The Center for the Study of Language and Society (CSLS) at the University of Bern is organising a summer school for PhD researchers and advanced MA students working on the interface between language and society in its many facets. The aim of the summer school is to bring together a wide range of perspectives, from language variation and change to more qualitative approaches.
We offer guest lectures, workshops on methods and soft skills, as well as the opportunity for doctoral candidates and advanced MA students to present their research and receive feedback from peers and experts in the field.
Dr. Emma Moore is Professor of Sociolinguistics at the University of Sheffield, UK. She joined the School of English in Sheffield in 2004 after a Lectureship at the University of Manchester, where she also received her PhD. During her PhD, Moore also studied at Stanford University, USA. She was British Academy Mid-Career Fellow from 2019-2020. Her research explores how individuals and communities use language to construct social styles, differences, and affiliations. In her interdisciplinary and often collaborative work, Moore draws on methodologies from linguistics, anthropology, and sociology. She is editor of Categories, Constructions, and Change in English Syntax and of Language and a Sense of Place: Studies in Language and Region as well as co-editor of Analysing Older English.
Dr. Christina Higgins is Professor and Chair in the Department of Second Language Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. As a sociolinguist, Higgins is interested in the politics of language, multilingual practices, globalization, and identity. In her research, Higgins investigates multilingualism from a discursive perspective, drawing on social constructionist, semiotic, critical, and postmodern frameworks. Currently, Higgins is involved in several citizen sociolinguistics projects about multilingual Hawaiʻi. She is editor of Language, heritage and family: A dynamic perspective and co-editor of Diversifying family language policy. She is also Editor-in-Chief of Applied Linguistics.
Dr. Carolin Debray is a postdoctoral teaching and research fellow in English linguistics at the Department of Languages and Literatures at the University of Basel, Switzerland. Her research interests lie in pragmatics, discourse analysis and intercultural communication. Debray received her PhD in Applied Linguistics from the University of Warwick (UK), where she studied naturally occurring teamwork interactions in a diverse MBA team with a focus on the construction of positive relationships. She has published on various topics related to teamwork, such as the construction of common ground, team dynamics, conflict, and marginalization in intercultural teams. Currently, Debray investigates gendered discourses around leadership and hegemonic masculinities and femininities, workplace communication during the Covid-19 pandemic and communication in large virtual online communities.
