Dr James Hawkey
BA(Bris), MA(UCL), PhD(Lond)
Expertise
I am a sociolinguist focusing on multilingualism, language variation and change, language attitudes and language policy. I primarily work with Catalan-speaking communities.
Current positions
Associate Professor in Linguistics and Catalan Studies
Department of Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American Studies
Contact
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Biography
Research interests
My work focuses on issues in contemporary Catalan sociolinguistics. My specialisms within this field are broad-ranging, including language attitudes, language contact, sociophonetics, and issues surrounding language and migration. These interests have developed through several research projects during my career.
Project 1: Language Policy and Language Contact in Catalonia (2008-2016)
My doctoral thesis (2008-2012) tested awareness of normative varieties of Catalan and Castilian in Barcelona, using innovative empirical methods. Work from this project was published in Language and Linguistics Compass, Treballs de Sociolingüística Catalana and the European Journal of Language Policy. This project was funded by the Catalan Research Studentship at Queen Mary, University of London, in association with the Institut Ramon Llull.
Project 2: Sociolinguistic Perspectives of Catalan in France (2015-2022)
This project examines the links between language attitudes and linguistic practices in Catalan-speaking areas of southern France. Special attention is given to phonetic and morphosyntactic variation (specifically, the factors conditioning the usage of local or supra-local variants). The findings of this research were published in my first monograph Language Attitudes and Minority Rights: The Case of Catalan in France (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018). Additionally, work from this project appears in the Journal of Sociolinguistics, the Journal of French Language Studies, and the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, as well as in edited volumes published by Cambridge University Press and Multilingual Matters. This project was funded by a British Academy / Leverhulme Trust Small Research Grant (2015-2017) for £7,350.
Project 3: European Migration, Language Policy and Small States (2017-)
This project (I am PI, Co-I: Prof Kristine Horner, Sheffield) addresses questions of how economic migrant communities engage with the 'small' languages of their host countries, focusing on Catalan in Andorra and Luxembourgish in Luxembourg. Quantitative and qualitative methods are used to assess language policies in Andorra and Luxembourg, thus offering new perspectives on language policy and migration scholarship by focusing on small nations and microstates. Work from this project appears in Language Policy, the Journal of French Language Studies, Spanish in Context, Revista de Llengua i Dret and Treballs de Sociolingüística Catalana. This project was funded by a British Academy 'Tackling the UK's International Challenges' Grant (2017-2019) for £31,520.
Project 4: Borderland Sociolinguistics (2022-)
This ongoing project (I am Co-I, PI: Juan Jiménez-Salcedo, Mons) addresses the sociolinguistic complexities of borderland communities, focusing on the Catalan-speaking Pyrenees. We are examining the practical implementations of language-in-education policies, as well as undertaking extensive participant observation fieldwork. This project is funded by the Belgian FNRS and the Université de Mons (2022-24) for €19,033.
Projects and supervisions
Research projects
European Migration, Language Policy and Small States
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Department of Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American StudiesDates
31/03/2017 to 31/03/2019
European Migration, Language Policy and Small States
Principal Investigator
Description
Funded by the British Academy's 'Tackling the UK's International Challenges' initiativeManaging organisational unit
School of Modern LanguagesDates
31/03/2017 to 31/12/2018
Sociolinguistic perspectives of Catalan in France
Principal Investigator
Managing organisational unit
Department of Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American StudiesDates
01/09/2015 to 31/08/2017
Publications
Recent publications
13/06/2024La política lingüística i les experiències d'integració de les persones amb orígens migratoris
Revista de Llengua i Dret / Journal of Language and Law
"Aquestes arrels que queden sempre et criden una mica"
Treballs de Sociolingüística Catalana
Variation in Andorran Spanish past perfectives
Spanish in Context
Mixed-methods approaches to the study of language attitudes
Research Methods in Language Attitudes
Variable analysis
Research Methods in Language Attitudes
Teaching
I deliver a range of linguistics units at both departmental and school level, primarily:
- HISP20123 Structures and Varieties of Spanish (Year 2)
- MODL20016 General Linguistics (Year 2)
- HISP30056 Hispanic Sociolinguistics (Year 4)
- MODL30016 Sociolinguistic Anthropology: Language, Culture and Society (Year 4)
I also contribute to many other units, including:
- HISP10014 The Making of the Hispanic World, 1492 to the Present Day (Year 1)
- HISP10010 Critical Concepts in the Study of the Hispanic World (Year 1)
- HISP30101 Spanish Language (Year 4)
- MODLM0021 Research Skills (MA)
Additionally, I am Catalan Studies Lead and am convenor for all units of Catalan Language and Culture (though these are delivered by the Catalan Lector/a).
