Nick is a sociolinguist by background and has conducted research predominantly in the area of sports discourse and language in the workplace. Originally from Scotland, where he attended the University of Edinburgh, he has worked in universities in the UK, New Zealand and Australia before coming to the University of Limerick.
Nick carried out his doctoral research in New Zealand, as part of the Wellington Language in the Workplace Project, where he conducted a year long ethnography of a rugby team and analysed how leadership communication is negotiated and how new leaders forge their skills through a process of situated learning. This project has led to multiple publications on topics such as address terms, pronoun usage and leadership emergence.
Following on from this, Nick has also worked on language and communication research with other sports organisations, such as Street Football Wales, a charity that works towards fostering social inclusion for homeless people through sports participation.
Nick has taught sociolinguistics and discourse analysis in various universities and is the co-author with Janet Holmes of the popular sociolinguistics textbook, An Introduction to Sociolinguistics.
Nick's research interest include:
2019
Academic success
Jean Brick, Nick Wilson, Deanna Wong & Maria Herke
(2019) Academic success
London : Macmillan
2017
An Introduction to Sociolinguistics
Janet Holmes & Nick Wilson
(2017) An Introduction to Sociolinguistics
Abingdon : Routledge
