Languages, Literatures, & Cultures

I am a Postdoctoral Researcher in the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures (Italian), based at the Moore Institute at the University of Galway. I am working on the VICO project - Rural Villages, Migration, and Intercultural Communication, which is a sociolinguistic study of migration in rural areas (led by Dr Andrea Ciribuco). The project works with rural communities in Ireland to understand how different languages and cultures coexist in these environments, investigating the obstacles and opportunities for intercultural communication in rural areas. The ethnographic-based research will investigate how intercultural communication emerges and will explore links between migration and rural development through focus groups and participatory research.

My academic background is in sociolinguistics and my research focuses on multilingual and multimodal communicative practices, repertoires and mobility. I am particularly interested in collaborative research approaches, especially citizen sociolinguistics, that is engaging non-professional participants as co-researchers of their own sociolinguistic practices.

Before joining the University of Galway in January 2023, I was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan, University of Oslo, where I retain an affiliation as a guest researcher. From 2020-2022, I studied youth language practices in Oslo using citizen sociolinguistic methods. I gained my PhD from SOAS University of London (2019), during which I researched multilingual practices in a rural village in Senegal. I have given guest lectures and workshops at numerous universities internationally including the University of Oslo, INALCO Paris, and the University of Leeds. I am particularly interested in the relationship between language and space and multimodal communicative practices. I have extensive experience with outreach activities and have run workshops on linguistic diversity and multilingualism with schools and in museums. My (co-authored) research has been published in edited volumes, handbooks, and journals such as the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism.

My recent publications include: