Ella Hetherington Bostock-Smith

Ella is an MPhil candidate at the Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, supervised by Dr. Florian Grisel. Her research considers how domestic cultural norms may moderate international legal argumentation, focussing on the Norwegian cultural code of Janteloven.

Prior to beginning her MPhil, Ella graduated from the Applied Linguistics department of the University of Warwick, with a First Class BA (Hons) in English Language and Linguistics with an Intercalated Year. This included the completion of over ten original research projects, one of which she presented at the 2024 Annual Conference for the Undergraduate Linguistics Association of Britain.

Her intercalated year was spent studying abroad at the Universitetet i Oslo, which inspired her undergraduate dissertation and her current research. Speaking as Equals: Janteloven and the Discursive Construction of Norwegian Diplomatic Legitimacy at the United Nations (2022-2024) was awarded Best Dissertation 2026 in her academic department, and served as a significant foundation for the research she is currently undertaking. Utilising her skills in discourse and linguistic analysis, Ella continues to build on her undergraduate training and considers International Law as a discursive phenomenon.