Contact

Julie Morris

I am a Reader and Head of the School of Education, Communication and Language Sciences (ECLS) at Newcastle University. I work with a vibrant and passionate group of colleagues, with a dual focus on excellence in teaching and research, with my own work and interests contributing to improved outcomes for people with communication difficulties. 

My particular area of interest is acquired communication difficulties and, in particular, aphasia. I am part of the Tavistock Aphasia Centre (http://research.ncl.ac.uk/aphasia/), a centre of excellence for aphasia teaching and provision. This interest in aphasia is reflected across my research and in my teaching.

My research focuses on comprehension of language, particularly  in reading (with a recently completed project funded by the Stroke Association) and word retrieval, with a funded project completed looking at intervention (NIHR funded project: SemaFoRe: Semantic Feature and Repetition Therapy in aphasia: a pilot RCT). These research themes link to recent PhD supervision, with students via the IDEALAB programme conducting studies in these areas.

I am a qualified Speech and Language Therapist, graduating from City University in 1990 and completing my DPhil in Psychology at York University in 1997. I have held a variety of clinical, research and lecturing posts, specialising in adult acquired aphasia. My doctorial work focused on word deafness and the evaluation of its treatment, working with Andy Ellis and Sue Franklin. Previously I was involved in the PATSy project, an Internet based teaching and research resource (www.patsy.ac.uk). Using this resource I was part of a large multi-centre ESRC TRLP project examining the role of vicarious learning in clinical education.