Panel Description:

Language and mobility are almost inseparable. On the one hand, changes in language use are often initiated by socially and/or geographically mobile speaker groups. On the other hand, the mobility of language users is almost always reflected by and in the mobility of the language itself. On an overarching level, this means that languages are “turning up in unexpected places [...] [and] taking unexpected forms” (Heller 2007: 343), such as in the case of New Englishes, where new varieties develop due to contact between speakers of different languages who need to interact with each other. On a social level, speaking the ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ language can enable or prevent upward social mobility (cf. Iversen et al. 2017 for an overview), which might even result in speakers abandoning local or heritage languages in favour of a variety which is perceived as more prestigious. Regarding geographical mobility, English functions as a global lingua franca and might make learning another local foreign language obsolete – especially, when the language is used as a tool for achieving locational freedom and mobility rather than social or cultural belonging (see, e.g., Szczepaniak-Kozak et al. 2022). Many highly mobile professionals, such as digital nomads or travel bloggers and writers rely almost exclusively on English rather than a local language when abroad (e.g. Luzón 2016).

In tourism contexts and travel writing, experiences are planned, described, and processed through language; (lacking) proficiency in a local language – or rather an insufficient local use of English – might even result in replanning or not travelling. Consequently, while local languages appear to be learnt decreasingly often, local and international speakers’ motivation to acquire English in addition to their first language(s) is strongly increasing (e.g. Meierkord 2020 on English usage in the Maldives). While language might enable contact between different social and cultural groups, it might also be altered by it. Thus, the mobility of diasporic communities is reflected in their way of using language.

Language and mobility share a linguistic, social, and cultural connection. Researching these connections and the varying and ever-changing influence within their interrelation unites scholars in linguistics, literature, and cultural studies. This panel aims at bringing together scholars from different fields to shed light on the multiplicity of relations between language and mobility. We invite contributions related (but not limited) to New Englishes, diasporic communities, language in tourism, language and immobility, grassroots multilingualism, travel writing, colonial writing, narratives of mobility, language and social/professional mobility, and identity construction in touristic spaces.

References:

Heller, M. (2007). The future of ‘bilingualism’. In M. Heller (ed.) Bilingualism: A Social Approach (pp. 340–345). New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

Iversen, V., A. Krishna, & K. Sen (2017). Beyond poverty escapes – social mobility in the Global South: A survey article. Global Development Institute Working Paper Series, 2017-017, 1–29.

Luzón, M.-J. (2016). Features of ELF interactions in travel blogs: Travelers doing interactional work. Ibérica 31: 127–148.

Meierkord, C. (2020). Spread of English at the grassroots? Sociolinguistic evidence from two post-protectorates: Maldives and Uganda. In A. Kirkpatrick (ed.) The Routledge Handbook of World Englishes (pp. 233–249). London: Routledge.

Szczepaniak-Kozak, A., E. Wąsikiewicz-Firlej, & H. Lankiewicz (2022). Global English versus local language during a sojourn abroad: A narrative study. Journal of Intercultural Communication, 22(2): 53–63. https://doi.org/10.36923/jicc.v22i2.58

Part 1:

• 11:30-11:45 Welcome 
• 11:45-12:15 Elisabeth Reber (Universität Hildesheim): “Language, mobility, and practices of address in legal discourse”
• 12:15-12:45 Matthias Klumm (Universität Augsburg): “Negotiating prestige and identity through language: An empirical analysis of the use of nominal address by socially mobile speakers in Jamaica”

Part 2: 

• 14:00-14:30 Dominik Schoppa (Universität Augsburg): “Mobility, migrants, and expatriates in postcolonial megacities: Identity construction and methodological challenges at the interface of New Englishes and urban linguistics”
• 14:30-15:00 Teresa Pham (Universität Vechta): “I wish we lived here; would be here every week!” – Spatial language in online travel reviews”
• 15:00-15:30 Patricia Ronan (Technische Universität Dortmund): “Visualising linguistic mobility – the case of a Dublin City linguistic landscape”

Part 3:

• 15:00-15:30 Anika Gerfer (Universität Münster): “The mobility of Jamaican Creole: Language use in global reggae and dancehall music”
• 15:30-16:00 Markus Freudinger (Universität Paderborn): “About Herbert, yass queen and Powerhäuser. Language and Mobility on Drag Race Germany”
• 16:00-16:30 Panel Discussion 

• Marti Aldrup (University of Potsdam): "Language and the body: Requests for reconfirmation as multimodal gestalts"
• Marina Reis de Souza (University of Hildesheim): "Multimodality and topic management: so-prefaced questions"
• Stefan Diemer (Trier University of Applied Sciences): "Embodied lexis (and grammar?) – Showings in video-mediated conversations"
• Maximiliane Frobenius (Münster University): "Lexico-grammatical units in multi-modal taste assessments"
• Cornelia Gerhard (Saarland University): "Showing in interaction"

• Allen, Martina (Goethe University Frankfurt): Feeling with the Castaway: "Affect, Immersion and Narrative Misdirection in William Golding’s Pincher Martin and Yann Martel’s Life of Pi"
• Bauer, Gero (University of Tübingen): "Revisiting the ‘Fleshly School’: Genre and Affect in Pre-Raphaelitism and Its Legacy"
• Bayerlipp, Susanne (Goethe University Frankfurt): "Aversion, Adjustment, and Genre in The Merchant of Venice"
• Haekel, Ralf (University of Leipzig): "Affect and Genre in Romantic Drama: Joanna Baillie's Plays of the Passion"
• Hartl, Anja (University of Konstanz): "The Politics of Feeling in the Condition-of-England Novel: Shame in Elizabeth Gaskell's North and South"
• Leetsch, Jennifer (Bonn Center for Dependency and Slavery Studies): "Affect, Genre, and the Slave Narrative: Archives of Feeling in The History of Mary Prince"
• Riedelsheimer, Martin (University of Augsburg): "Metaphysical Poetry: Affect, Form, Genre"
• Wegener, Sarah (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz): “'And my heart throbs thick with fear': Forms of Phobia and Uncanny Affect in Rosamund Marriott Watson’s Gothic Poetics"
• Wong, Denise (Queen Mary University of London): "Disaffection and You-Narration in Tsitsi Dangarembga’s Tambudzai Trilogy (1988–2018)"

• Julia Ditter (University of Freiburg): "Beyond the Caledonian Antisyzygy: Scottish Studies for the Future"
• Leonie Jungen (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz): "To 'lead back the memory of any wandering son of Scotland' – Nomadism and Historical Futurities in Christian Isobel Johnstone’s Clan-Albin: A National Tale (1815)"
• Gero Guttzeit (Luwig Maximilians University Munich): "In Search of Lost Futures? Stevenson and the Gothic Temporalities of Scottish Nationhood"

• Joachim Frenk (Saarland University): “Yesterday’s Men and Present Scottish Futures: Ian Rankin’s A Heart Full of Headstones and Irvine Welsh’s The Long Knives”
• Ann-Christin Herbold (University of Kassel): "Something Old, Something New, Something Blue: Imaginations of Scotland’s Future in Ian Rankin’s Rebus Novels"
• Silvia Mergenthal (University of Konstanz): "From Body Politic to Impolitic Corpses: Paul Johnston's Dystopian Crime Fiction"

• Wolfgang Funk (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz): “Ovid in Inverness: The Metamorphosis of Scottish Myths in Ali Smith’s Girl Meets Boy”
• Monika Class (Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz): "'Children are our future': The Queer Child in Douglas Stuart’s Scottish Futurities in Shuggie Bain"
• Dietmar Böhnke (University of Leipzig): "‘Early Days of a Better Nation’? Utopian vs Dystopian Thought in the Work of Alasdair Gray"

Part 1:

• Daniel Becker & Silke Braselmann (Münster & Jena) „New Developments in Teaching Literatures and Cultures in English Language Education – Introduction to the Panel” 
• Michael Prusse (Zürich) “Focus on Teacher Education: Multiliteracies, Multimodal Narratives, and a Blog”
• Saskia Schabio (Stuttgart) “Literature Classroom into Reading Lab – Research Literacy of Teachers”
• Natasha Anderson (Mainz) “From Online Archives to AI: Interactive Explorations and Exchanges in Teaching English Literatures and Cultures”

Part 2:

• Stefan Eick (Bamberg) “Creativity as a new paradigm for the EFL classroom”
• Janice Bland (Bodø) “Reading for In-Depth Learning on Guardianship and Climate Literacy”

• Laurenz Volkmann (Jena) "Wokeness as 'spectacle'? Or: Is virtue signalling the new cultural capital in EFL? A critical enquiry"

Part 3:

• Thorsten Merse (Duisburg-Essen) “Principled innovations or eclectic amalgam? A meta-reflective view on trends and tropes in cultural and literary learning”
• Max von Blanckenburg (Regensburg) “Cultural identity, politics, and appropriation. Contested concepts and their implications on cultural learning”
• World Café: New Directions for Teaching Cultures in English Language Education

You can find the workshop description here.