Prof. James Simpson

James Simpson is a Professor in the Division of Humanities. He directs the Masters programme in International Language Education. Prior to joining HKUST in 2021 he worked at the School of Education, University of Leeds, UK, where he led the Language Education Academic Group.

James’ research and teaching interests lie in language education and migration, and the sociolinguistics of mobility. His work coheres around a concern with social justice, particularly for people on the move, and of what it means to belong. His research involves the critical analysis of communicative practices relating to migrant language pedagogy, language diversity, language policy, and literacy, identity and culture. He uses qualitative methods, drawing from linguistic and visual ethnography, interactional sociolinguistics and narrative analysis.

His books include ESOL: A Critical Guide (with Melanie Cooke, OUP, 2008), and he is the editor of the Routledge Handbook of Applied Linguistics (1st ed. 2011; 2nd ed. 2023). He serves on the editorial board of the journal TESOL Quarterly, and is the founder and manager of the online forum ESOL-Research. He convenes the Belonging Research Network and is the PI on the RGC-funded project Navigating Belonging: Exploring settlement for South Asians in Hong Kong through narratives and participatory photography (2022-2024).