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)

Qualifications

• Ph.D., Georgetown University, 2009

Web profiles

• Research Gate Profile

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

Supervisions within Birkbeck:

2

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

Doctoral alumni since 2013-14

• FENGZHI ZHAO

  Nature of supervision:

  Principal Supervisor, Oct 2018

  Title of thesis:

  Language, Space and Cosmopolitan Identity in Contemporary Shanghai

  Description:

  Language and space in the context of city have been subjected to a cosmopolitanization process where the global and the local do not exist as cultural polarities but as combined and mutually implicating principles. This research investigates language and discourse circulating around the urban space of Shanghai and explores how they influence people's place-identity and the way they understand and live with cosmopolitanism.

  Research Gate profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Fengzhi-Zhao

  Awarded:

  2022

• MAHA EL-FARHAN

  Nature of supervision:

  Principal Supervisor, Oct 2018

  Title of thesis:

  Activism Signage, Emplacement, and Sense of Public Space: A Mixed Methods Study of the Linguistic Landscape of Bloomsbury

  Awarded:

  2021

Teaching

Teaching modules

• Doing Languages, Cultures and Applied Linguistics (ARLL004S4)
• Dissertation (LNLN004D7)
• Research Methods and Design (LNLN019S7)
• Linguistics Final Year Project (LNLN023S6)
• Approaches to Language (Level 4) (LNLN026S4)
• Language, Culture and Communication (LNLN063S7)
• Introduction to Applied Linguistics (LNLN076S7)
• Independent Literature Review (SSAC012S7)
• Empirical Research Skills Training Workshop (SSAC035Z7)
• Language, Culture, and Communication (Level 5) (SSAC052H5)
• Postgraduate Research Seminars (SSAC059Z7)
• Investigating Language (SSAC060H5)

Publications