Dr Nicola Bermingham is a UKRI Policy Fellow hosted by the Wales Centre for Public Policy and Senior Lecturer in Hispanic Studies at the University of Liverpool. She is a sociolinguist specialising in language policy in education, exploring how language shapes access to equitable education, with a particular focus on Spain and Cape Verde.
Through her UKRI Policy Fellowship, Nicola is working with the Wales Centre for Public Policy and the UK What Works Network to explore new approaches to understanding and evidencing the impact of knowledge brokering on policy and practice. Using participatory action research methods, the project develops and pilots innovative tools aimed at improving the impact of What Works Centres.
Nicola is also Principal Investigator of the British Academy–funded project Monolingual Schools in Multilingual Societies: Rethinking Language and Education in Cape Verde (2023–2025). Her editorial roles include Editor of the Modern Languages Open Linguistics section and Assistant Editor of the Bulletin of Hispanic Studies. She has previously served as Chair of the International Association for the Study of Spanish in Society (2019-2023) and is a member of the AHRC Peer Review College.