People
Dr. Caroline Jagoe
Dr Caroline Jagoe is the Principal Investigator leading Co-Construct. Her work centres on disability inclusion, and specifically on the barriers to inclusion faced by persons with disabilities in accessing services, participating in communities and enjoying their fundamental human rights. a speech and language therapist by background, Caroline has a particular focus on communication access and the factors that influence successful conversations involving persons with communication disabilities and their communication partners. Her research has generated new insights into the application of relevance theory to communication disability and pushes the boundaries of the theory itself.
Maria Zakaria
Maria Zakaria is a PhD student working with the Co-Construct Team. With a background as a speech and language therapist and an MSc in Neuropsychology, Maria brings a wealth of expertise to the project. Prior to taking up her PhD position, she worked as a lecturer and Supervisor at St Joseph's University in Beirut and also had a thriving private practice in Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates. Originally from Lebanon, Maria is fluent in Arabic, English, and French, and will be responsible for collecting the Arabic data, in Lebanon, for the Co-Construct project.
Aisling Reid
Aisling Reid is the Research Assistant working full time on Co-Construct. She is a Speech & Language Therapist with an interest in acquired communication disorders and in developing inclusive communication environments. She also has experience assisting with the administration related to student SLT practice education. Her most recent research, in collaboration with Caroline Jagoe, addressed communication disability and communication access as conceptualised in CRPD reports from State Parties and responses from the CRPD committee.
Alea Finlay and Orla McDaid
Alea Finlay and Orla McDaid are final year students in the undergraduate programme of Clinical Speech & Language Studies. They join the Co-Construct Team to work on a sub-set of data for their Capstone Research Projects.
Professor Tim Wharton
Professor Tim Wharton is a member of the expert advisory committee of Co-Construct. He is Principal Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Brighton. He brings particular expertise on the pragmatics on non-verbal communication, how ‘natural’, non-linguistic behaviours – tone of voice, facial expressions, gesture – interact with the linguistic properties of utterances, all key considerations in Co-Construct.
Professor Emeritus Deirdre Wilson
Professor Emeritus Deirdre Wilson is a member of the expert advisory committee of Co-Construct. She is the scholar, along with Dan Sperber, who first proposed relevance theory. A highly influential linguist, she has shaped modern pragmatics and brings this wealth of expertise and scholarly enquiry to the project.