I'm a Senior Lecturer at the English Language Department, Faculty of Languages and Linguistics. My research area is health(care) discourse, focusing on matters related to language and healthcare. Through analysis of real-life interaction, I examine how doctors and patients "do things", such as make decisions about treatment and discuss concerns by interacting with each other in person and online. I'm also interested in communication in healthcare education, interproffessional discourse and patient education, alongside how people express and make meaning of health-related issues via their talk and stories, in person and on digital platforms.

Before joining Universiti Malaya in 2019, I worked for more than two decades in positions related to language, communication and skills development. As a language and content service provider for over 15 years, I provided language consulting services for clients including students and researchers, Open University Malaysia, What3Words, UK (a geomapping start up) and Trilogy, Austin, Texas (a tech services company). Over 17 years as a language instructor and HRDF certified trainer, I developed and facilitated comunication skills training for a wide variety of corporate clients in Jakarta (including Bank Danamon, CINOOC, Philip Morris, Citibank) and Kuala Lumpur, including Royal Bank of Canada, TIMEdotCom,Monash University. The latter were clients of British Council, Kuala Lumpur's Professional Development Centre, where I was engaged as a training consultant. My work history is available at https://my.linkedin.com/in/ayeshah-syed-04682931

In my current role as a researcher, I'm interested in exploring how insights from language analysis can improve real-world practice and understanding in various fields, particularly in health-related contexts. I also like hearing about what other researchers are working on and learning about new areas and methodologies, and welcome potential collaborations aligned with my expertise.

Note to potential supervisees: I have limited availability for 2024-2026 due to a heavy supervision load.