In this half-day workshop open to MA and PhD students, we will address the sociolinguistics of researching transnationalism, via a focus on epistemological and methodological challenges. This will entail thinking about the meanings of transnationalism (for example transnationalism as mobility and identity), sociolinguistics’ current interest in transnationalism (online in digital spaces as well as offline), and possible methodologies for researching transnationalism (for example via online and offline ethnography). In doing so, we will also reflect upon how different approaches to and understandings of transnationalism require us to carefully think about which theoretical frameworks and methodologies might best enable us to answer our research questions.
The workshop will consist of three parts (total three hours). In the first part, we will discuss two texts on transnationalism, which you will be asked to read as preparation. In the second part, I will introduce data examples from my own research on the role of English for the transnational Ismaili community, and we will discuss possible ways of analyzing the data. In the third part, students working on topics related to transnationalism and globalization (online and/or offline) will be encouraged to present their own work (five minute summary along with key challenge/interest/question to discuss). Students researching topics which are not related to transnationalism or the sociolinguistics of globalization, but who still wish to present their research and receive feedback are also welcome to do so.
To register please email bolander@hku.hk and sign up in KSL. In your email please also indicate whether you are an MA or PhD student, and whether you wish to present during the workshop. Upon registration, you will also receive the preparatory texts as pdfs by email.
