Conceptualizing multilingualism under globalization: membership claims, social categories and emblems of authenticity

On the 11th and 12th June 2013, the University of Birmingham’s MOSIAC Centre for Research on Multilingualism and the IRiS Institute for Research on Superdiversity hosted a two day BAAL/CUP seminar at the School of Education, University of Birmingham. The seminar was organized in collaboration with the Linguistic Ethnography Forum.

 The objectives of the seminar were to explore recent research which questions the stability of social categories such as language, community, and ethnicity in contexts of globalization and multilingualism. In addition, the seminar provided a forum for individuals to engage in close analysis of identity and membership claims in linguistic interaction. Implications of these discussions for social policy were discussed. 

Speakers 

• Adrian Blackledge and Angela Creese (University of Birmingham);
• Hugh Escott and Kate Pahl (University of Sheffield)
• Kamran Khan (University of Birmingham)
• Michele Koven (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign)
• Adrienne Lo (University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign)
• Ben Rampton (King’s College London)
• Caroline Tagg (University of Birmingham)
• Sabina Vakser (University of Melbourne) 

 Download the report from the BAAL/CUP seminar which includes abstracts from all the speakers (PDF, 255KB).