Workshop "The Interplay of Language and Identity"
Who are we? Does our language shape our perception of who we are? What if we speak two or more languages, does it mean we have two or more identities? Are there identity boundaries we can/cannot cross?
The present practice-oriented interactive seminar addresses the questions related to the relationship between language and identity. More specifically, we will discuss how identity can be constructed (and reconstructed) by means of language use. Questions of (multiple) group and culture belonging, of who we are and what language we self-identify with, especially when it comes to learning foreign languages, will be raised and discussed in the present seminar. Likewise, we will analyze different cases where the link between language and identity is not always linear (or straightforward) and discuss why this happens.
Learning outcomes
Participants will be acquainted with major theoretical concepts related to the complex relationship between language and identity.
Participants will be given self-reflection tasks that will help them to explore their own identity(ies) and the possible ways of how it(they) is(are) constructed through language practices.
The seminar will help the participants to understand better the complex and multi-layered combination of language-culture-identity.
Tutor: Denis Zubalov is an Assistant Professor at the Department of General and Applied Philology. He is an academic supervisor of the "Language Policy in the Context of Ethnocultural Diversity" MA programme.
Denis was awarded the 3rd place for the best young scholar for teaching in Higher Education, in Russia in 2018.