CfP Special Issue "Imagining Communities, Multilingually"

2020

Languages have various phrases, frozen or not, to express identity, whether we speak about national, social, ethnic or professional identity. Those phrases reflect the general opinion and view on events, facts, communities or behaviour which are currently attributed to a certain group of people. Of all marks of national identity, language is the one that can be easily transferred, borrowed or willingly transmitted around for the purpose of reaching several communities and unifying them. Human intelligence and inventiveness have just created the tool to achieve this purpose: mass media. We intend to analyze how two television channels, TV 5 Monde and BBC International, reflect French and British values among French and English speakers around the world throughout their programmes. The two channels have similar contents and they both reflect the way national identity is confronted with international identity. Two programmes are particularly interesting from this point of view, Kiosque, on TV5 Monde and Dateline, on BBC International, because they gather journalists of various nationalities who discuss international issues. The journalists invited as guests on a television programme have a very good knowledge of French and English but they do not give up, forget or deny their national origin. Some of their words or phrases betray their ethnic origin or their national belonging, as well as their political convictions. They are, at the same time, representatives of a nation, but they are also citizens of the world and they are determined to make their voice heard. Their voice and their words are the expression of their identity.

[Excerpted from Introduction]: In this chapter I review research on multilingualism in societies and communities from a sociolinguistic perspective and provide examples of some recent studies and trends. Among the themes to be discussed, such as language shift, language policies, and language use in media, I foreground studies examining multilingualism in various linguistic landscapes and virtual/online spaces, reflecting the large amount of research on these topics at present and their social significance. I then describe the research methodologies that have been use and gaps in current work, before concluding the chapter.

The Trans/National Study of Culture: A Translational Approach Ed. by Doris Bachmann-Medick/Ansgar Nünning/Martin Zierold. (Concepts for the Study of Culture). Berlin: de Gruyter 2013., 2013

A recent collection of essays on transnational literary studies asserts: "the interrogation of national narratives characteristic of transnational studies entails the putting forth of a different set of coordinates whereby to understand global configurations." (Frassinelli, Frenkel and Watson 2011, 6) Taking our cue from this statement, the "coordinates" that we would like to advance here amount to a single word: indeterminacy. To convey what is meant by this word, it might be helpful at the outset to distinguish it from the concern of those preoccupied with tracking what has been described as "the massive economic and political diaspora of the modern world" (Bhabha 1994, 8). Although migration is intrinsically related to the indeterminacy of people(s) and language(s), it is not an exhaustive condition-particularly with regard to language. It is also crucially important to remember that the modern forms of diaspora occur within the context of the historically--dominant form of social homogenization specific to the modern period-the nation--State. Our understanding of the nation--State follows the description provided by Bruno Latour as he speaks about the work of the modern, which creates new forms of separation (for our purposes, nation--States) and then conceals those fictive productions behind naturalizing narratives (Latour 1993). The themes of "hybridity" and "diaspora" are as much a part of those naturalizing narratives as those of origin and purity. Although transnationalism does indeed ask us to look beyond the separations instituted by the ideology of nationalism, the narratives of "massive diaspora" and "overlapping histories" that are used to justify such moves may in fact serve to naturalize those separations-not just in the past, but, perhaps most importantly, through the terms of cultural comparison. Hence, by remembering the indeterminacy of people(s) and language(s), we are being called upon to develop not just a non--national understanding of the present conjuncture, but also a non-national, non--normative, and finally non--anthropological understanding of the past as well as the present and the future. What we intend here is a critique not just of national narratives, but a critique of the fundamental assumptions about Solomon 2 human collectivity (species--being) and knowledge that have sustained the normativity of the nationalist project in all its forms. It is a critique that must be pursued on several levels at once: Philosophically, it means a critique of hylomorphic ontology; epistemologically, it means a complete reorganization of the disciplinary divisions of the humanities; politically, it means a critique of the ways in which anthropological difference is posited and mobilized in the name of population management for the benefit of capital accumulation (i.e., a critique of the state--form). The changes thus envisioned take us so far away from the national, it would really be better to place them under a non--national, rather than simply trans--national, heading. Otherwise, it is quite likely that our critique would simply serve the interests of the current 'great transformation' from an international system (based on nation--States) of industrial capitalism to a transnational system (based on a global--State) of cognitive capitalism.

Book review: Multilingualism, (Im)mobilities and Spaces of Belonging, Horner, Kristine and Dailey-O’Cain, Jennifer (Eds.). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. Journal of Sociolinguistics. 2020 (0): 1-6, 2020

International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 2018

TESOL Quarterly, 2013

Medina, R., Ramírez, M., & Clavijo, C.(2015). Reading the community critically in the digital age: a multiliteracies approach. In P. Chamness Miller., Mantero. M, & Hendo. H (Eds). ISLS Readings in Language Studies: Vol. 5. A Critical Examination of Language and Society (pp. 45-66). Grandville, MI: International Society for Language Studies Inc. Full paper at request due to copyright.

In this article, I present and discuss a commemorative book project to mark the fortieth anniversary of the Greek School of Lausanne. I examine the continuities and discontinuities of the notions of language, identity and community as these were represented through the voices of former Greek state officials, teachers and pupils. I take a long view, combining archival material with interviews and written accounts spanning the first twenty years of the establishment and development of the school. Finally, I tentatively reflect on how the book project might have impacted on the Greek community of Lausanne and its school in a period of transition.

Language Policy, 2021