She is currently an honorary reader in gender and discourse at the Department of Linguistics and English Language of Lancaster University, United Kingdom.
Between 2000 and 2012 Sunderland was the director of studies of the PhD in applied linguistics by thesis and coursework at Lancaster University.
[2] On 27 November 2006, Sunderland's analysis on whether women talk more than men appeared on The Guardian.
Sunderland's analysis found that there were no substantial differences between the amount of words that both genders used during one day.
[5] In 2007 Sunderland received the National Teaching Fellow award for her work in initiating developing and running the PhD in applied linguistics by thesis and coursework and New Route PhD in applied linguistics programmes.