Dr Sarah Cox

Professional biography

Sarah is a Research Fellow within the Faculty for Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies at The Open University in Scotland. She has a background in ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages), refugee integration, language education and multilingualism. Before coming to the OU, Sarah worked as a senior manager in the third sector where she led a range of ESOL and integration projects.

In 2021, she completed her PhD in Language Ecologies with the UNESCO Chair Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts at the University of Glasgow. Sarah’s PhD was an interdisciplinary study which drew on applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, human geography and intercultural communication to explore the gap between policy, practice and academic literature within language learning for refugees in Scotland. Her research focused on the development of an ecological, multilingual approach to language learning by working collaboratively with women who had recently arrived in Glasgow through the British Red Cross Family Reunion Integration Service. She is interested in decolonial, participatory approaches to research and language education.

Sarah is currently a Co-investigator on the Interpreting in Migration Crises: A Case Study of Syrian Refugees in Turkey project. She is also developing research projects on language education for refugees and migrants.

Research interests

• Refugee integration
• ESOL
• Language ecologies
• Multilingualism
• Translanguaging
• Decolonising, participatory approaches
• Language policy