Linguist Amanda Cole urges openness about Tourette’s after Baftas controversy

Amanda Cole has shifted from concealing her Tourette’s to arguing publicly that people should be able to “tic freely” without embarrassment. The linguist said Tourette’s should not be treated as something that ruins a person’s life, using her own experience after the Baftas controversy to push back against stigma and the idea that visible tics must be hidden.

Cole’s academic profile places her inside one of the UK’s most recognizable research institutions. Cambridge Language Sciences lists her as Dr Amanda Cole, and the University of Cambridge’s Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics has a people page for her. Separate Cambridge listings also link her with the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics and the Cambridge Language Sciences network, underscoring that her public comments come from a researcher whose work sits within language and social difference.

Her academic footprint extends beyond a single profile page. Google Scholar search results for Amanda Cole show 185 citations overall and 173 since 2021, a sign of sustained output in the years since her work began drawing wider attention. She has also been connected with The Accentism Project, which says it is championing accent equality and is led by sociolinguists researching linguistic discrimination. That connection fits the broader theme of Cole’s work: language, identity and the social penalties people face when they do not sound or behave as others expect.

Cole’s message also lands in a wider public discussion of Tourette syndrome, which remains a subject of stigma and misunderstanding. The Conversation maintains a topic page devoted to Tourette Syndrome, reflecting continuing academic and public interest in the condition. Cole’s intervention adds a lived perspective to that conversation, treating tics not as a reason for shame but as something schools, workplaces and public settings should make space for without ridicule or self-censorship.

She has also appeared in audio discussion of language research, including a 2023 episode titled Kingsley Ugwuanyi + Amanda Cole - Episode 44. Across her teaching, research and public writing, Cole is making the same case: visibility need not mean embarrassment, and Tourette’s should not force people to hide in plain sight.