Language and Identity in the University: Exploring Marginality and Liminality in Higher Education

Language and Identity in the University is an exploration of the relationship between language and the construction of identities in Higher Education contexts and what this relationship reveals about marginality and liminality. Bringing together studies by researchers and practitioners around the globe, chapters analyse real-world issues and consider how universities as monolingual or plurilingual spaces impact the types of identities available to academics and students. The book is underpinned by an ethos of diversity, seeking to reflect and give voice to liminal and marginal communities.

Contributions include a novel analysis of STEM undergraduates studying languages in the UK, the effect of English language policy in the Algerian HE context, how Deaf academics navigate their identities through language in a UK context, how English-Medium Instruction impacts professional identities at a Spanish university, how fragile academic identities emerge among undergraduates through feedback interactions, the multiple linguistic landscapes of Hispanic-Serving Institutions in the USA, the effects of exile, displacement and migration on identities, and how political realities impinge on academic identities.

This volume will be an invaluable resource for academics and students studying language and identity in sociolinguistics and applied linguistics, as well as for EAP practitioners, language lecturers, EMI lecturers, TESOL lecturers, and academics in education.

Dr Yolanda Cerda is Director of the Language Centre at the University of Leeds. She has previously lectured and been involved in academic leadership at the University of Sussex and the University of London. Her research and scholarship interests include language and identities in Higher Education, intercultural communication, language and gender, and critical discourse analysis.

Dr Jules Winchester is Emeritus Associate Professor at the School of Media, Arts and Humanities, University of Sussex, UK. Jules has presented and published on language use and identity in intercultural and pedagogical contexts, intercultural linguistic politeness, the pragmatics of humour and how humour competency can be developed in the language classroom.