From Greenhead to the Frontiers of Linguistics: Alumni Spotlight – Dr. Ben Gibb-Reid

Greenhead College alumnus Dr Ben Gibb-Reid, who attended Salendine Nook High School prior to joining Greenhead, has built an impressive academic career as a Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of York, combining cutting-edge research with inspiring teaching.

His expertise spans phonetics and phonology, linguistics as data science, and forensic phonetics—where speech analysis aids criminal investigations. Currently, Dr Gibb-Reid is researching how knowledge of accents and individual speech patterns can help detect audio deepfake recordings, an urgent challenge at the intersection of linguistics and technology.

Dr Gibb-Reid’s passion for linguistics was ignited at Greenhead College, where he studied English Language A Level alongside Modern History, Government & Politics, and completed an Extended Project Qualification (EPQ). He credits teachers including Maggie Pearson, Jane, Mark Tatum, and Joanna Dongahey with nurturing his academic curiosity, critical thinking, and confidence to pursue higher education.

After leaving Greenhead in 2014, Dr Gibb-Reid attended the University of York, earning a BA in English Language and Linguistics and an MSc in Forensic Speech Science. After a period working in data analytics, he returned to academia to complete a PhD funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, successfully passing his viva in 2024.

Now lecturing, supervising research, and publishing academic work, Dr Gibb-Reid reflects on Greenhead College as the place where he learned to think like an academic—and where his enthusiasm for linguistics first flourished.