Angela Zottola is a Researcher in English Language and Linguistics at the University of Turin (Italy). She received her PhD in Mind, Gender & Language – Language, Linguistics and ESP from the University of Napoli Federico II. Before joining the University of Turin, she was a Research Fellow at the University of Nottingham (UK) and at Lancaster University (UK), and a Teaching Fellow at Aston University (UK). Her research interests include (Critical) Discourse Analysis, Corpus Linguistics, Ecolinguistics and Queer Linguistics applied to the investigation of the traditional and new media, including mainly newspapers in different languages and social media platforms such as Twitter. She is a member of the Italian Association of English Studies (AIA), the Inter-University Research Center on Metaphors (CIRM) and the Inter-University Research Center on Identity, Language and Diversity (I-LanD). She currently sits on the board of the International Gender and Language Association (IGALA) and is a member of the Advisory Board of the CADAAD Journal. Among her most recent publications is LGBTQ+ and Feminist Digital Activism. A Linguistic Perspective published by Cambridge University Press.

Giuseppe Balirano, PhD in English Linguistics, is Professor of English Linguistics and Translation at the University of Naples L’Orientale, where he is also the current Director of the University Language Centre (CLAOR) and Rector’s Delegate for Lifelong Learning, E-learning and Multimedia Enhancement. He is the President of the Italian Association for the Study of English (AIA). He is also the Director of the monitoring group on hate speech online at the University of Naples L’Orientale and Principal Investigator (PI) of the PRIN 2022 Project admitted for national funding titled “ECHOES. English studies to Contrast Hate Online and Enhance Solidarity”. He is the BeTwiXt series director, publishing original monographs in the field of linguistics and communication studies. His research interests and publications lie in the fields of multimodal critical discourse studies, humour, masculinity and queer studies, the discursive representation of organised crime and audio-visual translation. His most recent publications include: The Rainbow Conspiracy: A Corpus-Based Social Media Analysis of Anti-LGBTIQ+ Rhetoric in Digital Landscapes (2024, with B. Hughes); Re-Defining Gender, Sexuality, and Discourse in the Global Rise of Right-Wing Extremism (2021, co-edited with R. Borba); Homing in on Hate: Critical Discourse Studies of Hate Speech, Discrimination and Inequality in the Digital Age (2020, co-edited with B. Hughes).

Jai Mackenzie is a Senior Lecturer in Applied Writing and Humanities at Birmingham Newman University. Her research focuses primarily on the ways in which gendered, sexual and familial roles, relationships and practices are (re)produced and mediated in a range of contexts. She has undertaken a range of collaborative and single-authored research in this area, and her publications include the monographs Language, Gender and Parenthood Online (Routledge, 2019) and Connected Parenting (Bloomsbury, 2023). Jai is convenor of the Language, Gender and Sexuality special interest group, which sits within the British Association for Applied Linguistics. She is a member of the editorial board for Discourse, Context and Media.