I am a postdoctoral researcher at the Departmet of Geography.
In my research I focus on multilingualism and education, from a critical spatial perspective. My thesis revolves around a group of students trying to take place as legitimate speakers of Swedish, in a small town in the interior of northern Sweden. In political and media discourse, the Swedish language is often portrayed as a form of "key" to success in education and worklife today. Through taking as my point of departure the young participants' lived experiences of language use, I demonstrate how Swedish is rather part of spaces that the students seldom have access to. By directing my attention to "the white listening subjects" that over and over again assess the participants as inadequate language learners, I want to challenge dominating views on linguistic competence as a first and foremost individual skill, which depends on the learners' motivation.
In my current research project I want to examine the role of language ideologies in the ongoing societal transformation in the Swedish north.