Language, Discourse, and Society Research Group End-of-Term Event

The Language, Discourse, and Society Research Group (School of English) are delighted to welcome Dr Colin Reilly (University of Stirling) for a special afternoon featuring a research talk and an interactive masterclass on collaboration aimed at PGRs/ECRs. All are welcome to attend, and details of the linked events are below.

This event is part of the Language, Discourse, and Society end-of-year celebration, with a drinks/snacks reception after the talk. Please sign up here to help us plan for attendance, and to receive the Teams link for online access.

Research Talk (Hybrid): Multilingual markets: language and the informal economy in Malawi

June 24th, 3.30-5pm
Alumni Room, School of English & Online

The links between language and the economy are not widely understood and even less is known about the role which language plays in the informal economy. Djité (2021) notes that a key gap in linguistic research in African contexts relates to investigating language practices within the labour market, particularly in the informal sector – the largest section of the labour market in Africa (International Labour Organization 2022). In this talk I report on findings from a mixed-methods study of market traders in Malawi, which deploys in-depth ethnographic observation alongside a survey of background, economic activity, and language use.

I discuss data from an ongoing project - Multilingual Markets: Investigating language skills for informal employment in Malawi. This project is a collaboration between the Universities of Malawi, Stirling, and Glasgow, which seeks to answer the following research questions:

1. What is the linguistic reality of informal markets in Malawi – how do people use language in their work?
2. How do market traders conceptualise their own language skills – what language resources do they view as valuable?
3. How do language use and language attitudes differ depending on the degree of multilingualism in an area?
4. What language-in-education policy approach is required to match skills-formation with the language needs of the informal labour market?

The project investigates the language practices and attitudes of traders in 6 marketplaces across the country and collected data between May 2025 – February 2026. In the talk, I’ll discuss emerging findings from the research focusing on how traders conceptualise the value of different languages, and how traders draw on their fluid linguistic repertoires in their day-to-day practices of buying and selling. I’ll also provide some reflections from our research experience of collecting data in the markets, and working as part of a large, international, interdisciplinary team.

Collaboration Masterclass

June 24th, 2-3pm
Seminar Room 5, School of English

This session will focus on research collaborations. We’ll think about what makes a good collaborator and what equitable collaboration looks like in practice. I’ll present principles for researching collaboratively and discuss the rewards and challenges of collaborative working.

The session will cover:

• Tips on how to establish and sustain collaborations
• How collaborations can support your own long-term research goals
• Interdisciplinary collaborations
• International collaborations
• Practicalities of co-authoring publications

The session will be interactive. We’ll look at case studies from my own collaborative working, including examples of when things go wrong, and how to deal with them. I would invite attendees to bring their own examples from any collaborative experiences they have had in their research careers.

Speaker Bio

I am a Lecturer in Linguistics at the University of Stirling. Prior to this I was a Senior Research Officer at the University of Essex.

My research interests relate to language policy in multilingual contexts. I am interested in how language policies can either inhibit or enable access and engagement with services and institutions, and how we can develop more equitable and inclusive approaches to language policy.

There are two main strands to my research: multilingualism and education; multilingualism and the labour market. I am interested in perceptions towards the value of language and multilingualism and have conducted research on these issues in Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia.

I am also interested in collaborative research, and researching multilingually, and most of my research is conducted as part of international, interdisciplinary teams.

I am currently PI on a number of research projects - Multilingual Markets: Investigating language skills for informal employment in Malawi; Multilingualism in conflict: Investigating the linguistic landscape of Kenyan-Ugandan border towns; and Speaking Cumbernauld: Exploring language and place in and around a Scottish New Town.