Dr Kristine Horner

Lecturer in German and Sociolinguistics

Director of Postgraduate Studies in German and Russian

Research Seminar Co-ordinator

Tel: 0113 343 3508
Fax: 0113 343 3517
Email: k.horner@leeds.ac.uk

BA (La Salle University, PA)
MA (The University of Maryland)
Ph.D (The State University of New York at Buffalo)

Biography

Born and raised in New Jersey, USA with my mother's side of the family hailing from Berlin, Germany, I taught at the Université du Luxembourg/ Centre Universitaire de Luxembourg from 1998-2006 before joining the Department in 2007.

Teaching

In addition to coordinating* and teaching on the above modules in Leeds, I lectured on language policy in Luxembourg at the postgraduate First Summer School in Historical Sociolinguistics, Greece in August 2007. In May 2009, I was a guest lecturer on the Discourse, Identity and Policy unit of the MA in Learning and Development in Multilingual and Multicultural Contexts at the Université du Luxembourg.

I welcome expressions of interest from individuals wishing to pursue an MAR (Masters by Research) or PhD in the following areas: the politics of language, language ideologies, language and identity (especially ethnic and national identities) and language and migration. Because I draw on discourse analytic and ethnographic approaches in my work, I am happy to supervise projects utilizing qualitative methods as a means of exploring topics in sociolinguistics and linguistic anthropology.

Research Interests

My research focuses on the interrelationship between language, identity and power and the construction of linguistic and social boundaries. I have written on language and national identity, linguistic purism, and language-in-education ideologies in Luxembourg; these publications are based in part on my PhD manuscript Negotiating the Language-Identity Link: Media Discourse and Nation-Building in Luxembourg. In the post PhD phase, I concentrated on debates about the 2001 amendments to the loi sur la nationalité luxembourgeoise, in particular the introduction of language requirements, and I am now exploring language testing procedures linked to the ratification of the 2008 law that allows for dual nationalité .

Central to the politics of language are the ways in which language issues are debated and represented in multiple sites and genres, including the media. Because debates about language are bound up with social-political processes, I embrace interdisciplinary and poststructuralist approaches to language policy and I draw on related research on metalanguage and language ideologies. On a broader level, tensions between nationalisms and the accelerated processes of globalization are a central thread in my on-going research, including the ways in which these dynamics are impacting on senses of ethnic and national place. In 2006, I launched a project on Luxembourgish ethnic identity in the upper-midwestern region of the United States and was a visiting scholar at the Max Kade Institute (University of Wisconsin-Madison) to conduct archival research and fieldwork, primarily in Ozaukee County, Wisconsin.

Further collaboration with colleagues at Worldwide Universities Network partner institutions and additional universities in Europe and North America will be fostered by the project I am leading on Representing and Experiencing Transnationalism: Germanic Languages and Cultures in Global Perspective.

Publications

Monographs

• In preparation. Renegotiating Language, Nationhood and Citizenship in Late Modernity (working title). Berlin/New York: Mouton de Gruyter (Language, Power and Social Process).

Edited volumes

• 2009. Luxembourg: Special issue of Language Problems and Language Planning 33/2.
• 2005. Life in Language: Studies in Honour of Wolfgang Kühlwein. (with Andreas J. Schuth and Jean Jacques Weber) Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier.

Journal articles

• In press. ‘Small languages, education and citizenship: the paradoxical case of Luxembourgish.’ (with Jean-Jacques Weber) International Journal of the Sociology of Language (Small Languages and Language Communities).
• 2009. 'Language policy mechanisms and social practices in multilingual Luxembourg.' Luxembourg: Special issue of Language Problems and Language Planning 33/2: 101-111.
• 2008. 'The language situation in Luxembourg.' (with Jean Jacques Weber) Current Issues in Language Planning. 9/1: 69-128.

Book chapters

• 2009a. 'Language, citizenship and Europeanization: unpacking the discourse of integration.' Discourses on Language and Integration: Critical Perspectives on Language Testing Regimes in Europe, edited by Gabrielle Hogan-Brun, Clare Mar-Molinero and Patrick Stevenson. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins (Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture 33). 109-128.
• 2009b. 'Revisiting history: the 2007 European Capital of Culture and the integration of fractal Europe.' Language, Discourse and Identity in Central Europe: The German Language in a Multilingual Space, edited by Jenny Carl and Patrick Stevenson. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan (Language and Globalisation). 241-260.
• 2009c. 'Regimenting language, mobility and citizenship in Luxembourg.' In: Language Testing, Migration and Citizenship: Cross-National Perspectives on Integration Regimes, edited by Guus Extra, Massimiliano Spotti and Piet Van Avermaet. London/New York: Continuum Press (Advances in Sociolinguistics). 148-166.
• 2009d. 'Multilingualism in Luxembourg and beyond.' (with Jean-Jacques Weber) In: Multilingualism, Education and Change, Jean-Jacques Weber. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang (Sprache, Mehrsprachigkeit und sozialer Wandel). 37-58.
• 2007a. 'Language and Luxembourgish national identity: ideologies of hybridity and purity in the past and present.' In: Germanic Language Histories 'from Below' (1700-2000), edited by Stephan Elspaß, Nils Langer, Joachim Scharloth and Wim Vandenbussche. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter (Studia Linguistica Germanica 86). 363-378.
• 2007b. 'Global challenges to nationalist ideologies: language and education in the Luxembourg press.' In: Language in the Media: Representations, Identities, Ideologies, edited by Sally Johnson and Astrid Ensslin. London/New York: Continuum Press (Advances in Sociolinguistics). 130-146.
• 2005a. 'Reimagining the nation: discourses of language purism in Luxembourg.' In: Linguistic Purism in the Germanic Languages, edited by Nils Langer and Winifred V. Davies. Berlin/New York: Walter de Gruyter (Studia Linguistica Germanica 75). 166-185.
• 2005b. 'The representation of immigrant students within the classical humanist ethos of the Luxembourgish school-system: From Pour une école d’intégration to the PISA debates.' (with Jean Jacques Weber) In: Life in Language: Studies in Honour of Wolfgang Kühlwein, edited by Andreas J. Schuth, Kristine Horner and Jean Jacques Weber. Trier: Wissenschaftlicher Verlag Trier. 241-258.

Reviews and other publications

• Forthcoming. Review of Shohamy, Elana. Language Policy: Hidden Agendas and New Approaches. 2006. Language Problems and Language Planning
• 2009. Review of Duchêne, Alexandre and Monica Heller. Discourses of Endangerment: Ideology and Interest in the Defence of Languages. 2007. Language Policy 8/2: 185-187.
• 2002. 'J'accuse! Oder: die Wahrheit über den Sprachunterricht in Luxemburg.' (with Jean Jacques Weber) In: Praxis des Neusprachlichen Unterrichts 49: 94-98.
• 2000. 'Are you ready for the new millennium? Quality in English language teaching.' (with Jean Jacques Weber) In: Praxis des Neusprachlichen Unterrichts 47: 349-354.

Recent and Planned Presentations

Conference papers

• September 2009. ‘Orwellian doublethink in Luxembourgish and European language-in-education policies: top-down and bottom-up perspectives.’ (with Jean-Jacques Weber) MIDP Colloquium 2009. University of Antwerp, Belgium.
• May 2009. 'Renegotiating transatlantic ties: Luxembourgish language and heritage as commodities or markers of authenticity?’ Forum for Germanic Language Studies (FGLS8) - Society for Germanic Linguistics (GLAC15) - Studies in the History of the English Language (SHEL6). Banff, Alberta, Canada.
• April 2009. ‘Remembering World War II and legitimating Luxembourgish as the national language: consensus or conflict?’ (with Melanie Wagner) Language and History, Linguistics and Historiography. University of Bristol, England.
• August 2008. 'Media representations of multilingual Luxembourg: language as a right, problem or resource?' Contribution to the ReN symposia 'Thematising Multilingualism in the Media: Representations, Identities and Ideologies.' AILA 2008: The 15th World Congress of Applied Linguistics. Universität Duisburg-Essen, Germany.
• April 2008. 'Introduction: Luxembourgish language policy in late modernity.' Contribution to the workshop 'Renegotiating linguistic policies and practices: multilingual Luxembourg in late modernity.' Sociolinguistics Symposium 17.  University of Amsterdam, Netherlands.
• September 2007. 'Flagging the nation: discourses of Luxembourgish nationalism in cyberspace.' Language Ideologies and Media Discourse: Texts, Practices, Policies. University of Leeds, England.
• July 2007. 'Revisiting history: representing the immigrant homeland of Romania's Transylvanian Saxons.' Language, Discourse and Identity in Central Europe. University of Southampton, England.

Invited lectures

• December 2008. ‘Quo Vadis Lëtzebuergesch?: discourses of endangerment, integration and citizenship in multilingual Luxembourg.’ Department of German Research Forum. University of Leeds, England.
• February 2008. 'Language and place in a changing Europe: Luxembourgish as an "endangered language" or a "language of integration"?' Aberystwyth Linguistic Forum. University of Aberystwyth, Wales.
• November 2007. 'Language, nationhood and citizenship: the politics of language in Luxembourg from past to present.' Department of Germanic Studies Research Seminar and Centre for Luxembourgish Studies. University of Sheffield, England.
• November 2007. 'Revisiting history: unity in diversity in the 2007 European Capital of Culture.' Centre for Transnational Studies Research Seminar. University of Southampton, England.
• April 2007. 'Reconfiguring boundaries in late modernity: the transition from implicit to explicit language policy in Luxembourg and beyond.' Department of German Research Forum. University of Leeds, England.
• March 2007. 'Language, nationhood and citizenship: the dynamics of Luxembourgish language policy from the 19th to 20th century.' Lecture Series on Language Contact, Planning and Change: Historical Sociolinguistics Month. Queen Mary University London, England.

Invited undergraduate teaching/knowledge transfer

• March 2009. Undergraduate workshop 'Where the global meets the local: senses of ethnic Luxembourgish place in Belgium, Wisconsin.' Seminar on Luxembourgish Language and Society. University of Sheffield, England.
• February 2009. Master Classes on ‘Language and national identity.’ (with Fiona Douglas) Academic Development Fund. University of Leeds, England.
• December 2008. Undergraduate workshop ‘Language policy and planning in multilingual Luxembourg.’ (with Jean-Jacques Weber) Seminar on Language Policy and Planning. Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.
• March 2008. Undergraduate workshop on 'Language, identity and migration in the United States.' (with Mark Louden) American Studies Seminar. Université du Luxembourg.
• August 2007. Provided primary school children with a basic introduction to the Luxembourgish language as part of the First Luxembourg American Cultural Society Conference. Port Washington, WI, United States.

Conferences/Panels/Workshops Organised

• March 2010. Representing and Experiencing Transnationalism: Germanic Languages and Cultures in Global Perspective. (together with the Max Kade Institute). University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States.
• May 2009. 'Transnational intersections: Germanic languages and migration in North America.' (with Patrick Stevenson) Workshop at Forum for Germanic Language Studies (FGLS8) – Society for Germanic Linguistics (GLAC15) – Studies in the History of the English Language (SHEL6). Banff, Alberta, Canada.
• April 2008. 'Renegotiating linguistic policies and practices: multilingual Luxembourg in late modernity.' Sociolinguistics Symposium 17. University of Amsterdam, Netherlands.

Professional Associations

• American Anthropological Association (AAA)
  • Linguistics Anthropology Section
• British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL)
  
• Forum for Germanic Language Studies (FGLS)
  
• Historical Sociolinguistics Network (HiSoN)
  
• International Association of Applied Linguistics (AILA)
• Language and Migration Network
• Language in the Media Research Network
• Language Policy Research Network
• International Pragmatics Association (IPrA)