My research focus lies on linguistic anthropology, critical sociolinguistics and language policy in a variety of social and political contexts. This includes ethnographic and discourse-analytical research at the intersection between language and political economy. My work investigates the commodity value of languages and speakers within neoliberalism and the reproduction of social inequalities through language. I’m currently focusing on the relation between language and mobility in healthcare. Another part of my work addresses language ideologies in post-Soviet countries, in particular in the South Caucasus and Central Asia. I have also extensively worked on linguistic landscapes of communities in political transformation.

I am interested in supervising doctoral research projects that take a critical perspective on the interrelation of language and political economy. This includes projects that address questions on the commodification of languages and speakers, language, work and mobility (in particular in healthcare), the management of linguistic resources, as well as branding and organisational styling within corporations. In addition, I am interested in supervising doctoral research projects that investigate language ideologies/the politics of language in society as well as research in linguistic landscapes, for instance in education contexts.

Before joining Lancaster University as a Lecturer in Business Discourse in 2018, I worked for four years as a post-doc and coordinator of the doctoral program at the Institute of Multilingualism/ University of Fribourg, Switzerland. Prior to that I worked as a lecturer/research and teaching assistant in English linguistics at Greifswald University, Germany as well as at universities in Moldova and the United States.

Language as commodity/ language and political economy

Language and global health mobility

Language management in healthcare and healthcare interpreting        

Language policy in post-Soviet countries

Linguistic landscapes

I regularly review manuscripts for academic journals, among them the International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, the International Journal of the Sociology of Language, the Journal of Sociolinguistics, Language Policy, Multilingua, Nationalities Papers, Linguistic Landscape and Social Semiotics.