Coordinator / Principal Investigator
Angela Creese
University of Warwick
Angela Creese is an experienced researcher and is committed to reflecting on the processes, possibilities, and challenges of co-producing knowledge in team research. She has published widely in journals and books about multilingualism and interaction in linguistically and socially diverse everyday encounters. She has led multiple large research grants, attracting funding from Horizon Europe, AHRC, and ESRC. Angela is the recipient of several international awards and fellowships, including the Helen C. Bailey Award (Alumni) for ‘Outstanding Contribution to Educational Linguistics’ from the University of Pennsylvania, and Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Advanced Research Collaborative, City University of New York. In 2024, she was highly commended in the Times Higher Education Awards for Outstanding Research Supervisor of the Year.
Co-Investigator
Adrian Blackledge
University of Warwick
Adrian Blackledge is Professor of Applied Linguistics. He conducts ethnographic research in the field of language in society, with a particular focus on linguistic diversity and translanguaging. He is developing creative approaches to the articulation of research outcomes. He is the author or editor of 14 books about his research, the latest of which is Essays in Linguistic Ethnography: Ethics, Aesthetics, Encounters (2023, Multilingual Matters), with Angela Creese. His current research project is Strategies to Strengthen European Linguistic Capital in a Globalised World (MultiLX, 2025–2027).
He is a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, and a Distinguished Visiting Fellow, Advanced Research Collaborative, City University of New York. He is a former Poet Laureate for the city of Birmingham, U.K.
ResearchER
Jai Mackenzie
University of Warwick
Jai Mackenzie is an experienced researcher and educator who specialises in innovative approaches to investigating digitally mediated communication. Her research focuses primarily on the ways in which gendered and familial roles, relationships and practices are (re)produced and mediated in a range of contexts.
Jai’s publications include the monographs Language, Gender and Parenthood Online (Routledge, 2019) and Connected Parenting (Bloomsbury, 2023). She is a fellow of the Higher Education Academy, and a former British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow. Jai is a member of the editorial board for Discourse, Context & Media.
Creative Methods Coordinator
RACHEL TURNER-KING
University of Warwick
Rachel Turner-King supports the core research team by designing and facilitating arts-based workshops that foster interdisciplinary dialogue, build trust among researchers, and create innovative spaces for sharing and co-constructing knowledge. These workshops aim to connect academic inquiry with embodied, arts-based practices.
Project Coordinator
Cecilia Paulsson
University of Warwick
Cecilia Paulsson is a Project Coordinator at the University of Warwick, where she oversees the coordination of the MultiLX project. With a background in journalism, and over 20 years’ experience spanning higher education, research, and broadcast media, Cecilia specialises in project management, stakeholder engagement, and research administration.
She has supported major initiatives across sectors including education, technology, AI, climate change, and policy, contributing to institutions such as the University of Oxford, University College London, Imperial College London, Bocconi University, and the University of Toronto. She has a particular interest in communication strategies and research websites, and has contributed to projects aiming to improve their visibility and outreach.
Co-Investigator
Maite Puigdevall Serralvo
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya / Open University of Catalonia
Maite Puigdevall Serralvo (Banyoles, Catalonia, 1972) graduated in Philosophy and Letters (Catalan Philology) from the University of Girona (UdG), Catalonia, in 1995. She completed a Master in Welsh Ethnological Studies at Cardiff University (Wales) in 1997 and earned her PhD in Philosophy from Cardiff University in 2006.
She is a senior lecturer in the Department of Arts and Humanities at the Open University of Catalonia in Barcelona. Her research interests focus on critical sociolinguistics, language planning, and language policy in minority language contexts in Europe, particularly language and identity, language and youth, language and migration, new speakers of minority languages.
Puigdevall has published extensively on these topics. Key works include Neohablantes de lenguas minoritarias en el Estado español (co-edited with Fernando Ramallo and Estibaliz Amorrortu, 2019) and the article with Joan Pujolar, Linguistic “Mudes”. How to Become a New Speaker in Catalonia (2015).
She co-directs the Identi.cat research group, with Alba Colombo, at UOC.
Co-Investigator
Joan Pujolar Cos
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya / Open University of Catalonia
Joan Pujolar i Cos (Olot, 1964) is a Catalan sociolinguist. He graduated in Anglo-Germanic Philology (1987) and Catalan Philology (1988) from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), later earning a Master’s in Language Studies (1991) and a PhD in Linguistics (1995) from Lancaster University, UK.
He is currently a full professor of Sociolinguistics at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). His research focuses on critical sociolinguistics, linguistic identities, and the power dynamics associated with minority languages, particularly Catalan.
Pujolar has published extensively on these topics, with notable works such as Gender, Heteroglossia and Power: A Sociolinguistics of Youth Culture (Mouton, 2001) and the article with Isaac González, Linguistic ‘Mudes’ and the De-Ethnicization of Language Choice in Catalonia (IJBEB, 2012).
He also served as director of the doctoral program in Humanities and Communication at UOC and president of the Catalan Society of Sociolinguistics (2013-2019).
ResearchER
Victor Corona
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya / Open University of Catalonia
Victor Corona is a Mexican researcher and educator based in Barcelona, specializing in linguistic anthropology. He holds a PhD in Language and Literature Teaching from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB). His research focuses on language variation, migration, and racialization, particularly within Latin American communities in Europe.
Victor has taught and conducted research in France (Lyon and Paris), Spain (Catalonia), the United States, and Mexico. His work explores the intersection of language, identity, and power, analyzing how social prestige and stigma influence linguistic practices. His methodology is rooted in ethnographic research, combining participant observation, interviews, and discourse analysis to understand linguistic practices in their social context. He has participated in projects on second language acquisition, linguistic discrimination, and hip-hop studies.
He is currently conducting ethnographic research on the Dominican community in Cayenne, French Guiana, while continuing academic collaborations across different countries.
Co-Investigator
Katharina Brizić
Universität Freiburg / University of Freiburg
Katharina Brizić is a musician, sociolinguist, and professor of multilingualism studies at the University of Freiburg, Germany. She has led research projects funded by STIFTUNG MERCATOR and the Austrian Research Funds FWF. Katharina is the author and editor of ten books, and has written numerous journal articles on multilingualism, education, (forced) migration, language and power, language and trauma, social inequality, social cohesion, and justice, with a particular focus on past and present migrations, and forced displacements.
Her study Multilingual Cities Vienna was the first home language survey in a Central-Eastern European capital, covering all primary schools. Since 2018, she has advised the German Humanitarian Programme for Particularly Vulnerable Refugees from Northern Iraq.
She has received multiple research awards in Germany, Italy, Austria, and the U.S., including two Young Academics Awards for her dissertation The Secret Life of Languages and a Mercator Fellowship for distinguished researchers in fields of public interest.
ResearchER
Belinda Akel
Universität Freiburg / University of Freiburg
Belinda Akel has been a research assistant at the University of Freiburg’s German Studies Department since October 2023. As a researcher and doctoral candidate, she works and teaches in the fields of sociolinguistics and language policy, multilingualism and the acquisition of reading, writing and literacy in German as a second and foreign language. Her academic career includes a B.A. in German Studies and Political Science, as well as a Master’s degree for Education in the same fields. In addition to her work at the university, she is involved in the Freiburg education project “Durchgängige Sprachbildung” (integrated language education) which promotes multilingualism as a resource in education.
Her focus is on the development and implementation of language education concepts to ensure consistent language education in the transition from primary to secondary school, particularly in contexts of migration and social inequalities.
ResearchER
Özgül Bendes
Universität Freiburg / University of Freiburg
Özgül Bendes holds a Master’s degree in Social Pedagogy and has continuously expanded her professional and personal competencies through various roles in education, leadership, and project development. Her journey has been shaped by a deep commitment to multilingualism, diversity, and social equity. She has actively translated her values into practice through the development of bilingual educational structures, the establishment and coordination of multilingual institutions, the design of inclusive educational concepts, and the strategic development of community-based structures. These experiences have equipped her with a profound understanding of intercultural dynamics, pedagogical innovation, and organizational transformation.
Navigating complex, multilingual environments, mediating between stakeholders, and fostering sustainable, diversity-oriented change will be among her core project activities.
ResearchER
Mehdi Jafarzadeh
Universität Freiburg / University of Freiburg
Mehdi Jafarzadeh is a PhD candidate at the University of Freiburg, combining his background in Information Technology with an MA in Kurdish Language and Culture. He voluntarily coordinates the development of Natural Language Processing (NLP) tools for the Kurdish language at the Mesopotamian Foundation in Amed (Turkey), where he focuses on creating digital resources that support language research, revitalization, and accessibility. Additionally, he serves as a member of the Koma Kurmancî (Kurdish Institute of Paris), contributing to vocabulary collection and expansion of the Kurdish dictionary.
His work bridges technological innovation with linguistic preservation, advancing digital resources for underrepresented languages.
ResearchER
Sîdar Bayram Orhan
Universität Freiburg / University of Freiburg
Sîdar Bayram Orhan is a researcher in sociology, cultural anthropology and Kurdish studies. He graduated from Koç University, Department of Philosophy, with honors. Sîdar conducted his MA study in sociology both at Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, and within the pioneering Kurdish Language and Culture programme at Artuklu University, Mardin. With his thesis on Kurdish singer-poets as the epic, often multilingual memory of non-written history, Sîdar contributed to a so far underresearched, yet vital field of interest for memory cultures in our times, based on intense anthropological field work. Alongside his academic research and three years of professional work experience at UNHCR, Sîdar is also involved in cinema and film production and has worked as a moderator, organizer and jury member in film projects and festivals.
Sîdar is currently studying for his second MA degree in sociology at Free University Berlin, Germany.
ResearchER
Uğur Sermiyan
Universität Freiburg / University of Freiburg
Uğur Sermiyan holds a master’s degree in Kurdish Language and Culture from Mardin Artuklu University and is currently pursuing a second MA in General Linguistics at the University of Bamberg. He is also a poet who writes in Zazaki and has been teaching the language for over eight years, both in-person and online. In addition, he works professionally as a Zazaki translator, editor, and proofreader. For the past decade, Ugur has been an active member of Grûba Xebate ya Vateyî (Vate Working Group), which has worked for over thirty years to document, preserve, and develop the Zazaki language. The group’s main activities include compiling dictionaries, publishing Vate—a seasonal journal entirely in Zazaki—and organizing biannual workshops to establish a standardized writing system and grammar.
Co-Investigator
Bernadette O’Rourke
Oilthigh Ghlaschu / University of Glasgow
Bernadette O’Rourke is Professor of Sociolinguistics and Hispanic Studies in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Glasgow. Her research sits within the broad area of sociolinguistics and the sociology of language and focuses on the political and social meanings of language and their influence on society. She is particularly interested in the dynamics of multilingual societies, language revitalisation in minoritized languages, ethnography of resistance, language ideologies and language activism. She has examined these dynamics across a range of fieldwork sites and language contexts including Galician (northern Spain), Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Faroese.
She was Chair of the EU COST Action IS1306 entitled New Speakers in a Multilingual Europe: Opportunities and Challenges (2013 – 2017). Co-authored publications include New Speakers of Irish in the Global Context: New revival? (Routledge 2020) and the Palgrave Handbook of Minority Languages and Communities (Palgrave 2019). She leads interdisciplinary collaborations which bring together language-based researchers, urban analysts, engineers and software developers to explore the geospatial dynamics of urban multilingualism and the integration of AI and geospatial technologies to support this.
ResearchER
Lu Byrne
Oilthigh Ghlaschu / University of Glasgow
Lu Byrne is a PhD student and Graduate Teaching Assistant at the University of Glasgow. They graduated with an MA in Spanish and French (2024) and an MRes in Modern Languages, centring on Spanish Sociolinguistics (2025). Their doctoral research focuses on the politics of language and linguistic hierarchies in multilingual states, with a particular emphasis on the Spanish context.
They draw on material from several fields in their work (e.g. sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, and political science), using both top-down and bottom-up approaches to connect political framings of language with the lived experiences of speakers. They use Critical Discourse Analysis to examine how Galician, Basque, and Catalan are represented in political, media, and institutional discourse, and complement this with ethnographic research among young, university-aged speakers. This dual perspective traces how language is discursively framed by political actors and how these framings shape the language ideologies and everyday practices of young people in multilingual Spain.
ResearchER
Paula Teixeira Moláns
Oilthigh Ghlaschu / University of Glasgow
Paula Teixeira Moláns is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Glasgow.
As a linguist, she specialises in Colour Semantics, Sociolinguistics, and Minority Languages. Her doctoral thesis explored the Colour Semantics of Galician through extensive fieldwork with two generations of speakers: elderly and young adults. This study found shocking contrasts between the two age groups derived from language contact with Spanish.
She has been a guest lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Glasgow and the University of Tallinn. Through the years, she has taught Galician to international students extensively, first at University College Cork and then as a private online teacher to a range of students across the globe. In 2019, she organised an international conference called Linguistic Diversity: Celebrating Difference, which gathered academics and activists representing 17 world languages including Basque, Breton, Catalan, Galician, Irish, Ndowé, and Ndebele.
Co-Investigator
Sari Pietikäinen
Jyväskylän yliopisto / University of Jyväskylä
Sari Pietikäinen is a Professor of Discourse Studies at the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. Her research interests include critical assemblage analysis of climate change in the Arctic, the power of discourse in revaluing natural resources, and the politics of language and identity.
Applying multiple approaches, including assemblage ontology, nexus analysis, critical discourse analysis, and ethnography, she has led several international research projects examining shifts in ecological, political, and cultural discourses and practices in the warming Arctic. In collaboration with stakeholders, she has developed various knowledge designs, such as science postcards, collaborative photography exhibitions, and art-based conversation pieces, to engage diverse audiences in discussing research findings.
Co-Investigator
Helen Kelly-Holmes
Ollscoil Luimnigh / University of Limerick
Helen Kelly-Holmes holds the Chair in Applied Languages in the School of Modern Languages and Applied Linguistics, Ollscoil Luimnigh / University of Limerick, and is an active member of the Centre for Applied Language Studies (CALS), having previously served as Director of the Centre. Her research concerns sociolinguistics, the study of language in society, and focuses on the interrelationship between media, markets, technologies, and languages, with a focus on the management of these relationships. She is particularly interested in the economic aspects of multilingualism, especially in relation to minority languages, language policy, and the global political economy of English, and has published widely on these topics.
ResearchER
Mark Ryan
Ollscoil Luimnigh / University of Limerick
Mark Ryan is a research assistant and lecturer in applied linguistics in the School of Modern Languages and Applied Linguistics at the University of Limerick, Ireland. Mark’s doctoral research lies in the field of queer linguistics and focuses on the linguistic and semiotic processes involved in the construction of minoritised identities across mediated discourse contexts. In particular Mark is interested in the application of a queer utopian lens to such contexts. Mark also has a keen interest in the internationalisation of higher education, both at a theoretical and policy level, and aims to integrate his expertise in equality, diversity and, inclusion into this field. As such, he has collaborated on projects in a number of multi-disciplinary consortia aimed at fostering social cohesion through policy interventions. Mark has spoken about his research at international conferences at the University of Hong Kong and the University of Helsinki and has also worked at the Directorate of Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion at Technological University Dublin, where he held a post as Senior Research Assistant.
Co-Investigator
Edina Krompák
Pädagogische Hochschule Luzern / University of Teacher Education Lucerne
Edina Krompák is Professor of Educational Sciences and Head of the Institute of Language Learning and Teaching and Educational Linguistics at the University of Teacher Education Lucerne, Switzerland.
Her current research interests are the relationship between linguistic landscape and educational spaces, the exploration of language and identity, translanguaging, and multimodality in language learning and teaching. Her research and teaching delve into multidisciplinary topics from educational science, educational linguistics, and linguistic ethnography.
She is a co-editor of the books Linguistic Landscapes and Educational Spaces (2022, Multilingual Matters), Language and Space. Multilingualism in Educational Research and in School (2022, hep), and Educational Agency and Activism in Linguistic Landscape Studies (2024, Peter Lang).
ResearchER
Lindita Bakii
Pädagogische Hochschule Luzern / University of Teacher Education Lucerne
Lindita Bakii is a research associate at the Institute of Language Learning and Teaching and Educational Linguistics at the University of Teacher Education Lucerne (PH Luzern). She holds a Master’s in Foreign Language Teaching and Learning from the University of Fribourg (CH) and a Bachelor’s in Pre-Primary and Primary Education. With over ten years of teaching experience, she has also contributed to teacher training, especially in the didactics of French. More recently, she has been teaching German as a Foreign Language, with a particular focus on legal language, at the University of Fribourg (CH).
Her research interests include sociolinguistics, especially language and power, language and migration, multilingualism in schools, diglossia and language and digitalization.
ResearchER
pascal schmidt
Pädagogische Hochschule Luzern / University of Teacher Education Lucerne
Pascal Schmidt is currently studying at the Institute of Educational Sciences at the University of Basel, where he is pursuing a Master’s degree in Sport Didactics. He is in his second semester and teaches at a primary school in Basel alongside his academic work. He grew up in a small mountain village in the Engadine region of Switzerland and is a native speaker of Romansh, a heritage he proudly acknowledges. He holds a teaching degree from the University of Teacher Education in Chur and has a strong interest in the intersection of educational practice and subject-specific pedagogy.
ResearchER
Clara Seitz
Pädagogische Hochschule Luzern / University of Teacher Education Lucerne
Clara Seitz is a primary school teacher with an academic background in language and education. She studied Italian and German at the University of Zurich, followed by a bilingual teacher training program (Italian-German) in Chur. Her teaching career began in Bern and continued in Ticino, where she held a full-time position as a primary school teacher. She currently works at an Italian-German bilingual school in Basel, where she contributes to multilingual and intercultural education through her teaching in German.
Alongside her professional role, she is pursuing a Master’s degree in Educational Sciences, with a focus on educational theory and research. She is committed to creating inclusive, language-rich classrooms and connecting educational theory with everyday teaching.
Researcher
Victoria Wasner
Pädagogische Hochschule Luzern / University of Teacher Education Lucerne
Victoria Wasner graduated in German and Russian from The University of Sheffield, UK (2000), before becoming a secondary school languages teacher. She completed an MA in Learning and Teaching (2008) at Nottingham University, with a focus on intercultural awareness in language education, and earned her Doctor of Education at Durham University (2019), whilst teaching at an international school in Switzerland.
She is currently a researcher at the Institute of Language Learning and Teaching and Educational Linguistics at the University of Teacher Education, Lucerne. She is also a lecturer in English language teaching methodology in the department of foreign languages at the University of Teacher Education, Thurgau, and is an associate lecturer in intercultural competence at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.
Her research interests and expertise lie in participatory methods and approaches, critical, transformative, and intercultural frameworks, and sociolinguistics and language education.
Co-Investigator
Pia Lane
Universitetet i Oslo / University of Oslo
Pia Lane is Professor of Multilingualism in the Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies at the University of Oslo, coordinator of the Centre for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan (MultiLing), and PI of the project Indigenous Language Resilience: From Learners to Speakers (with Professor Haley De Korne). Her research centres on multilingualism in Northern Norway, focusing on language policy, language shift, and revitalisation, particularly concerning Indigenous and minoritised languages in her home community.
She is the 2024 recipient of the Nansen Award for Excellence in Science. Her publications include From Silence to Silencing? Contradictions and Tensions in Language Revitalization (Applied Linguistics), Standardizing Minority Languages (Routledge, co-edited with James Costa and Haley De Korne, 2017), and Negotiating Identities in Nordic Migrant Narratives (Palgrave, co-edited with Bjørghild Kjelsvik and Annika Bøstein Myhr, 2022). She is co-editor-in-chief of LME Linguistic Minorities in Europe Online (De Gruyter).
Pia Lane has served on the Norwegian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2018-2023).
ResearchER
Vida Colliander
Universitetet i Oslo / University of Oslo
Vida Colliander is a student in the Multilingualism Master’s Programme at the University of Oslo, pursuing her second Master’s degree after completing an MA in Intercultural Encounters at the University of Helsinki. Today, she navigates her life primarily in Norwegian and English, but she grew up bilingual in Finnish and Swedish.
Her professional background includes various roles in the educational sector across Norway, Finland, and India. Additionally, she has contributed to NGOs working with intercultural youth and integration. She also has experience working with public administration and migration in Helsinki. Her interest in national minorities deepened during her internship at the Finnish-Norwegian Cultural Institute, where she gained a greater understanding of the diversity of art and culture in Northern Norway.
Her research interests include sociolinguistics, language and identity, minority languages, ethnography, and decolonial studies.
ResearchER
M Seppola Simonsen
Universitetet i Oslo / University of Oslo
M. Seppola Simonsen holds a MPhil in development, environment and cultural change from The University of Oslo, and is currently working at the university as research assistant. Their research interests include applied linguistics and political ecology, as well as indigenous and minority studies.
M is also a poet, and has published several poetry collections, winning multiple awards for their writing.
Co-Investigator
Gerardo Mazzaferro
Università di Torino / University of Turin
Gerardo Mazzaferro is a Senior Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at the Department of Foreign Languages, Literatures, and Modern Cultures at the University of Turin, where he has been teaching since 2004.
His academic expertise lies in sociolinguistics, with a particular focus on translanguaging, forced mobility, linguistic identities, and communicative practices in migration contexts. Over the years, he has been deeply involved in research exploring how language operates as a resource for negotiating identity, agency, and power in diverse and often challenging socio-political environments.
Dr. Mazzaferro has been the Principal Investigator for several high-profile European and national research initiatives, including the NEW ABC project, which aims to explore innovative educational practices for fostering inclusivity among migrant communities.
His contributions to the field have been widely recognised. Among his works are Exploring (Im)mobilities: Language Practices, Discourses, Imaginaries and Narratives (co-edited with Anna De Fina) and Translanguaging as Everyday Practice. He has also organised and participated in numerous conferences and workshops on language and migration studies.
ResearchER
Marta Lupica Spagnolo
Università di Torino / University of Turin
Marta Lupica Spagnolo is a postdoctoral researcher and lecturer at the Universities of Turin (Italy) and Potsdam (Germany).
Her doctoral research focused on the language biographies of people who moved from former Yugoslavian countries to trilingual South Tyrol. For her habilitation project at the University of Potsdam, she is investigating the sociolinguistic and linguistic features of Italian-based multilingual practices spoken by street vendors in a Berlin park after transit through Italy. She has also collaborated on research projects at the Universities of Basel and Milano-Bicocca.
Her research interests range from multilingualism and contact linguistics to second language acquisition, narrative analysis, language planning and nation building.
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