Living between languages: poetic representations of migration experiences
The goal of my sabbatical year is to write a monograph that summarizes the extensive research I have conducted on language use from a migration perspective. The book will be based on a linguistic ethnography; during a period of 20 years (2001–2021), I have followed six people who came to Sweden as adults. This project has generated a large amount of data in the form of surveys, observations, language diaries, and portraits, but primarily it consists of recorded conversations. The project is multidisciplinary and includes sociolinguistics, language philosophy, applied linguistics, and research on multilingualism. To represent the participants’ lived experiences of language and show the changes that have taken place over time in their linguistic repertoires, I use a reflexive method based on the performative ability of poetry to convey experiences of living between languages. The method also highlights linguistic creativity. My intention is to spend the sabbatical year at the Autonomous University of Madrid collaborating with MIRCo, an international research center that studies how language can create and maintain injustices, working to find solutions that can contribute to more inclusive and sustainable societies. My objective is to establish a long-term collaboration between my host and home institution. I will also spend a month at Oxford University. The aim of the project is to meet the challenges that society faces with increased migration and complex linguistic diversity.
Final report
Background
In October 2021, I was awarded a 12-month RJ Sabbatical for the project Living Between Languages: Poetic Representations of Migration Experiences (SAB-21-0025). The project started in July 2022 and included a ten-month stay as a visiting researcher at the Universidad Autónoma in Madrid, where I collaborated with the research center MIRCo (Multilingualism, Discourse and Communication). The sabbatical year has resulted in several publications, participation in international conferences, guest lectures, and contacts for continued collaborations.
Purpose and results of the project
The main purpose of the project has been to compile the research I have conducted on language use from a migration perspective into a monograph. During the sabbatical year, I have primarily worked on exploring a method I previously developed for transcribing oral narratives into poetic text. The monograph is based on a linguistic ethnography spanning twenty years (2001–2023). In the study, I have followed individuals who arrived in Sweden as adults to document their lived experiences of language and the changes that occur over time in their linguistic repertoires. The study is grounded in a multidisciplinary theoretical framework that includes sociolinguistics, language philosophy, as well as research on second language use and multilingualism. By applying a literary approach and arts-based methods, I have reproduced these individuals’ narratives in the form of poetry—a reflexive methodological approach, which I refer to in terms of writing nearby, inspired by the theorist and filmmaker Trinh T Minh-Ha. The method emphasizes the researcher’s subjectivity in knowledge production and highlights the configurational process that oral storytelling undergoes to result in poetic texts. Characteristic of poetic representations is their reliance on the performative ability of poetry to convey an emotional and embodied understanding of people’s experiences of living between languages. Such representations thus have the potential to strengthen receivers’ critical awareness and engagement. In the book, I also argue that poetic representation can promote linguistic creativity and challenge normative monolingual values by proposing alternative and more inclusive models of speakerhood. In addition to ontological and epistemological aspects related to poetic representation, the monograph consists of several polyphonic poetic suites and scenes, constructed to speak for themselves. Publication is expected to take place in 2025.
During the sabbatical year, I have also worked on another book manuscript related to my research project in collaboration with a colleague from the University of Madrid. This book (Life-course trajectories and linguistic biographies) is designed as a guide to promote critical linguistic awareness and is aimed at both academia and social organizations in multilingual environments. It begins with an explanation of theoretical terms such as linguistic socialization, linguistic repertoires, life stories focusing on language, and sociolinguistic turning points, and then provides concrete examples of how readers, individually or in groups, can work practically with these terms to develop an inclusive approach to multilingualism in various contexts. The book will be published in print and online with open access in 2025.
Research stay at Universidad Autónoma in Madrid
A major part of the sabbatical year, from September 2022 to June 2023, was spent as a visiting researcher at Autonomous University in Madrid, where I collaborated with MIRCo (Multilingualism, Discourse and Communication), an international research center studying how language can create and perpetuate injustices and working to find solutions to contribute to more inclusive societies. Through previously established contacts with MIRCo, I was also invited to participate in the Spanish research project EquiLing: Critical Language Awareness and Speakers' Agency: Research-Action for Socio-Linguistic Equality (2020–2025 Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, PI Luisa Martín Rojo), which involves four different universities (Madrid, Catalonia, Basque Country and Valencia). This research environment is very active in terms of seminars aimed at various audiences, including through the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid. MIRCo and EquiLing are also active online (e.g., MIRCo: https://www.mircouam.com;
EquiLing: https://www.equiling.eu/en/madrid/; and Reina Sofia: https://www.museoreinasofia.es/actividades). Collaboration between the host institution and my home institution/Stockholm University has also been developed, including participation in the university alliance CIVIS. During my sabbatical year, I have also been engaged with researchers at Oxford University through participation in activities in the Oxford Migration Network and Maison Française d’Oxford, primarily through interdisciplinary webinars related to artistic research and migration.
Dissemination of results
During the project period, in addition to working on two book manuscripts (see description above), I published a book chapter and worked on two articles related to my research project. Two of these publications are co-authored with Anne Reath Warren, and both apply my reflexive method for poetic representation—in these cases to interviews from an ethnographic project in Australia conducted by the co-author. The ontological and epistemological stances behind the method are described in these publications. All publications that I have worked on during my sabbatical are/will be made available online. The results of the project have also been presented at two international conferences (OMIC: The Organizing Migration and Integration in Contemporary Societies Conference, School of Business, Economics and Law and the Centre of Global Migration, Göteborg, Paper: Sociolinguistic belonging in relation to spatial factors, and International Conference on Multilingualism and Multilingual Education, University of Valetta, Malta, Paper: Polyphonic voices: Poetic representation of multilingual speakers’ lived experience of language) and at numerous seminars at universities in Spain and Sweden as well as through lectures aimed at a broader audience, including through the Swedish Arts Council at the Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators in Visby.
In October 2021, I was awarded a 12-month RJ Sabbatical for the project Living Between Languages: Poetic Representations of Migration Experiences (SAB-21-0025). The project started in July 2022 and included a ten-month stay as a visiting researcher at the Universidad Autónoma in Madrid, where I collaborated with the research center MIRCo (Multilingualism, Discourse and Communication). The sabbatical year has resulted in several publications, participation in international conferences, guest lectures, and contacts for continued collaborations.
Purpose and results of the project
The main purpose of the project has been to compile the research I have conducted on language use from a migration perspective into a monograph. During the sabbatical year, I have primarily worked on exploring a method I previously developed for transcribing oral narratives into poetic text. The monograph is based on a linguistic ethnography spanning twenty years (2001–2023). In the study, I have followed individuals who arrived in Sweden as adults to document their lived experiences of language and the changes that occur over time in their linguistic repertoires. The study is grounded in a multidisciplinary theoretical framework that includes sociolinguistics, language philosophy, as well as research on second language use and multilingualism. By applying a literary approach and arts-based methods, I have reproduced these individuals’ narratives in the form of poetry—a reflexive methodological approach, which I refer to in terms of writing nearby, inspired by the theorist and filmmaker Trinh T Minh-Ha. The method emphasizes the researcher’s subjectivity in knowledge production and highlights the configurational process that oral storytelling undergoes to result in poetic texts. Characteristic of poetic representations is their reliance on the performative ability of poetry to convey an emotional and embodied understanding of people’s experiences of living between languages. Such representations thus have the potential to strengthen receivers’ critical awareness and engagement. In the book, I also argue that poetic representation can promote linguistic creativity and challenge normative monolingual values by proposing alternative and more inclusive models of speakerhood. In addition to ontological and epistemological aspects related to poetic representation, the monograph consists of several polyphonic poetic suites and scenes, constructed to speak for themselves. Publication is expected to take place in 2025.
During the sabbatical year, I have also worked on another book manuscript related to my research project in collaboration with a colleague from the University of Madrid. This book (Life-course trajectories and linguistic biographies) is designed as a guide to promote critical linguistic awareness and is aimed at both academia and social organizations in multilingual environments. It begins with an explanation of theoretical terms such as linguistic socialization, linguistic repertoires, life stories focusing on language, and sociolinguistic turning points, and then provides concrete examples of how readers, individually or in groups, can work practically with these terms to develop an inclusive approach to multilingualism in various contexts. The book will be published in print and online with open access in 2025.
Research stay at Universidad Autónoma in Madrid
A major part of the sabbatical year, from September 2022 to June 2023, was spent as a visiting researcher at Autonomous University in Madrid, where I collaborated with MIRCo (Multilingualism, Discourse and Communication), an international research center studying how language can create and perpetuate injustices and working to find solutions to contribute to more inclusive societies. Through previously established contacts with MIRCo, I was also invited to participate in the Spanish research project EquiLing: Critical Language Awareness and Speakers' Agency: Research-Action for Socio-Linguistic Equality (2020–2025 Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, PI Luisa Martín Rojo), which involves four different universities (Madrid, Catalonia, Basque Country and Valencia). This research environment is very active in terms of seminars aimed at various audiences, including through the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid. MIRCo and EquiLing are also active online (e.g., MIRCo: https://www.mircouam.com;
EquiLing: https://www.equiling.eu/en/madrid/; and Reina Sofia: https://www.museoreinasofia.es/actividades). Collaboration between the host institution and my home institution/Stockholm University has also been developed, including participation in the university alliance CIVIS. During my sabbatical year, I have also been engaged with researchers at Oxford University through participation in activities in the Oxford Migration Network and Maison Française d’Oxford, primarily through interdisciplinary webinars related to artistic research and migration.
Dissemination of results
During the project period, in addition to working on two book manuscripts (see description above), I published a book chapter and worked on two articles related to my research project. Two of these publications are co-authored with Anne Reath Warren, and both apply my reflexive method for poetic representation—in these cases to interviews from an ethnographic project in Australia conducted by the co-author. The ontological and epistemological stances behind the method are described in these publications. All publications that I have worked on during my sabbatical are/will be made available online. The results of the project have also been presented at two international conferences (OMIC: The Organizing Migration and Integration in Contemporary Societies Conference, School of Business, Economics and Law and the Centre of Global Migration, Göteborg, Paper: Sociolinguistic belonging in relation to spatial factors, and International Conference on Multilingualism and Multilingual Education, University of Valetta, Malta, Paper: Polyphonic voices: Poetic representation of multilingual speakers’ lived experience of language) and at numerous seminars at universities in Spain and Sweden as well as through lectures aimed at a broader audience, including through the Swedish Arts Council at the Baltic Centre for Writers and Translators in Visby.