Professor Rachael-Anne Knight

Biography

Rachael-Anne is a phonetician with interests in prosody, psycholinguistics and pedagogy. She is a Professor of Phonetics, and Subject Lead for Speech and Language Therapy in the School of Health Sciences. Rachael-Anne completed a BA at the University of Roehampton, where she fell in love with linguistics and went on to study for an MSc in Speech and Hearing Sciences at UCL. After a brief period as a research assistant working with prosody in speech synthesis she moved to the University of Cambridge, to complete a PhD in phonetics. Her main areas of phonetics research involve intonation, rhythm, rhotics, clinical phonetics and accent perception. Rachael-Anne has a strong interest in education and pedagogy, and publishes textbooks (e.g. Phonetics: A coursebook) and educational research. She has been a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy since 2015, and a National Teaching Fellow since 2016. Rachael-Anne worked at City, University of London from 2005 to 2023. As Associate Dean Education from 2014-2021 she had strategic responsibility for education across the then School of Health Sciences, and led on a number of cross-institutional projects. She authored the institution's Lecture Capture policy, and was sponsor for the hybrid learning project, ISLA. She led on External Examining appointments across City, and ran induction and professional development activities in this area. Rachael-Anne is an AdvanceHE associate, and has delivered workshops on assessment and feedback, as well as being a regular facilitator for the Professional Development Course for External Examiners. She is also an AdvanceHE assessor for direct fellowship applications.

Qualifications

• PhD Linguistics (Phonetics) University of Cambridge, (2003)

• MSc Speech and Hearing Sciences University College London, (1999)

• BA English Literature and English Langauge and Linguistics University of Roehampton, (1998)

• Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy Advance HE, (2015)

• National Teaching Fellow Advance HE, (2016)

• Recognised Facilitator: Professional Development Course for External Examiners Advance HE, (2021)

• PGDip Academic Practice City, University of London, (2025)

Appointments

University of Essex

• Subject Lead, Speech and Language Therapy, University of Essex (31/7/2023 - present)

• Professor of Phonetics, School of Health and Social Cre, University of Essex (31/7/2023 - present)

Other academic

• Associate Dean Education, School of Health Sciences, City, University of London (1/10/2014 - 21/2/2021)

• Lecturer, Senior Lecturer, Associate Professor, Professor of Phonetics, Language and Communication Science, City, University of London (10/1/2005 - 25/7/2023)