Chris Cummins


PPLS, University of Edinburgh

Non-work

In these days of outreach, it's sometimes hard to tell where academia ends and reality begins. So by 'non-work' I currently mean things that I'm not paid to do, even though some of them have to do with linguistics. I still call it 'non-work' because otherwise I need to change a bunch of sidebar links.

Recently I've participated in the Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas at the Edinburgh Fringe. In 2023 I talked about misleading language. In 2024 I will talk about slurs and, more controversially, Scrabble.

I've also ended up performing in the newly-reawakened Bright Club Edinburgh, where I get to use some of the words that don't normally make it into my talks.

I used to co-present the podcast series New Books in Language, part of the New Books Network, a multi-disciplinary project that interviews non-fiction authors about their recent works. A lot of interesting things are said, albeit not by me.

On the other hand, if you think linguistics is a complete waste of time:

But if you want something that doesn't talk about linguistics at all, my options are severely curtailed...