Dr Jackie Jia Lou 樓佳

Overview

Biography

My main research interest is concerned with language and the city, especially how languages are used in transnational urban spaces like Chinatown and how such spaces are represented and reconstructed through discourse. This often entails an eclectic research design which integrates sociolinguistic and discourse analysis with social- and geo-semiotic analysis, ethnographic fieldwork, and more recently, mobile video ethnography. Recently, I have also extended this approach to transnational educational spaces in collaboration with language educators. I particularly welcome opportunities for interdisciplinary collaborations with researchers of shared interests as well as with writers, artists, and community groups. I am also an associate editor of the journal Linguistic Landscapes (John Benjamins).
Current research projects include:
BAAL Applying Linguistics Grant 2018 – 2019: Increasing the visibility of linguistic diversity in an international school: Children as co-researchers and co-designers of linguistic landscape (in collaboration with Ms. Susan Stewart and Prof. Jean Marc Dewaele, Birkbeck)
Birkbeck Research Innovation Fund 2018 – 2019: Navigating the linguistic landscapes of Chinatown: Spatial narrations of urban change
#wordswewear: language, mobility and materiality in the semiotic landscape (in collaboration with Prof. Adam Jaworski, the University of Hong Kong)

ORCID

0000-0002-6931-3756

Research

Research overview

My main research interest is concerned with language and the city, especially how languages are used in transnational urban spaces like Chinatown and how such spaces are represented and reconstructed through discourse. This often entails an eclectic research design which integrates sociolinguistic and discourse analysis with social- and geo-semiotic analysis, ethnographic fieldwork, and more recently, mobile video ethnography. Recently, I have also extended this approach to transnational educational spaces in collaboration with language educators. I particularly welcome opportunities for interdisciplinary collaborations with researchers of shared interests as well as with writers, artists, and community groups. I am also an associate editor of the journal Linguistic Landscapes (John Benjamins).

Current research projects include:
BAAL Applying Linguistics Grant 2018 – 2019: Increasing the visibility of linguistic diversity in an international school: Children as co-researchers and co-designers of linguistic landscape (in collaboration with Ms. Susan Stewart and Prof. Jean Marc Dewaele, Birkbeck)
Birkbeck Research Innovation Fund 2018 – 2019: Navigating the linguistic landscapes of Chinatown: Spatial narrations of urban change
#wordswewear: language, mobility and materiality in the semiotic landscape (in collaboration with Prof. Adam Jaworski, the University of Hong Kong)

Supervision and teaching

Supervision

Language, space, and place; linguistic and semiotic landscapes; urban discourse; transnational migration; sociolinguistic ethnography.

Current PhD students:
Fengzhi Zhao: Language, Space, and Cosmopolitan Identity in Contemporary Shanghai
Maha El-Farhan: Language Emplacement, Meaning-Making & The Sense of Public Space: An Examination of Activism Signage in Bloomsbury’s Linguistic Landscape
Zuzana Rozsypalova: The discursive construction of the City of London: A study on the multimodal representations of urban history

Teaching

Teaching modules

• Introduction to Applied Linguistics (LNLN076S7)
• Independent Literature Review (SSAC012S7)
• Language, Culture, and Communication (SSAC052H5)
• Understanding the City (SSGE105S7)

Publications