Dr Zsófia Demjén
@zsofiademjen.bsky.social
Associate Professor at UCL Centre for Applied Linguistics (she).
Language & illness: vaccination, psychosis, cancer, depression | humor, metaphor, (im)politeness, pronouns, negation, narrative, corpus linguistics
Language & illness: vaccination, psychosis, cancer, depression | humor, metaphor, (im)politeness, pronouns, negation, narrative, corpus linguistics
Pinned
A jab is not a vaccine; it's a ‘shot’
Previous work identified a new type of vaccine scepticism on social media centred around questioning the status of the COVID-19 vaccine as a vaccine, …
www.sciencedirect.com
New short paper out in Public Health: 'A jab is not a vaccine; it's a 'shot'
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
For a quick read, Chapter 4 is an insights focused summary.
February 2, 2026 at 4:27 PM
For a quick read, Chapter 4 is an insights focused summary.
We discuss, among other things, the relative frequency of pro- and anti-vaccination views and their engagement styles, similarities in how opposing views are expressed, mutual influences between attitudes tied to specific vaccines, and the impact of real life events on online discourses.
February 2, 2026 at 4:26 PM
We discuss, among other things, the relative frequency of pro- and anti-vaccination views and their engagement styles, similarities in how opposing views are expressed, mutual influences between attitudes tied to specific vaccines, and the impact of real life events on online discourses.
How has the HPV vaccine been talked about on Twitter/X since 2008?
In this hot-off-the-press study, led by Isobelle Clarke, our team systematically analyses over half a million tweets to answer this question.
www.routledge.com/HPV-Vaccinat...
In this hot-off-the-press study, led by Isobelle Clarke, our team systematically analyses over half a million tweets to answer this question.
www.routledge.com/HPV-Vaccinat...
HPV Vaccination Discourse Online: A Corpus Linguistic Approach
This concise volume spotlights an innovative computer-aided approach to linguistic analyses of HPV vaccination discourse on Twitter.
The book features a new corpus linguistic technique, developed by t...
www.routledge.com
February 2, 2026 at 4:26 PM
How has the HPV vaccine been talked about on Twitter/X since 2008?
In this hot-off-the-press study, led by Isobelle Clarke, our team systematically analyses over half a million tweets to answer this question.
www.routledge.com/HPV-Vaccinat...
In this hot-off-the-press study, led by Isobelle Clarke, our team systematically analyses over half a million tweets to answer this question.
www.routledge.com/HPV-Vaccinat...
If you're interested in health communication, broadly conceived, join the research seminars of the UCL Health Communication Network. Available to attend remotely with the next event on 22nd Jan, 1pm.
blogs.ucl.ac.uk/health-comms...
Sign up to our mailing list to hear about future events
blogs.ucl.ac.uk/health-comms...
Sign up to our mailing list to hear about future events
UCL UCL Health Communication Network
UCL Homepage
blogs.ucl.ac.uk
January 14, 2026 at 1:47 PM
If you're interested in health communication, broadly conceived, join the research seminars of the UCL Health Communication Network. Available to attend remotely with the next event on 22nd Jan, 1pm.
blogs.ucl.ac.uk/health-comms...
Sign up to our mailing list to hear about future events
blogs.ucl.ac.uk/health-comms...
Sign up to our mailing list to hear about future events
Reposted by Dr Zsófia Demjén
The language of illness shifts responsibility
away from systems
and onto individuals
as if individuals were not living inside
the very structures
that shape their lives
away from systems
and onto individuals
as if individuals were not living inside
the very structures
that shape their lives
January 13, 2026 at 6:07 AM
The language of illness shifts responsibility
away from systems
and onto individuals
as if individuals were not living inside
the very structures
that shape their lives
away from systems
and onto individuals
as if individuals were not living inside
the very structures
that shape their lives
Reposted by Dr Zsófia Demjén
Call for Papers for our 2026 webinar: ‘Key Health and Science Communication Challenges in the 2020s’
We’re delighted to share the cfp for our upcoming event. If you’re considering submitting, we’d love to hear from you.
The deadline for submission is 5pm, February 9th 2026.
wp.me/pcqSKn-dv
We’re delighted to share the cfp for our upcoming event. If you’re considering submitting, we’d love to hear from you.
The deadline for submission is 5pm, February 9th 2026.
wp.me/pcqSKn-dv
2026 webinar series: Key Health and Science Communication Challenges and Opportunities in the 2020s
This year, we’re looking to showcase some of the excellent work being done on health and science communication through an online seminar series that aims to grapple with some of the key challenges …
wp.me
January 9, 2026 at 6:27 AM
Call for Papers for our 2026 webinar: ‘Key Health and Science Communication Challenges in the 2020s’
We’re delighted to share the cfp for our upcoming event. If you’re considering submitting, we’d love to hear from you.
The deadline for submission is 5pm, February 9th 2026.
wp.me/pcqSKn-dv
We’re delighted to share the cfp for our upcoming event. If you’re considering submitting, we’d love to hear from you.
The deadline for submission is 5pm, February 9th 2026.
wp.me/pcqSKn-dv
This resonates a bit too much... theconversation.com/the-5-stages...
The 5 stages of the ‘enshittification’ of academic publishing
Academic publishing now shows the same decline that has hit social media and online marketplaces.
theconversation.com
January 7, 2026 at 9:37 AM
This resonates a bit too much... theconversation.com/the-5-stages...
Reposted by Dr Zsófia Demjén
Physicist Leo Szilard, in a short science fiction story from 1948, describing how to retard science by making the funding application longer and harder than the proposed research - now called the ‘Szilard point’
December 19, 2025 at 9:38 AM
Physicist Leo Szilard, in a short science fiction story from 1948, describing how to retard science by making the funding application longer and harder than the proposed research - now called the ‘Szilard point’
Reposted by Dr Zsófia Demjén
"How can funders avoid crossing the Szilard point?"
The Szilard point is "the threshold at which the total cost of competing for a grant equals (or surpasses) the value of the available funding."
The Szilard point is "the threshold at which the total cost of competing for a grant equals (or surpasses) the value of the available funding."
Point of no returns: researchers are crossing a threshold in the fight for funding
With so little money to go round, the costs of competing for grants can exceed what the grants are worth. When that happens, nobody wins.
www.nature.com
December 19, 2025 at 7:57 AM
"How can funders avoid crossing the Szilard point?"
The Szilard point is "the threshold at which the total cost of competing for a grant equals (or surpasses) the value of the available funding."
The Szilard point is "the threshold at which the total cost of competing for a grant equals (or surpasses) the value of the available funding."
'Simulation Training to Advance Role-playing Skills (STARS): a collaborative project to cross-skill clinicians to role-play clinical communication simulations'
Join us today at 1pm for a seminar of the UCL Health communication network. Details:
blogs.ucl.ac.uk/health-comms...
Join us today at 1pm for a seminar of the UCL Health communication network. Details:
blogs.ucl.ac.uk/health-comms...
UCL UCL Health Communication Network
UCL Homepage
blogs.ucl.ac.uk
December 16, 2025 at 11:47 AM
'Simulation Training to Advance Role-playing Skills (STARS): a collaborative project to cross-skill clinicians to role-play clinical communication simulations'
Join us today at 1pm for a seminar of the UCL Health communication network. Details:
blogs.ucl.ac.uk/health-comms...
Join us today at 1pm for a seminar of the UCL Health communication network. Details:
blogs.ucl.ac.uk/health-comms...
Reposted by Dr Zsófia Demjén
Grading and googling hallucinated citations, as one does nowadays, and now that LLMs have been around for a while, I've discovered new horrors: hallucinated journals are now appearing in Google Scholar with dozens of citations bc so many people are citing these fake things
December 15, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Grading and googling hallucinated citations, as one does nowadays, and now that LLMs have been around for a while, I've discovered new horrors: hallucinated journals are now appearing in Google Scholar with dozens of citations bc so many people are citing these fake things
Reposted by Dr Zsófia Demjén
Scientific evidence shows, once again, there is no causal link between vaccines and autism. Vaccines cause adults. - @drtedros.who.int
December 11, 2025 at 11:19 PM
Scientific evidence shows, once again, there is no causal link between vaccines and autism. Vaccines cause adults. - @drtedros.who.int
A quick instruction to reviewers to immediately reject papers with fake references would help. Might help editors too if that was an explicit criterion for rejection.
December 12, 2025 at 2:28 PM
A quick instruction to reviewers to immediately reject papers with fake references would help. Might help editors too if that was an explicit criterion for rejection.
I've been thinking about this too. Not as an editor, but a reviewer. These papers are so disrespectful of our time and effort!
December 12, 2025 at 2:25 PM
I've been thinking about this too. Not as an editor, but a reviewer. These papers are so disrespectful of our time and effort!
Just in case you're looking for more that are not strictly corpus linguistic :)
December 12, 2025 at 10:27 AM
Just in case you're looking for more that are not strictly corpus linguistic :)
Reposted by Dr Zsófia Demjén
Our book 'Applying Corpus Linguistics to Illness and Healthcare' is out open access! We wrote it to share what we learnt in many years of research in @corpussocialsci.bsky.social, on topics such as communication about anxiety, dementia, cancer, obesity and vaccines. cambridgeblog.org/2025/08/appl...
Applying Corpus Linguistics to Illness and Healthcare
This book has been fun and also somewhat liberating to write. To explain this we have to tell the story of how the book came about.
cambridgeblog.org
September 25, 2025 at 8:38 AM
Our book 'Applying Corpus Linguistics to Illness and Healthcare' is out open access! We wrote it to share what we learnt in many years of research in @corpussocialsci.bsky.social, on topics such as communication about anxiety, dementia, cancer, obesity and vaccines. cambridgeblog.org/2025/08/appl...
awesome news!!
September 17, 2025 at 10:48 AM
awesome news!!
Reposted by Dr Zsófia Demjén
Making science songs
I wrote what follows in 2012. Now it's 2021, I can't believe it, and we are living in a time when science has become a matter of survival. We are living through the Covid-19 pandemic and vaccines have been developed at speed to help us get out of this mess. Music and songs…
I wrote what follows in 2012. Now it's 2021, I can't believe it, and we are living in a time when science has become a matter of survival. We are living through the Covid-19 pandemic and vaccines have been developed at speed to help us get out of this mess. Music and songs…
Making science songs
I wrote what follows in 2012. Now it's 2021, I can't believe it, and we are living in a time when science has become a matter of survival. We are living through the Covid-19 pandemic and vaccines have been developed at speed to help us get out of this mess. Music and songs have helped us along the way, just like science.
makingsciencepublic.com
July 28, 2025 at 7:33 AM
Making science songs
I wrote what follows in 2012. Now it's 2021, I can't believe it, and we are living in a time when science has become a matter of survival. We are living through the Covid-19 pandemic and vaccines have been developed at speed to help us get out of this mess. Music and songs…
I wrote what follows in 2012. Now it's 2021, I can't believe it, and we are living in a time when science has become a matter of survival. We are living through the Covid-19 pandemic and vaccines have been developed at speed to help us get out of this mess. Music and songs…
That's amazing, Stefania!! Huge congratulations!!! 💃
July 2, 2025 at 8:54 AM
That's amazing, Stefania!! Huge congratulations!!! 💃
Reposted by Dr Zsófia Demjén
Congratulations to Dr @bethmalory.bsky.social on being named a BBC New Generation Thinker 2025. Dr Malory will join five other early career researchers to shape programming on BBC Radio 4, bringing new ideas to audiences www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/ju...
@uclenglishusage.bsky.social @ukri.org
@uclenglishusage.bsky.social @ukri.org
Academic named a BBC 2025 New Generation Thinker
Dr Beth Malory (UCL English) will join five other early career researchers chosen by the BBC and the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to shape programming on BBC Radio 4, bringing new ideas...
www.ucl.ac.uk
June 20, 2025 at 10:30 AM
Congratulations to Dr @bethmalory.bsky.social on being named a BBC New Generation Thinker 2025. Dr Malory will join five other early career researchers to shape programming on BBC Radio 4, bringing new ideas to audiences www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2025/ju...
@uclenglishusage.bsky.social @ukri.org
@uclenglishusage.bsky.social @ukri.org
Reposted by Dr Zsófia Demjén
Thanks for the reminder @janemunday.bsky.social. Every summer, I repost this article DROWNING DOES NOT LOOK LIKE DROWNING. To date, I know of FOUR kids who were saved after someone who'd clicked on the link learnt how to spot actual drowning. Take time to read and pass on.
slate.com/technology/2...
slate.com/technology/2...
Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning
Drowning is not the violent, splashing call for help that most people expect.
slate.com
June 19, 2025 at 4:22 PM
Thanks for the reminder @janemunday.bsky.social. Every summer, I repost this article DROWNING DOES NOT LOOK LIKE DROWNING. To date, I know of FOUR kids who were saved after someone who'd clicked on the link learnt how to spot actual drowning. Take time to read and pass on.
slate.com/technology/2...
slate.com/technology/2...
Follows up on a previous piece, looking at how the insights apply to the UK context:
‘It's a shot, not a vaccine like MMR’: A new type of vaccine-specific scepticism on Twitter/X during the COVID-19 pandemic
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
‘It's a shot, not a vaccine like MMR’: A new type of vaccine-specific scepticism on Twitter/X during the COVID-19 pandemic
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
‘It's a shot, not a vaccine like MMR’: A new type of vaccine-specific scepticism on Twitter/X during the COVID-19 pandemic
While it is well-known that vaccine hesitancy can be vaccine-specific, little is known about how people spontaneously evaluate different vaccines in c…
www.sciencedirect.com
June 9, 2025 at 1:19 PM
Follows up on a previous piece, looking at how the insights apply to the UK context:
‘It's a shot, not a vaccine like MMR’: A new type of vaccine-specific scepticism on Twitter/X during the COVID-19 pandemic
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
‘It's a shot, not a vaccine like MMR’: A new type of vaccine-specific scepticism on Twitter/X during the COVID-19 pandemic
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
New short paper out in Public Health: 'A jab is not a vaccine; it's a 'shot'
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
A jab is not a vaccine; it's a ‘shot’
Previous work identified a new type of vaccine scepticism on social media centred around questioning the status of the COVID-19 vaccine as a vaccine, …
www.sciencedirect.com
June 9, 2025 at 1:17 PM
New short paper out in Public Health: 'A jab is not a vaccine; it's a 'shot'
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...