Humanities, University of Southampton

I hold a BA from Birmingham University, a MA(Ed) in Language & Linguistics and a PhD in Politics of Language from the University of Southampton. After teaching English as a Foreign Language at Barcelona University, I came to Southampton first as a teaching assistant in EFL and Spanish, and then later as a Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Reader in Spanish in Modern Languages. I am currently Professor in Spanish sociolinguistics and have been Head of Modern Languages for two terms (2001-2003 and 2005-2011). I was a founding Director of the Southampton Centre for Transnational Studies.

I  have recently created a new Centre for Mexico-Southampton Collaboration at the University (MexSu), of which I am currently Director. I have been fortunate in securing significant financial support in this from Santander Universities network.

My research interests are in the area of language policy and language and migration, transnationalism and multilingualism, in particular in the Spanish-speaking world.

Research awards and projects

I have been in receipt of a British Academy Small Award for my work on global Spanish and was coordinator of an AHRC Networks & Workshops award for a collaborative project on language, migration and citizenship in Europe, Testing Regimes (with colleagues in Southampton, Bristol, Birmingham, Ghent and Tilburg); and I am Work Package leader for a project on language and migration within the EU 6th Framework Network of Excellence programme on multilingualism in Europe (LINEE), of which Southampton is one of nine partners. I am currently leading a project based in San Luís Potosí, Mexico, on language and migrant return, analysing the experiences of Mexican migrants returning from the US.

Conference organisation

I have organised major international conferences including the Second Hispanic Conference in Southampton (15-17 April 2004) and (co-organiser) Language Ideologies, Policies and Practices: the Future of Language in Europe at Southampton (8-10 July 2004). I am Principal Local Organiser for the major international Sociolinguistics Symposium 18 (SS18, Southampton 1-4 September 2010) (www.southampton.ac.uk/ss18) 

Recent keynotes and plenaries

• ‘Transnational Urban Neighbourhoods: Language(s) in Southampton' at the conference 'Language & the City', Cardiff University, September 2008
• ‘Tu voz es tu voto: the role of Spanish in the 2008 US election campaign’ at the Biennial meeting of the International Association of Spanish in Society, University of Swansea, 2008
• ‘Spanish Today: Linguistic Imperialism or Vox Populi? – Cervantes and Molotov’ at a conference on Language and Globalisation, Cardiff University, July 2005
• ‘Globalisation & the Spread of Spanish: From Spain to the US’ At Regulations of societal multilingualism in linguistic policies: Language in relation to nation, identity and power in Spain, Hispanoamerica and the United States; Berlín, 2 - 4, May, 2005, Ibero-Amerikanisches Institut P.K.

Affiliations

I have been Chair of the Executive Committee of the Association for the Study of Spanish Society (SiS) since the birth of the association in 2004, and am a member of the Editorial Boards of the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, and International Journal of Iberian Studies.

Affiliate research group:  Testing Regimes