Candidates 2022 elections – RaAM – Researching and Applying Metaphor

Please find the candidates for the 2022 Executive Committee (EC) elections, and their statements, below:

Position		Nominator / seconder	Statement
Chair	Jeannette Littlemore, University of Birmingham (UK)	Paula Perez-Sobrino / Sarah Turner	I have benefitted greatly from RaAM, and I would now like to give something back to the RaAM community. A particularly attractive feature of metaphor is that it can be studied through a wide range of theoretical lenses and methodological approaches, and that it can be analysed in relation to different disciplines. In my own research, I learned a great deal from my collaborations with scholars from a wide range of disciplines including Education, Medicine, Nursing and Midwifery, Law, Marketing, and Cultural Studies. If elected, I would therefore like to create a variety of opportunities for metaphor scholars, and others, from different theoretical and methodological backgrounds to share their approaches and insights. This will lead to a greater awareness of the range of complementary approaches that can be taken to the study of metaphor, allowing the field to take full advantage of the benefits that this multifaceted approach can bring.
Secretary	Sarah Turner, Coventry University (UK)	Jeannette Littlemore / David O’Reilly	As someone who takes quite a lot of joy in organising things(!) I believe that the secretary role is a perfect fit for me. Having served as a secretary on committees in the past, I have experience of chairing meetings and preparing agendas/minutes, and I am confident that if elected, I would work effectively to support the smooth running of the Association and its activities. RaAM has been a fundamental part of my research life since I started my PhD in 2011, and I greatly value the insights and ideas each RaAM event affords me. I believe that RaAM offers something very special, and I would be very grateful for the opportunity to ‘give something back’ by offering my time and administration skills through serving on the Executive Committee.
Treasurer	Alan Wallington, Bangor University (UK)	Jeannette Littlemore / Kathleen Ahrens	I have been a member of RaAM on and off for more than a decade and have had an interest in metaphor and related areas of figurative language and thought for even longer. However, one of the reasons I would like to take on the role of Treasurer and work with other members of the Executive Committee concerns the ‘off’ rather than the ‘on’ of the preceeding sentence. My membership has at various times lapsed. This is not because my interests had changed or because I no longer valued being a member of the principle international organisation for researchers interested in metaphor and its application but because I had failed to diarise my membership renewal date and had probably let anylone. reminders fall out of my visible inbox. And I am sure that I am not alone. Speaking to other people with a strong interest in metaphor, we noted that their membership too had lapsed. If I were elected to the position of Treasurer, I would as a priority, attempt to get in touch with former members. I am a big tent metaphorist. I want everybody with an interest in metaphor to be aware of RaAM and hopefully join it. I strongly believe that RaAM should not be associated with a narrow range of theoretical approaches. Finally, I should add that I would bring some limited experience to the position of Treasurer. I am currently the Company Secretary and Treasurer of our local Residents Association. In the past, I have also been the treasurer of the Parent Teacher Association of my children’s school.
Web Editor	Justyna Wawrzyniuk, University of Bialystok (Poland)	Britta Brugman / David O’Reilly	I would like to take on the role of the Web Editor to help maintaining the technical aspect of the Association in order to ensure its effortless and effective administration. The RaAM website is an important source of information for the Members, that is why I believe it should be constantly improved to make its features and content up to date. I would like to continue, in collaboration with other EC members, the fantastic work done by the previous Editors. If elected, my main aim as the Web Editor would be to smoothen our Members’ interaction within the Association by making the website the go-to destination for all things connected with researching and applying metaphor.
Communications Officer	Lorena Bort Mir, Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain)	Kathleen Ahrens / Justyna Wawrzyniuk	Even though I have been running as an Ordinary Member at RaAM’s EC for two years, my tasks as the official Communications Officer have just started. Due to this, I feel that I have not had the time to develop a full communications plan for the Association as I would like to. I feel I still have a lot to bring to this position, and I would love to have the opportunity to keep on working on this.
Grants Officer	Inés Lozano, Universitat Politècnica de València (Spain)	Lorena Bort-Mir / Kathleen Ahrens	Research grants foster progress and support ideas. Prizes acknowledge and reward excellence. Both types of actions are of great importance to keep scientific progress going. RaAM has for a long time supported these two keystones in research. I consider the duties of the prizes/grants officer to be crucial for the development of cognitive-linguistic oriented research on figurative language. To me, contributing to the RaAM community by organizing RaAM’s Early Career Prize and Research Grant involves building opportunities for development. If elected RaAM’s prizes/grants officer, I would like to add a new section to the official newsletter. This section will include international funding opportunities. Besides my experience applying for funding as a researcher, my experience coordinating international teams for John Benjamins has equipped me with management skills that, I believe, very well suit the tasks of the prizes/grants officer.
Grants Officer	Siaw-Fong Chung, National Chengchi University (Taiwan)	Kathleen Ahrens / Justyna Wawrzyniuk	Before I became the Secretary-General of the Linguistic Society of Taiwan, I served as the Academic Committee in the 10th Executive and Supervisory Board. My job then was to arrange for the reviews of all Master’s and Ph.D. dissertation award applications. Then, from the applications, I had to announce the winners at the annual meeting. Apart from these, I am good at promoting activities, making connections, and reaching out. I could promote the grants and awards sponsored by RaAm in existing and new avenues. I could create an independent web page linked to the RaAm homepage featuring the different grants and awards available, as well as documentation of the previous winners (if I am given such information). I could also make short clips of each winner and display them on the web page (if they agree to do so). I could promote the winners in different ways, which in a way also promoting RaAm.
Postgraduate Liaison	Eloise Parr, University of Birmingham (UK)	Justyna Wawrzyniuk / Lorena Bort-Mir	I am applying for the role of postgraduate liaison as I am keen to be an active participant in RaAM. I have experience of working on committees of linguistics groups, on both a departmental (current rep of PG Tips, @PGTipsUoB, the linguistics postgraduate researcher community at the University of Birmingham) and national (21/22 national committee of the Undergraduate Linguistics Association of Britain) level. These roles have involved working collaboratively on committees to provide a close community for linguistics students. This includes managing social media platforms (including Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, and Discord), providing regular updates to members, and hosting both academic and social online and in-person events. Being able to apply these experiences and skills to the postgraduate liaison role at RaAM feels like a natural progression and will allow me to have a bigger impact on the linguistics community at an international level. I would intend to focus on creating a larger yet closer online community, potentially creating a student-led and managed Discord server for the postgraduate members of RaAM to stay connected throughout the year.
Postgraduate Liaison	Caroline Girardi Ferrari, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil)	Justyna Wawrzyniuk / Lorena Bort-Mir	I am an extrovert, communicative, and cooperative person, and I really like gathering people together, learning about different experiences, and sharing them with the world. These are some of the reasons why I want to take on the role of Postgraduate Liaison. I’m a Brazilian PhD student, and I believe doing research is much better when we have a community of people to exchange ideas. Further, participating on RaAM’s executive committee as a Postgraduate Liaison would be a great opportunity in my career. In this role, I would join all the things that I like: studying metaphors, meeting new people and cultures, and bringing all these people together. As a Brazilian student, being on RaAM’s executive committee would also bring a different perspective to the association. Having a developing country background on RaAM’s executive committee would help to extend RaAM’s reach and also decentralize academic knowledge, reaching different socio-cultural groups.