Research interests
My research interests focus on language ideologies, the politics of language and (critical) discourse analysis as a method of investigating these, as well as issues of political and media discourse, language planning, language policy and migration within the Spanish-speaking world (see list of publications).
My PhD thesis investigated the ideologies, policies and agencies involved in language standardisation and other contemporary language debates in Spain, focusing particularly on the Real Academia Española.
I have given conference presentations that consider the recent educational protests and reforms in Chile, and the relationship between the social media discourse of the protestors and the political discourse of the President. I investigate how issues of power, authority and voice are constructed and expressed in elite and grassroots contexts.
My latest project considers the various Spanish language practices amongst migrant communities in London, both in terms of where Spanish is present in the visual environment (linguistic landscapes) and also how Spanish-speakers reflect on the values and ideologies underpinning their use of the language in this multilingual global city.
Previous projects that I have worked on include:
- LINEE, a European Commission-funded project in which he investigated the practices and ideologies underlying the acquisition by migrants of official languages in the UK and Spain;
- Volver a México, in which Darren carried out fieldwork in Mexico (as part of the MEXSU research team) to explore the return of Mexican migrants from the USA, and their accounts of the flows of linguistic capital in such transnational migratory movements;
- Tales of Return, an investigation into the memories and experiences of Spanish returnee migrants from France and Great Britain in the 20th century;
- and Testing Regimes, which focused on language, migration and citizenship policies across Europe.
Dr Darren PaffeyBuilding 65 Faculty of Arts and Humanities University of Southampton Avenue Campus Highfield Southampton SO17 1BF United Kingdom
Room Number: 65/3067
