Language Culture Matters Seminar Series

Convenors: Holly Warner, Dr Clay Becker

When: Every Wednesday, 16:00-17:00 BST/GMT, Weeks 2-9 of Term (14th October 2026 - 2nd December 2026)

Where: A0.23 (Social Sciences Building, University of Warwick) and Microsoft Teams (linked below)

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Please note:

Seminar on 4th November 2026 is held on Microsoft Teams ONLY

Seminar on 2nd December is held in A1.11 (Social Sciences Building, University of Warwick) and Microsoft Teams (linked below)

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Wednesday 14/10/2026 - 16:00-17:00 BST

What Do Iconic Gestures Communicate to Children?

Dr Suzanne Aussems, University of Warwick

Abstract

Iconic gestures are meaningful hand and body movements that people naturally produce while speaking. They are common in both adult-to-adult and adult-to-child communication, but how much information do children actually glean from these gestures? In this talk, I will explore how children interpret iconic gestures and the role these communicative behaviours play in supporting memory and learning. Drawing on research with young children, I will consider what gestures communicate beyond speech, how children use gesture information to understand meaning, and whether gestures help children remember and learn new information. Together, these findings shed light on the ways in which gesture and speech work together to support children’s language development and learning.

Bio

Dr Suzanne Aussems is an Associate Professor in Psychology at the University of Warwick, where she has been based since 2020, initially as an Assistant Professor and, since July 2025, as an Associate Professor. She completed her PhD in Psychology at the University of Warwick (2014–2017), followed by two postdoctoral fellowships at Warwick (2017–2019). From 2019 to 2020, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher in developmental psychology at Royal Holloway, University of London. Her research examines how children understand and learn from multimodal communication, with a particular focus on the role of gesture and prosody in children’s language development and learning.

Email - s.aussems.1@warwick.ac.uk

LinkedIn - suzanneaussems

Bluesky - suzanneaussems.bsky.social

Website - https://suzanneaussems.github.io/

Wednesday 21/10/2026 - 16:00-17:00 BST

Western Irish English in Fiction

Christophe Coupé-Jamet, Florent Chevalier, Airelle Théveniaut

Abstract

This presentation explores a fictional, close-knit linguistic community set on the island of Inisherin, off the west coast of Ireland. Martin McDonagh’s film, The Banshees of Inisherin (2022), depicts the insular life of the islanders, offering a productive entry point for examining fictional linguistic representations of Western Irish English.

The study focuses on six central characters (Pádraic Súilleabháin, Colm Doherty, Siobhán Súilleabháin, Dominic Kearney, Garda Peadar Kearney, and Mrs McCormick) to test the hypothesis that close-knit island communities are more likely to exhibit a uniform linguistic system (Schreier 2003), while also employing non-standard phonetic variants to index Irish insularity (Milroy 2008).

Following the extraction of the film’s soundtrack, acoustic and auditory analyses were conducted using Praat. Each feature was annotated on a separate tier to facilitate data extraction. Drawing on the literature on Western Irish English (Henry 1958; Hickey 2007; Kallen 2013; Ó hÚrdail 1997; Peters 2012, 2016; Tallon 2022), the following variables were examined: schwa epenthesis in coda consonant clusters (such as /lm/, /ln/, /rm/, /rn/, and /rl/), slit-t, dental stops, FACE and GOAT monophthongs, and the distribution of falling, rise-falling, and rising intonation contours.

References

Boersma, P. & Weenink, D. (2025). Praat: doing phonetics by computer [Computer program]. Version 6.4.44, retrieved 25 September 2025 from https://praat.org.

Harris, J. (1993). “The Grammar of Irish English”, in J. Milroy and L. Milroy (Eds.) Real English: the Grammar of English Dialects in the British Isles.

Henry, P. L. (1958). “A Linguistic Survey of Ireland: Preliminary Report”, in Norsk Tidskrit for Sprogvidenskab 1, 49-208. Oslo: Universitetsforlaget.

Hickey, R. (2007). Irish English: History and Present-Day Forms. Cambridge: University Press.

Kallen, J. L. (2013). Irish English Volume 2: The Republic of Ireland. Boston and Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.

McDonagh, M. (2022). The Banshees of Inisherin. Searchlight Pictures, TSG Entertainment Blueprint Pictures, Film4.

Milroy, L. (2008). “Social Networks”, in J. K. Chambers, P. Trudgill and N. Schilling-Estes (Eds.), The Handbook of Language Variation and Change, 549-572. Malden: Blackwell.

O’Dwyer, F. (2019). “Slit-t in Dublin English”, in J.-A. Villena-Ponsoda, F. Díaz Montesinos, A. M. Ávila-Muñoz, and M. Vida-Castro (Eds.), Language Variation—European Perspectives VII: Selected papers from the Ninth International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE 9), Malaga, June 2017, 159-174. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/silv.22.10odw

Ó hÚrdail, R. (1997a). “Confusion of Dentality and Alveolarity in Dialects of Hiberno-English”, in J. Kallen (Ed.), Focus on Ireland, 133-152. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.

Tallon, K. (2022). “DRESS-raising in Connemara English: Shedding Light on the Role of Irish”, ExLing 2022, 165-168. https://doi.org/10.36505/ExLing-2022/13/0042/000584

Peters, A. (2012). “Linguistic change in Galway City English: A Study of Phonological Features in the District of Bóthar Mór”, in B. Migge and M. Ní Chiosáin (Eds.) New Perspectives on Irish English, 29-46. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.

Peters, A. (2016). Linguistic change in Galway City English. A Variationist Sociolinguistic Study of (th) and (dh) in Urban Western Irish English. Peter Lang Edition: Lausanne.

Schreier, D. (2003). “Insularity and linguistic endemicity”, Journal of English Linguistics, 31(3), 249-272.

Bio

Christophe Coupé-Jamet is a lecturer in English Linguistics at the Faculty of International and Intercultural Studies (Faculté des Études Internationales et Interculturelles – FE2i) at CY Cergy Paris University, and a member of the LT2D research group (Lexiques, Textes, Discours, Dictionnaires – EA 7518). He is also the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Spoken Englishes – Journal in English Variation Studies, as well as a Sub-Editor for the international Scopus-indexed journal Lexis – Journal in English Lexicology.

His research focuses on Irish English, with a particular focus on Dublin English, bridging the fields of phonology, phonetics, sociolinguistics, corpus linguistics, and perceptual dialectology.

He has also worked in lexicology and discourse analysis in specialized contexts, with a particular focus on the discursive conceptualization of mental illness and ageing.

christophe.coupe@u-cergy.fr

https://www.cyu.fr/recherche-innovation/annuaire-chercheurs/coupe-jamet-christophe

https://www.linkedin.com/in/christophe-coup%C3%A9-jamet-13b90b207/

Wednesday 04/11/2026 - 16:00-17:00 GMT ONLINE ONLY

Critical imagination, AI futures and education

Prof Jen Ross, University of Edinburgh

Abstract

To build decent futures for AI in education, we have to recognise and work critically with many future visions and imaginaries of AI already around us. These futures are in the form of promises and predictions made influential by their uptake in the media, in policy and in educational practices. But they are also in the form of the voices and perspectives of researchers, teachers and learners, whose views of the future of education – hopeful, resigned, dystopian, critical and more – give us a range of different possibilities to work with. Drawing on findings from several research projects using speculative approaches for exploring education futures, this talk will explore AI in education as a situation of ‘not-yetness’, where expectation and uncertainty combine. The complexity that results from this not-yetness gives us space to encounter possibilities that open up critical imagination and keep the future moving.

Bio

Jen Ross is Professor of Digital Culture and Education Futures at the University of Edinburgh, where she is co-director of the Centre for Research in Digital Education and Associate Dean (Research Cultures) in the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences. Her research interests include education and cultural heritage futures, emerging technologies (including Generative AI), open and online education, and the intersections of surveillance and trust. Her 2023 book, Digital Futures for Learning (Routledge), explores speculative approaches to researching and teaching about the future.

https://www.de.ed.ac.uk/people/professor-jen-rossLink opens in a new window

https://www.linkedin.com/in/drjenross/Link opens in a new window

Wednesday 11/11/2026 - 16:00-17:00 GMT

What happens after the analysis? A workshop confronting what our research does in the world - and what it could do next

Dr Erika Darics, CLAMAC, University of Groningen

Abstract

Linguists, sociolinguists and discourse analysts have powerful tools for showing how language shapes social realities. We know that language matters, but what happens after the analysis? Who needs to know what our research has revealed - and what could they do with that knowledge?

This interactive workshop introduces Critical Language Awareness (CLA) as a practical framework that extends scholarly work from analytical insight into teaching, professional practice, public engagement and real-world impact. CLA helps us translate what we know about language into opportunities for others to notice how meaning is made. In doing so, people can recognise the assumptions and power relations embedded in discourse, reflect on their own communicative practices, and develop the agency to do things differently.

We have two exciting case studies in store. The first reports on our CLAMAC project exploring why entrepreneurship education urgently needs the magic touch of critical discourse analysts - and why CLA belongs in its curricula. The second shows that even a field as seemingly distant as space science can benefit from a CLA lens. We will also draw on other impact activities (a wild ride from online learning platforms to theatre stages).

You will have a go at “CLA-fying" your research: to think about how your own work might be extended, who could benefit from it, and what you want that audience to notice. We will also discuss how your research findings can be transformed into a teaching activity, public resource, professional intervention or another form of impact.

Come with a research project. Leave with an idea for what it could do next.

If you have time, please read:

Darics, E., Staschen, O., Drury, M., Chojnicka, J., Mazzoli, M., Olthof, J., Serafis, D., & Wildfeuer, J. (2025). Critical Language Awareness as a future imperative: Seeing the “water”. Frontiers in Communication, 10, 1623193. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2025.1623193

And/or watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ATn1fvkxB0

Bio

CLAMAC - Critical Language and Multimodal Awareness Competence is an NRO /Dutch national agency/ project, funded under the scheme “Higher Education for the future”. It empowers future professionals with critical thinking and analytical skills essential for transformative change. The project develops a toolkit with educational materials and evidence-based methods to integrate CLMA into higher education curricula. Beyond equipping students, the project aims to inspire broader curriculum reform, demonstrating the transformative power of language and communication in building a sustainable, equitable future.

https://responsus.org/clamac/community/

Wednesday 18/11/2026 - 16:00-17:00 GMT

Exploring teacher CPD in the ether: How rural Chinese English teachers experience online professional development webinars in English

Fraser Bewick, University of Warwick

Abstract

This presentation explores how English teachers working in rural and low-resource areas across mainland China experience English-medium professional development webinars provided by the British Council. While English-medium resources can provide access to perspectives and ideas not readily available through local CPD, using English as the medium may also create barriers to engagement, whether perceived or actual. Online CPD offers opportunities to overcome geographical barriers faced by rural teachers, but access does not necessarily mean that teachers can engage with or benefit from it.

Drawing on data from three authentic, publicly available webinars, the presentation examines teachers’ engagement and experiences, focusing on comprehension, relevance, participation and perceived value. It identifies factors that support or constrain engagement and considers practical ways of making English-medium online CPD more accessible. These findings form part of a wider mixed-methods study seeking to identify the underlying mechanisms influencing teachers’ perceptions and experiences of online English-medium CPD.

Bio

Fraser Bewick is originally from Glasgow, Scotland. He has worked in English Language Teaching (ELT) for over 20 years, primarily in China and Southeast Asia. A former academic manager and trainer with the British Council, Fraser has worked across public school and higher education contexts both in ELT and English-Medium Instruction (EMI). He remains involved in national textbook development in China and currently also supports teacher educator communities through British Council Meta platforms. Fraser holds a DELTA and an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership and is currently a PhD candidate in ELT and Applied Linguistics at the University of Warwick.

Wednesday 25/11/2026 - 16:00-17:00 GMT

Indigenous Digital Futures: ‘Synthetic Indigeneity’ and Algorithmic Power in the AI Era

Dr Chiara Minestrelli, London College of Communication

Abstract

Increased engagement with digitally mediated environments has led to the emergence of spaces with tangible socio-political impact, as communities gather around platforms and infrastructures that shape interaction, visibility, and value (see Duarte, 2014; Lewis et al., 2018; McMahon et al., 2014; Ormond-Parker et al., 2013; Wallis and Ross, 2021). These digital environments can foster forms of place-making, creativity, belonging, and contestation, while simultaneously exposing underrepresented and stigmatised groups to new risks (Carlson and Frazer, 2018b; Mohammad Afshar, 2020). With the rise of increasingly powerful AI tools, these dynamics are further intensified.

Looking at the ways in which ‘Indigeneity’ is increasingly produced, circulated, and contested within algorithmic systems, I argue here that AI does not simply mediate Indigenous presence. It actively participates in the generation of what I refer to as ‘synthetic Indigeneity’, namely, a set of visual, cultural, and affective forms shaped by platform logics, datasets, and economies of attention. This paper thus aims to explore four aspects connected to this notion: the proliferation of AI-generated ‘Indigenous’ imagery on stock platforms, where ‘Indigeneity’ becomes a searchable and monetisable aesthetic category; the circulation of AI-generated Indigenous personas on social media, which raise questions of authenticity, authority, and digital performance; Indigenous-led artistic refusals of generative AI as a form of cultural governance and boundary-making; and critical artistic engagements with AI systems.

Through these cases, the paper shifts attention from narratives of technological adoption to the conditions under which ‘Indigeneity’ is algorithmically rendered, commodified, appropriated and contested. It argues that contemporary AI systems extend earlier colonial and platform logics not only through data extraction, but through the ‘synthetic’ reproduction of cultural identity itself. At the same time, Indigenous artists and practitioners intervene in these processes through strategies of refusal, critique, and reconfiguration, opening up alternative technological imaginaries that move beyond inclusion towards forms of epistemic and cultural sovereignty (Carlson and Berglund, 2021; Mejias and Couldry, 2024; Vizenor, 1999; Worrell and Carlson, 2025).

In reflecting on these critical themes, I draw on affect theory (Carlson and Frazer, 2021; Dixon-Román, 2023; Papacharissi, 2016) and Indigenous methods and theories (Archibald, 2008; Archibald, et al., 2019; Chilisa, 2012; Driskill et al., 2011; Kovach, 2009). In addition, I combine Apparaisal Theory (Martin and White, 2005) with a social semiotic approach to multimodal critical discourse analysis (Kress and Van Leeuwen, 1996; Machin and Mayr, 2012) to examine how language and images construct evaluations of ‘Indigeneity’ and invite particular emotional responses.

Bio

Dr Chiara Minestrelli is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Media at the London College of Communication (University of the Arts London) and Course Leader of the BA (Hons) Contemporary Media Cultures (Communications and Media Programme). She holds a doctorate in Indigenous Studies from Monash University (Melbourne, Australia) and has published on Indigenous expressive cultures and their connections to questions of identity and politics. More recently, Dr Minestrelli has been looking at Indigenous political mobilisation and connections to culture and country through digital and social media. She is currently working on a collaborative project that employs virtual reality to narrate stories from the perspective of Indigenous cultural artefacts, thus raising questions on human/more-than-human relations, anticolonial, decolonising and participatory research, repatriation of cultural objects and VR for storytelling and cultural connection. In addition, Dr. Minestrelli serves as one of the directors of the Centre for Indigenous and Settler Colonial Studies (CISC).

Wednesday 02/12/2026 - 16:00-17:00 GMT ROOM A1.11

TITLE TBC

Prof Olympia Palikara, University of Warwick

Abstract

TBC

Bio

TBC

See the recordings of our previous seminars here (please note that not all seminars are recorded):

Language Culture Matters Seminar RecordingsLink opens in a new window

See the list of our previous seminars here:

Language Culture Matters Seminar ArchiveLink opens in a new window