I studied English Philology at the University of Murcia (1980-1986) where I finished my PhD in 1990 with a dissertation on the literary uses of dialect and sociolect in D.H. Lawrence’s early short fiction (1990). I have been teaching at the University of Murcia since 1987; I got a tenured position in 1994 (Associate Professor) and became Full Professor in 2008. I have mainly lectured on Medieval English Literature, Old English and the History of the English Language (Middle English, Early and Late Modern English), as well as a number of courses for postgraduate students on Beowulf, the Old English Elegies, the History of English and Research Methods in (Socio)Historical Linguistics. I have been Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Manchester (where I spent the academic year 1992), at the Centre for Medieval Studies at Toronto University (from May to September 2019) and at the Angus McIntosh Centre for Historical Linguistics at the University of Edinburgh (September-October 2022), I have also been visiting scholar and lecturer at several Spanish and British universities (Sevilla, León, Oviedo, Vigo, Málaga, Jaén, Castellón, Exeter, Essex and Chester). My main research interests are Historical Sociolinguistics, the History of the English Language (mainly Middle English dialectology) and Old English literature (see research projects and publication record under “Investigación” below)
I have been actively involved in the diffusion of Medieval English Studies in Spain as a member of SELIM (the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature). I was Executive Director of the society between 2002 and 2008, and Chair from 2008 to 2012 and from 2014 to 2018. In October 2003, I organised the 15th Conference of the society in Murcia; twenty years later (September 2023) I have organised the 33rd edition also at the University of Murcia. I have also organised the 8th International Conference on Middle English (ICOME) from 2-4 May 2013 and have coorganised the Sociolinguistic Symposium 21 (15-19 June 2016) and the 2022 edition of the Historical Sociolinguistics Network (HiSoN) (1-3 June 2022). I am a member of the advisory board of the following journals: International Journal of English Studies (U. Murcia), Selim. Journal of the Spanish Society for Mediaeval English Language and Literature, Cuadernos de Turismo (U. Murcia), Miscelanea. A Journal of English and American Studies (U. Zaragoza), Labor Historico (U. Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brasil). I have also acted as external advisor for the panels “Historical linguistics” and “Medieval and Renaissance Studies” of AEDEAN conferences, for Servicio de Publicaciones de la Universidad de Vigo, for the Swiss National Science Foundation, for Cambridge University Press and for the journals Myrtia, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, Estudios Románicos, Neuphilologische Mitteilungen, Studia Anglica Posnaniensia, Studia Neophilologica, etc. In 2015 I was appointed as General Editor of Atlantis. Journal of the Spanish Association of Anglo-american Studies (ISSN: 0210-6124 / e-ISSN 1989-6849). The journal is indexed in the Arts and Humanities Citation Index/JCR, ERIHPlus and Scopus, and has the Quality Seal for Excellence in Academic Journals awarded by the Spanish Foundation for Sciencia and Technology (FECYT) (see www.atlantisjournal.org). My job as editor finished in December 2018, with eight volumes published. From 2018, I am coeditor (with Dr. Javier Calle) of the series Middle and Early Modern English Texts published by Peter Lang.
I was Head of the English Department at the University of Murcia between 1997-1999 and again between 2008 and 2010. I have also coordinated the Department’s Postgraduate programmes (1996-1997 and 2001-2006) and the implementation of the new syllabus of the degree in English Studies (2007-2016). From 2004 to 2008 I acted as Head of the Postgraduate Committee (Arts and Humanities) at the University of Murcia.
I have been awarded six “quinquenios docentes” (1986-2016) by the University of Murcia and five “tramos de investigación” by CNEAI (1989-1994, 1995-2001, 2002-2007, 2008-2013 and 2014-2019),