Guest Lectures

Date & Place

When: 23. September 2025, 12:15-13:45

Where: Unitobler, F-122

Language is central to legal processes. Interpreters mediate meaning when there is a mismatch between the language of the court and lay participants’ (defendants or witnesses) linguistic competences. Yet, in Denmark most interpreters are untrained, and several reports argue that the quality of legal interpreting is low (e.g. Rigsrevisonen 2018). This is a fundamental problem to the legal process, and to justice. But there is still very little known about what happens in interpreter-mediated court cases in Denmark – including how cases unfold linguistically and why things unfold in particular ways. In our project on courtroom interpreting (Karrebæk et al. 2024, Karrebæk 2023, Karrebæk & Kirilova 2023, 2021, Karrebæk & Sørensen 2021), we were interested in describing, understanding and theorizing what happened in court, and also in looking at this from different perspectives. Yet, our sociolinguistic approach did not align with the interests of the legal system, which concerned whether it is true that the quality of legal interpreting is low. In this talk I will show examples of what we discovered in court, relate it to larger societal discussions about legal interpreting, and discuss how and why we ended up engaging with the notion of ‘quality’.

Date & Place

When: 16. October 2025, 16:15-18:00

Where: Unitobler, F002

Date & Place

When: 21 october 2025, 16:15-17:45

Where: Unitobler, F005

This talk draws on video-ethnography to provide a close examination of the everyday working practices of ambulant vendors working along Copacabana Beach. It investigates how these workers exercise tactical agency (de Certeau 1984) as they negotiate the restrictive physical and social boundaries  of the beach in their pursuit of livelihood. The analysis introduces the notion of bounding—conceived as the situated navigation of social and material limits—and makes use of the metaphor of the fresta (“interstice”) to capture the creative openings vendors exploit in real time.

By tracing how vendors mobilize a repertoire of communicative resources, the study shows how they calibrate mobile, visual, material and verbal modalities to enhance visibility to potential customers while simultaneously reducing exposure to public space regulators. The findings highlight the interplay of sequential and overlapping modes of action, revealing how these practices are adapted to the shifting spatiotemporal conditions of work on the beach.

In doing so, the talk contributes to debates on language and agency by demonstrating how multimodal communicative practices serve as tools for confronting and manoeuvring within systemic inequalities.

Date & Place

When: 27 October 2025, 10:15-12:00

Where: Unitobler, F012

The concept of place is becoming an object of increased theoretical debate, and trends within sociology and social geography view place as both outcome of historical processes, and as a situated achievement of social agents (Cresswell 2004, Massey 1995, Tuan 1991). In terms of language, this means that linguistic practice not only reflects but also defines or constructs place (Britain, 2010, 2013, Johnstone, 2011). Consequently, the meaning of a place is neither stable across time nor across individuals or communities, and the linguistic practices of people who in certain ways claim attachment to the place may or may not be similar. This complexification of the concept of place makes it increasingly difficult for sociolinguists and dialectologists to “measure” the meaning of place using traditional methods, and the use of ethnographic methods has become more common. In this talk I present linguistic ethnographic work that I and colleagues have done over the years focusing on the small Danish island of Bornholm (Maegaard et al 2020, Maegaard & Karrebæk 2019, Karrebæk & Maegaard 2017, 2024). The talk combines theories and methods from different parts of sociolinguistics, specifically linguistic ethnography, dialectology and semiotic landscape studies, to offer insights into processes of place-making on the island as well as elsewhere, and involving both local Bornholmians, tourists and restaurant guests, all in different ways participating in constructing “Bornholm”. In the talk I discuss how “Bornholm” is indexed through different semiotic resources; bits of dialect, photos, written names of meals in a menu, oral narratives, a flag, specific glasses with sandblasted images and more, depending on the context. Furthermore, what “Bornholm” means changes both with scale and context. I begin the talk on the island of Bornholm, focusing on local youth, and end it in a small restaurant in Brooklyn, NYC, where (mainly) American guests enjoy a ”Bornholmian Evening”.

Date & Place

When: 6 November 2025, 16:15-18:00

Where: Unitobler, F002

Date & Place

When: 18 November 2025, 16:15-17:30

Where: Unitobler, F-105

What do gay voices sound like? What are the feminine characteristics of a voice, and what do trans voices tell us about our understanding of gender?

This lecture examines the relationship between voice, gender and sexuality from a socio-phonetic and queer linguistic perspective. It begins with an overview of existing research, which is limited for German, especially when compared to English-speaking countries. The lecture focuses on the construction of stereotypical gay voices (cf. Vorberger 2024, Sörries-Vorberger i. E.) and on initial findings on trans voices in German. In addition to content-related and methodological questions, implications for scientific and social discourses on voice, gender and sexuality will also be discussed.

Date & Place

When: 1 December 2025, 10:15-11:30

Where: Unitobler, F012

As examples of the production of public "green narratives" (Kosativa, 2023), the aestheticization of urban spaces as part of 'nature' are increasingly prevalent. In this presentation, I will examine contemporary realisations of urban flora and their potential effects on producing apparently sustainable spaces. In addressing the semiotic dimension of urban planting, I aim to expand semiotic landscape research and contribute to studies of environmental discourse. The empirical focus of my presentation will be data collected during fieldwork in five German cities (Rathingen, Essen, Duisburg, Düsseldorf, Cologne) which I analyse using multimodal tools from social semiotics; the analysis is also informed by perspectives from the wider interdisciplinary field of environmental studies. Specifically, I organize my analysis around three ways flora are typically realized in urban space: (1) images of flora, (2) plastic plants, and (3) organic greenery. Ultimately, this study considers the extent to which these flora-associated emplacements frame and visualize sustainability by mimicking nature in idealised and often aestheticized ways.

Bio

Laura Imhoff is a doctoral researcher in the Department of Anglophone Studies, University of Duisburg-Essen, Germany. She previously studied Sociology and German Studies at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. Her current research focuses on climate change discourses and the semiotics of (un)sustainable place-making.

Date & Place

When: 4 December 2025, 10:15-12:00

Where: Unitobler, F-121

Date & Place

When: 16 December 2025, 14:15-16:00

Where: Unitobler, F004

Publishing with Language Policy in Africa (LPIA) goes beyond simply making papers available. It also means engaging in conversation about these papers with the public. Our webinar series gives the authors of the journal an opportunity to present their work to an international audience of peers and colleagues interested in language issues at both academic and sociocultural levels. These webinars foster new synergies, inspire future project ideas, and encourage networking.

The first webinar will take place on Friday, 3 October 2025, at 4:00 pm CEST.

Our speaker will be Caroline Story from Texas State University, who will discuss her article “Postcolonial Language Imperialism in Africa – The Latter-day Saints Missionary Program.” She will explore how and why missionaries are trained to do their work using certain languages, and not others.

The session will be moderated by Djouroukoro Diallo of the University of Bern.

Webinar Programme:

1. October 3^rd, 2025 – Caroline Story - Register here.
2. November 7^th, 2025 – Menzi Thango
3. January 9^th, 2026 – Yassine Boussagui, Yamina El Kirat El Allame
4. February 6^th, 2026 – Elvis ResCue, David Dankwa-Apawu, Yvonne Agbetsoamedo
5. March 6^th, 2026 – Kenneth Oboriah
6. April 10^th, 2026 – Sali Mufwene

When & Where

6th November 2025, 9:45-14:45, Room S201, UniS

7th November 2025, 10:50-16:15, Room 501, Mail Building

On the 6th and 7th of november 2025, the Department of English and the Spanish Institute will hold a two-day "Sticker Conference". The conference includes talks from scholars across the University of Bern and other European universities.
Stickers can be used to create meaning, contributing to linguistic and semiotic landscapes. Apart from sociolinguistics, communication studies and linguistic anthropology study this new media form which challenges the clear division between the online and offline world.

MA students are eligible to receive ECTS for full or partial attendance of the event.