Conversation Analysis (CA) has come to be widely regarded as one of the most rigorous and effective perspectives/methodologies for investigating language use in interaction in natural settings – whether ordinary social interactions or interactions in workplace & institutional settings. I have taught and researched in CA for many years, previously at the University of York before moving here to Loughborough to join an outstanding group of CA researchers. I give workshops in CA for postgraduate and post-doc researchers worldwide, which I enjoy and find most rewarding. I am the co-editor of a Cambridge University Press series Studies in Interactional Sociolinguistics, an associate editor of Discourse Processes, and a member of a number of journal editorial boards.

Research

My research focuses on both the basic practices and processes of ordinary social interaction, and the investigation of interaction in institutional and workplace settings; these include legal, educational, social welfare and especially medical interactions. Recently much of my research has become more applied, in the context of projects that explore issues and problems for which practitioners seek solutions and advice. This has included work for the Metropolitan Police Service, the Department of Work & Pensions (on interviews in Job Centres), and medical research (e.g. in cancer helpline calls; on patient participation in decision making in oncology clinics; on seizure clinics; and currently on the assessment of dementia in memory clinics). My basic research (i.e. into ordinary social interaction) currently focuses on language and social action – particularly into how we manage certain actions such as requesting, complaining and proposing in talk-in-interaction. Many of these past and current projects are funded (e.g. by the Metropolitan Police Service, the Department of Work & Pensions, the ESRC, NHS’s National Institute for Health Research, and by medical charities such as Epilepsy Action).

Teaching

I have joined the Loughborough team to teach on a new MA they are launching, on Conversation Analysis. This, together with the supervision of doctoral research students, will be my principal teaching role in the Department.

Recent publications

• Atkinson,J.M. & Drew,P. (1979) Order in Court: Verbal Interaction in Judicial Settings. London, Macmillan.

• Drew,P. and Wootton,A. (eds) (1988) Erving Goffman: Exploring the Interaction Order. Cambridge, Polity Press (reprinted 1995).

• Drew,P. and Heritage,J. (eds) (1992) Talk at Work: Language Use in Institutional and Work-Place Settings. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

• Drew,P., Raymond,G. and Weinberg,D. (eds) (2006) Talking Research: Language and Interaction in Sociological Methodology. London, Sage.

• Drew,P. and Heritage,J. (eds) (2006) Conversation Analysis (4 volumes). London, Sage Benchmarks in Social Research Methods series.

• Drew,P, Toerien,M. Irvine,A. and Sainsbury,R. (2010) A Study of Language and Communication Between Advisers and Claimants in Work Focused Interviews. HMSO, DWP Research Report 633.

• Drew,P. and Holt,E. (1998) Figures of speech: figurative expressions and the management of topic transition in conversation. Language in Society, 27: 495-52.

• Curl, T. and Drew, P. (2008) Contingency and action: a comparison of two forms of requesting. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 41, 2008:1-25.

• Drew, P. and Curl, T. (2009) ‘Going too far’: complaining, escalating and disaffiliation. Journal of Pragmatics 41: 2009: 2400-2414.

• Drew, P. (2009) ‘Quit talking while I’m interrupting’: a comparison between positions of overlap onset in conversation. In M.Haakana, M. Laakso and J.Lindström (eds.) Comparative Aspects of Conversation Analysis. Finnish Literature Society: 70-93.

• Drew, P. and Walker, T. (2010) Requesting assistance in calls to the police. In M.Coulthard and A.Johnson (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Forensic Linguistics. Routeledge: 95-110.

• Drew, P. (2012) Turn design.In T.Stivers and J.Sidnell (eds.). Handbook of Conversation Analysis. Blackwell:131-149.

• Drew, P., Walker, T. and Ogden, R. (2012) Self-repair and action construction. In Hayashi, M., Raymond, G. and Sidnell, J. eds. Conversational Repair and Human Understanding. Cambridge University Press:113-147.

• Robson, C., Drew, P. & Reuber,M. (forthcoming) Catasrophising and normalising in conversations between doctors and patients with epileptic and psychogenic nonepileptic seizures. Seizure: European Journal of Epilepsy.