Susan M. Fitzmaurice

Professor Susan M. Fitzmaurice serves as Vice President and Head of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Sheffield, where she holds the position of Professor and Chair of English Language within the School of English. Previously, she was Head of the School of English (2011-2015), Professor of English and Head of Department at Northern Arizona University, and University Lecturer in English at Cambridge University.

Her research centers on the history of the English language through historical pragmatics, sociolinguistics, and computational linguistics. Key interests include semantic-pragmatic change, lexical patterns in large corpora, and conceptual modeling. She leads the Linguistic DNA project (AHRC-funded) that uses high-performance computing to analyze semantic change in Early Modern English (1500-1800), and collaborates on GCRF-funded community research in South Africa addressing rural capacity-building.

Recent publications reveal a strong trajectory toward digital humanities methodologies, with 7 of the 15 most recent articles focusing on computational analysis of historical texts. Her work demonstrates interdisciplinary reach across linguistics, digital humanities, gender studies, and postcolonial research, particularly through projects examining Zimbabwean English and transnational discourse.

As principal investigator for major grants including AHRC AH/M00614X/1 and GCRF initiatives, she directs collaborative research involving the Universities of Glasgow, Sussex, Pretoria, and South African NGO Pala Forerunners. Her supervision focuses on doctoral projects in historical sociolinguistics, corpus linguistics, and discourse analysis.

She co-edits the Topics in English Linguistics series for Mouton de Gruyter and serves on the Philological Society Council. Her leadership extends to the UK-ZA Community Research partnership, which develops community-led methodologies for social violence research in sub-Saharan Africa.