funded Language and Global Communication project (2001-2006).
- I co-directed (with Dr Angie Williams) a three year ESRC-funded project (2004-2007) on Images of Elders in UK Media: Perceptions and Representations (RES-000-23-0416) which focused on print media and TV advertising. An edited volume Representing Ageing: Images and Identities (2012, Palgrave Macmillan) followed up some of the themes from this research project.
I have also carried out and published collaborative research on community pharmacy interactions from a Discourse Analytic point of view.
I have organised workshops and symposia at the Sociolinguistics Symposium (Amsterdam, 2008), the VII European Congress of the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics (Bologna, 2011), Cultural Gerontology conference (Galway, 2014), NordMedia conference (Tampere, 2017), and at British Society of Gerontology annual conference (2021).
Honours and awards
Research funding:
- 2017 c.£60,000 'Under the radar dynamics of on-ward management and inter-team communication in a Welsh hospital' ESRC DTP Collaborative fund, to support doctoral research (1+3) in collaboration with Aneurin Bevan University Health Board. Supervisors: T. Spilioti & V. Ylänne, with M. Aldridge & T. Bartlett (collaborated on the application).
- 2016-17. £3029 ESRC Impact Initiator grant for project Care in Organisational Discourse with colleagues Tom Bartlett, Tereza Spilioti and Michelle Aldridge-Waddon.
- Summer 2017. £1200 Cardiff Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (CUROP) funding for Research Assistant on a project ‘News reporting on EU referendum: Age and voting behaviour’.
- Summer 2015. £1080 CUROP funding for Research Assistant on a project ‘Discourse, lifespan identity and representations of late reproduction’.
- Summer 2014. £1020 CUROP funding for Research Assistant on a project ‘Discursive representations of parenting at an “older” age’.
- 2011-2012. £1000 from CLCR, Cardiff University, for a post-doctoral Research Assistant on a project ‘UK newspaper coverage of older first-time parents, Corpus Analysis’.
- 2004-2007. £162,033 (RES-000-23-0416) Co-applicant and co-director on a 3-year project ‘Images of elders in UK media advertisements: perceptions and representations’ (with A. Williams). Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
- 2002-2003. £3125 The British Council, British-German Academic Research Collaboration Programme. Travel grant to myself, A. Williams and C. Thimm for project ‘Mass media images of older people’.
Professional memberships
Member of European Network in Aging Studies (ENAS) and North American Network in Aging Studies (NANAS).
Speaking engagements
In addition to regular conference presentations at international conferences, such as Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice and European Network in Ageing Studies, I have presented keynotes and invited contributions at:
- Invited panel member of a 'Plenary Panel: Book Launch and Review of Four New Works in Age Studies' at ENAS conference, Bucharest, Romania, September 29th 2022. Also chairing a panel 'Media discourses about older adults'.
- Invited keynote at Ages2020, Milan, Italy, October 30th 2020.
- Invited keynote at Age Talks? Communicating Ages in the Communication Age, Corvinus University, Budapest, Hungary, May 9th 2019.
- Invited speaker at COST Action IS1402 on Ageism, October 26th 2018, Brussels, Belgium.
- Invited keynote at Ageing and Old Age in the Media and Elderly People’s Media Use symposium, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, May 4th 2017.
- Invited speaker at 5th International Symposium in Communication and Consumption (COMUNICON 2016), ESPM, Sao Paulo, Brazil, October 13th 2016. Also gave a postgraduate workshop on Ageing in the Media (11.10.2016).
Committees and reviewing
Member of the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Ageing and Later Life (2020- ).
Member of the scientific committee of Sociolinguistics Symposium 2021, Hong Kong.
Head of the organising committee and member of the scientific committee of ALAPP (Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice) conference, Cardiff University, September 17th-19th 2018.
I regularly peer review articles for journals such as Journal of Aging Studies; International Journal of Ageing and Later Life; Ageing and Society; Text & Talk, among others.
I regularly review book proposals for e.g. Routledge and Palgrave Macmillan.
Publications
2022
- Ylanne, V. ed. 2022. Ageing and the media: International perspectives. Ageing in a Global Context. Bristol, UK: Policy Press.
- Ylanne, V. 2022. Older adults and the pandemic in UK news media. In: Ylanne, V. ed. Ageing and the Media. International Perspectives. Ageing in a Global Context Bristol. UK: Policy Press, pp. 30-45.
- Loos, E., Ivan, L., Sourbati, M., Xu, W., Christensen, C. L. and Ylanne, V. 2022. Visual ageism on public organisations' websites. In: Ylanne, V. ed. Ageing and the Media. International Perspectives. Bristol: Policy Press, pp. 113-132.
2021
- Ylanne, V., Aldridge-Waddon, M., Spilioti, T. and Bartlett, T. 2021. Managing information, interaction and team building in nurse shift-change handovers: a case study. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice 16(1), pp. 51-75.
- Ylanne, V. 2021. Discourse and ageing. In: Hyland, K., Paltridge, B. and Wong, L. eds. The Bloomsbury Handbook of Discourse Analysis (2nd Edition). Bloomsbury Academic, pp. 347-359.
- Ylanne, V. 2021. UK magazine advertising portrayals of older adults: A longitudinal, content analytic, and a social semiotic lens. International Journal of Ageing and Later Life (10.3384/ijal.1652-8670.1700)
- Ylanne, V. 2021. Ageing identities and women’s everyday talk in a hair salon, Rachel Heinrichsmeier. Routledge, New York (2020) [Book Review]. Journal of Pragmatics 176(April), pp. 41-43. (10.1016/j.pragma.2021.01.031)
- Lloyd, H., Bartlett, T., Aldridge-Waddon, M., Spilioti, T. and Ylanne, V. 2021. Opening up space for compassion in nurses' handover meetings. Communication and Medicine 16(3), pp. 224-237. (10.1558/cam.38920)
2020
- Ylanne, V. 2020. Media positionings of older people. In: Phelan, A. and O’Shea, D. eds. Changing Horizons in the 21st century: Perspectives on Ageing. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 306-319.
- Bartlett, T., Ylanne, V., Spilioti, T. and Aldridge-Waddon, M. 2020. Nursing handovers as unbounded and scalar events. Applied Linguistics Review 12(3), pp. 401-418. (10.1515/applirev-2019-0135)
2019
- Spilioti, T., Aldridge-Waddon, M., Bartlett, T. and Ylanne, V. 2019. Conceptualizing language awareness in healthcare communication: The case of nurse shift-change handover meetings. Language Awareness 28(3), pp. 207-226. (10.1080/09658416.2019.1636803)
- Ylanne, V. and Nikander, P. 2019. Being an 'older parent': Chrononormativity and practices of stage of life categorisation. Text and Talk 39(4), pp. 465-487. (10.1515/text-2019-2036)
- Ylanne, V. 2019. Midlife and gender. In: Gu, D. and Dupre, M. E. eds. Encyclopedia of Gerontology and Population Aging. Springer
- Ylanne, V. 2019. 'Do you want to be categorized as one of the over fifty-fives'? Intergenerational relations in a public context. In: Harwood, J. et al. eds. Language, Communication, and Intergroup Relations: A Celebration of the Scholarship of Howard Giles. London and New York: Routledge, pp. 182-186.
2018
- Potts, A. and Ylanne, V. 2018. “Forget the stroppy, whingeing young who blame us wrinklies for Brexit!” A corpus-based discourse analysis of media representation of voter age and identity following the EU Referendum. Presented at: Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines, Aalborg, Denmark, 4-6 July 2018.
- Ylanne, V. 2018. Representacoes dos velhos e da velhice na propaganda do seculo XXI (Representations of older adults and ageing in the 21st century advertising media). In: Castro, G. G. S. and Hoff, T. eds. Communicacao, Consumo e Envelhecimento no Contemporaneo: Perspectivas Multidisciplinares. [Representacoes dos velhos e da velhice na propaganda do seculo XXI]. Editora Sulina, pp. 95-113.
2017
- Ylanne, V. 2017. Representations of ageing and infertility in the twenty-first century British press. In: Davis, G. and Loughran, T. eds. The Palgrave Handbook of Infertility in History: Approaches, Contexts and Perspectives. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 509-538.
2016
- Ylanne, V. 2016. Too old to parent? Discursive representations of late parenting in the British press. Discourse and Communication 10(2), pp. 176-197. (10.1177/1750481315611242)
2015
- Ylanne, V. 2015. Representations of ageing in the media. In: Twigg, J. and Martin, W. eds. Routledge Handbook of Cultural Gerontology. Routledge International Handbooks London: Routledge, pp. 369-376.
2014
- Ylanne, V. 2014. Bert Hayslip and Gregory C. Smith (eds), Resilient grandparent caregivers: a strengths-based perspective, Routledge (Taylor & Francis), New York, 2013, 268 pp., pbk £30.99, ISBN 13: 978 0 415 89755 6. [Book Review]. Ageing and Society 34(3), pp. 538-540. (10.1017/S0144686X13000962)
2012
- Ylänne, V. ed. 2012. Representing ageing: Images and identities. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
2010
- Williams, A. M., Ylänne, V., Wadleigh, P. M. and Chen, C. 2010. Portrayals of older adults in UK magazine advertisements: Relevance of target audience. Communications. European Journal of Communication Research 35(1), pp. 1-27. (10.1515/comm.2010.001)
- Ylänne, V., Williams, A. M. and Wadleigh, P. M. 2010. Ageing well? Older people's health and well being as portrayed in UK magazine advertisements. International Journal of Ageing and Later Life 4(2), pp. 33-62. (10.3384/ijal.1652-8670.094233)
- Thurlow, C., Jaworski, A. and Ylänne, V. 2010. Transient identities, new mobilities: holiday postcards. In: Thurlow, C. and Jaworski, A. eds. Tourism Discourse: Language and Global Mobility. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 91-125.
- Thurlow, C., Jaworski, A. and Ylänne, V. 2010. Language crossing and identity play: Television holiday shows. In: Thurlow, C. and Jaworski, A. eds. Tourism Discourse: Language and Global Mobility. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 163-190.
- Williams, A. M., Wadleigh, P. M. and Ylänne, V. 2010. Images of older people in UK magazine advertising: Toward a typology. International Journal of Aging and Human Development 71(2), pp. 83-114. (10.2190/AG.71.2.a)
2009
- Williams, A. M. and Ylänne, V. 2009. Media representations of older people. Sociology Review 91(2), pp. 20-23.
- Ylänne, V. and Williams, A. M. 2009. Positioning age: Focus group discussions about older people in TV advertising. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 200, pp. 171-187. (10.1515/IJSL.2009.050)
2008
- Ylänne, V. and John, D. N. 2008. Roles of medicines counter assistants in advice giving in community pharmacies: a Discourse Analysis. Pharmacy World and Science 30(2), pp. 199-207. (10.1007/s11096-007-9165-4)
- Ylänne, V. 2008. Communication accommodation theory. In: Spencer-Oatey, H. ed. Culturally Speaking: Culture, Communication and Politeness Theory. London: Continuum, pp. 164-185.
2005
- Thurlow, C., Jaworski, A. and Ylänne, V. 2005. 'Half-hearted tokens of transparent love?' Ethnic postcards and the visual mediation of host-tourist communication. Tourism, Culture and Communication 5(2), pp. 93-104.
2004
- Ylänne, V. 2004. Shifting alignment and negotiating sociality in travel agency discourse. Discourse Studies 6(4), pp. 517-536. (10.1177/1461445604046592)
2003
- Jaworski, A., Ylänne, V., Thurlow, C. and Lawson, S. 2003. Social roles and negotiation of status in host-tourist interaction: A view from British television holiday programmes. Journal of Sociolinguistics 7(2), pp. 135-164. (10.1111/1467-9481.00217)
- Ylänne, V., Jaworski, A., Thurlow, C. and Lawson, S. 2003. The uses and representations of local languages in tourist destinations: A view from British TV holiday programmes. Language Awareness 12(1), pp. 5-29. (10.1080/09658410308667063)
Teaching
I typically contribute to one of the Year 2 core modules, Discourse (SE1362), and convene the Year 2 module Language and Gender (SE1403). I also teach on Year 1 Understanding Communication (SE1116). At the MA level, I usually contribute to Qualitative Research Methods (SET012) and/or to Discourse and Social Interaction (SET005). I currently also coordinate MA dissertations and the various Research Experience projects in semester 2.
Research interests
My main research interests are in discourse and social interaction and discursive representations of age(ing) and lifespan identities.
My research activities over the years have concentrated on media representations of older people and ageing; institutional discourse, and discourses of tourist identities.
My recent research project has examined news coverage of older first time parents and personal narratives of parenting at middle age. I am also researching representations of ageing in the media, especially advertising, which critically examines (visual) ageism. My edited volume Ageing and the Media: International Perspectives was published by Policy Press in September 2022. This showcases international research on ageing and/in the media.
I am currently collaborating on a British Academcy/Leverhulme funded project on 'Minority ethnic older adults’ perception of COVID-19 public health campaigns', which comprises 35 semi-structured interviews with minority ethnic older adults.
I have recently collaborated on a project with a local Health Board and was a co-recipient of an ESRC Impact Initiator Award looking at hospital nurse handover sessions.
Supervision
Postgraduate supervision
I am particularly interested in receiving PhD proposals from students interested in carrying out research on aspects of age identity and representations of ageing and middle/older age, using qualitative methodologies. I'm also interested in supervising projects on aspects of institutional talk in, for example, health care settings.
Past projects
In the past I have supervised PhD students on topics such as
- 'Mitigation in Prime Minister’s Questions of the British Parliament' - Dr Areej Dawood, 2020.
- 'A nexus analysis of domestic video chat: actions, practices, affordances, and mediational means' - Dr Dorottya Csenge Cserzö, 2019.
- 'Representations of contemporary feminist protest in Germany and the UK’ - Dr Sophie Payne at Reading University, 2018; co-supervised with Dr Melani Schroeter, AHRC DTP funded
- 'Older workers' talk: Discursive representations of age, work and retirement identities' - Dr Sheila Gewolb, 2016.
- 'Portraying older age in television advertisements: a comparative study between the UK and Taiwan' - Dr Chin-Hui Chen, 2011.
- Functional semantic analysis of Yoruba death notices in English' - Dr Ayo Banji, 2003.
I regularly supervise MA dissertations on Discourse Analytic topics ranging from media representations of gender to aspects of institutional talk, politeness, and informal talk among friends, for example.
