Dr Virpi Ylänne

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.

With regard to my research, I was involved in the 'Language and Tourism as a Global Cultural Industry' strand of the Centre's Leverhulme-funded Language and Global Communication project (2001-2006). During 2004-2007 I co-directed (with Dr Angie Williams) a three year ESRC-funded project on Images of Elders in UK Media: Perceptions and Representations (RES-000-23-0416) which focused on print media and TV advertising, using Content Analysis and Discourse Analysis of focus group discussions as methods. An edited volume Representing Ageing: Images and Identities (2012, Palgrave Macmillan) followed up some of the themes from the research project.

I have organised workshops and symposia around this theme, too, 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 British Society of Gerontology (2021).

I have also carried out and published collaborative research on community pharmacy interactions from a Discourse Analytic point of view.

More recently, my research project has 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 am editing a volume Ageing and the Media. International Perspectives for Policy Press. In terms of institutional talk, I'm also a member of a research team investigating nurse handover interactions in hospital wards (see publications). I am also currently collaborating on a BA/Leverhulme project on 'Minority ethnic older adults’ perception of COVID-19 public health campaigns'.

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 at:

• 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.

Member of the organising committee and 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 have reviewed book proposals for Routledge and Palgrave Macmillan.

Publications

• Date
• Type
• Selected

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 taught a Year 3 module Lifespan Communication (SE1327) for many years. At the MA level, I usually contribute to Qualitative Research Methods (SET012) and/or to Discourse and Social Interaction (SET005).

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. I am currently preparing an edited volume Ageing in the Media:International Perspectives, to be published by Policy Press. 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'.

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.