Some impressions: HPSL Day 2023, Basel

This year’s HPSL Day, hosted by the University of Basel, took place on October 20^th 2023 in the Wildt’sches Haus in Basel. 

Following an opening address by Prof. Dr. Angela Ferrari, there was a social activity where participants got to know the venue and each other in an informal way.

The highlight of the morning program was a poster session in which participants presented and discussed their research. They were first put in groups, and afterwards everyone was free to move around.

The tone for the afternoon was set by an inspiring and thought-provoking keynote entitled, Digital Technologies in Linguistics – Linguistics in the Digital Society, by Prof. Dr. Noah Bubenhofer, Chair of the Department of Linguistics in the German Seminar of the University of Zürich (UZH) and UZH representative of CLARIN. 

For the remainder of the afternoon, participants shared ideas about how the HPSL could further support them in their work and career as researchers. Those sharing similar interests formed groups to come up with concrete plans for a possible project and these projects were then presented to everyone. A hands-on guide on how to actually implement the projects was provided by the Basel coordinator of the HPSL, Dr. Philipp Dankel, before the day concluded with an apéro.

Attended by around 60 participants from both universities of Basel and Freiburg as well as visiting researchers, the HPSL Day gave members of the HPSL an invaluable opportunity to connect with researchers from different fields and across universities and to foster a sense of community within the HPSL. We hope that all participants profited from the HPSL Day and that it inspired new collaborations, friendships, and activities within the HPSL network.

Ulderup Stiftung: PraeDoc-Stipendium

Am Romanischen Seminar der Universität Freiburg sind zum 1. April 2023 bis zu drei Prae-Doc-Stipendien von 1.000,00 Euro monatlich für sechs Monate und maximal 12 Monate ausgeschrieben (vorbehaltlich der Mittelfreigabe). Aussagekräftige Unterlagen sind in deutscher, englischer, französischer, spanischer oder italienischer Sprache bis spätestens 31. Januar 2023 einzureichen. Nähere Informationen zu Bewerbung und Fristen finden Sie hier.

Hermann-Paul-Preis 2022

Die HPSL freut sich,

Aline Bieri für ihre Arbeit

Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) in a Swiss Context: The Linguistic Challenges and Implications of Teaching Biology in English (CLIL) and German (non-CLIL) Analyzed Through the Lens of Translanguaging and Technicality

und Florian Dreyer für seine Arbeit

Gestaltorientierungen in der Psychotherapie – Rekurrente Orientierungen am Modell und ihre therapeutische Wirksamkeit

mit dem Hermann-Paul-Preis 2022 auszuzeichnen. 

Herzlichen Glückwunsch, Aline und Florian!

Die Preisverleihung fand am 28. Oktober 2022 an der Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg statt.

Dr. Stefanie Meier’s PhD on “Language education & the global care work economy. Mapping structural inequalities in Philippine nurse migration to Germany” is now available open access.

Former HPSL scholarship holder Dr. Stefanie Meier’s PhD on “Language education & the global care work economy. Mapping structural inequalities in Philippine nurse migration to Germany” is now available open access: https://edoc.unibas.ch/90104/

HPSL-Doktorand Philipp Freyburger verteidigt seine Doktorarbeit erfolgreich

HPSL-Doktorand Philipp Freyburger verteidigte erfolgreich seine Doktorarbeit “Narrative Rekonstruktion sinnlicher Erfahrungswelten. Multimodale und multimediale Analysen von italienisch-, französisch- und deutschsprachigen Zeitzeugenberichten aus Arbeits- und Konzentrationslagern”. Die Arbeit wurde mit der Bestnote summa cum laude ausgezeichnet. Die HPSL gratuliert Philipp herzlich zu diesem Erfolg!

HPSL-Stipendiat Dr. des. Robert Reinecke verteidigt seine Doktorarbeit erfolgreich

HPSL-Stipendiat Dr. des. Robert Reinecke verteidigte erfolgreich seine Doktorarbeit “Die interaktive Hervorbringung von Kreativität – Eine interaktionslinguistische Perspektive auf Kreativität in Werbeagenturen”. Die Arbeit wurde mit der Bestnote summa cum laude ausgezeichnet. Die HPSL gratuliert Robert herzlich zu diesem Erfolg!

HPSL scholarship holder Dr. des. Joelle Loew successfully defends her doctoral thesis on 15 September 2022

Dr. des. Joelle Loew successfully defended her PhD study entitled “‘Communication is everything.’ Identities and gender at work: a linguistic perspective on agile IT” and received a summa cum laude for her work. The HPSL congratulates Joelle on this achievement.

New project: Improving the visibility of Equatorial Guinea as a Spanish-speaking country

Am Seminar für Iberoromanistik wird ein neues Forschungsprojekt von Prof. Dr. Sandra Schlumpf-Thurnherr durch den SNF finanziert.

Kontakt: Prof. Dr. Sandra Schlumpf-Thurnherr

Background: Equatorial Guinea presents an exceptional research field within the studies of the Spanish language. Geographically located in southern Africa, on the equator, in the Gulf of Guinea, it is today the only Hispanophone country in Africa (except for the politically sensitive case of Western Sahara) and thus offers a completely unique view of the world language Spanish, complementary to Europe and America. Despite this outstanding position, Equatorial Guinea still occupies a marginal status in studies on the dialectology, history, sociolinguistics and language contacts of Spanish. Although some important authors in the field of Spanish linguistics, such as De Granda, Quilis, Casado-Fresnillo or Lipski, have dedicated part of their work to Equatorial Guinea, modern publications are rare, which is why knowledge of the Equatoguinean variety of Spanish is still fragmentary. Its invisibility in studies about Spanish is intensified by a widespread lack of knowledge and consciousness about this only Hispanophone country in southern Africa and a still dominantly European view on African realities based on (post)colonial stereotypes, evaluations and hierarchizations. In fact, the general knowledge about Equatorial Guinea within the Spanish-speaking world is very incomplete, which is particularly surprising in the case of Spain, since Equatorial Guinea only gained its independence from Spain just over 50 years ago (1968).

Overall aim of the project: The proposed research project aims at filling the existing research gap about Equatorial Guinea and at improving its visibility as part of the global Hispanophone world. Modern research data will be provided and critical questions answered, to show its relevance for Hispanic studies and to overcome traditional images about Equatorial Guinea and its Spanish, often perceived as a “peripheric”, “incomplete”, “incorrect”, “exceptional” or “non-standard” variety. The proposed project is divided into two complementary subprojects.

Objectives, methods and expected results: The main part of this research project focuses on dialectological and sociolinguistic data collection in Equatorial Guinea (both on the island of Bioko and on mainland Río Muni). Its main objective is to generatemodern dialectological and sociolinguistic descriptions of Spanish in Equatorial Guinea through the collection and analysis of sociolinguistic guideline interviews and linguistic tests and questionnaires. The interview transcripts will constitute the first modern and digital corpus of spoken Equatoguinean Spanish. Sociolinguistic analyses on language perception, attitudes and ideologies will be possible; and the digital analyses of specific linguistic features combined with the results from the tests and questionnaires will allow to elaborate modern dialectological descriptions on different linguistic levels. Classical summaries about Equatoguinean Spanish in linguistic manuals can be revised and completed, and an answer can be given to the important question about the internal (diatopic, diastratic, diaphasic, ethnic) homogeneity or diversity of Equatoguinean Spanish. Furthermore, this Equatoguinean corpus can be compared with existing interviews with Equatoguineans in Madrid, Spain (habilitation project S. Schlumpf-Thurnherr).

Impact: The proposed project offers multiple and diverse views on Equatorial Guinea, raises awareness about its importance within the linguistic research community and in Equatorial Guinea itself, and contributes considerably to the knowledge about and the visibilization of this unique Hispanophone country in Africa.