Susanne Mohr
About
Background
I am Professor of English Sociolinguistics at the Department of Language and Literature, which I joined in August 2020. I hold a German postdoctoral degree ('Habilitation') in English and general linguistics from the University of Bonn and a PhD in linguistics from the University of Cologne.
My research after my postdoc (since 2018), has focused on the discursive construction of tourist spaces and their sociolinguistic make-up. This includes research on the intersection of formal and informal language learning in tourism in Zanzibar funded by a Feodor Lynen fellowship for a research stay at the University of Cape Town and a subsequent return fellowship granted by the Humboldt foundation, as well as a research fellowship by the Cluster of Excellence "Africa Multiple" in Bayreuth. A focus on the multimodal construction of semiotic landscapes and the multilingual expression of identity in digital tourist spaces in Zanzibar and in the Arctic emerged more recently. I continue this latter line of research in a project on space-making and precarity in East Africa, funded by a senior fellowship from the Erich Auerbach Institute for Advanced Studies in Cologne, a project on the semiotic landscape of Trondheim around the ski world championships 2025, and a project on sustainability discourses in cruise tourism in Norway, together with colleagues from Norway, Sweden and Germany, funded by NTNU Oceans.
I further pursue my interest in multimodality in research on communication in hunting among hunter-gatherer groups in Southern Africa, together with with colleagues from Portugal and South Africa.
Office hours
There are no office hours while I am on maternity leave.
Research
Research interests
My research is sociolinguistic and applied in nature, informed by (linguistic) anthropology and constructivism. My linguistic foci are varieties of English and contact languages in Africa, as well as sign languages, most notably Irish Sign Language and alternate sign languages. After coming to Norway, I also started researching language use in the Nordics, especially in the Norwegian cruise tourism industry, and joined the editorial board of Scandinavian Studies in Language. My central research interests are:
- Sociolinguistics: variational linguistics/varieties of English, multilingualism & language contact, postcolonial linguistics
- Anthropological linguistics: language attitudes & ideologies, informal language learning, typology, morphosyntax
- Pragmatics: multimodality, discourse & space, politeness, social media discourse
Current research
At NTNU, I am part of the research group "Semiotics of Communication in Interactive Languaging" (SOCIAL). I started a forum for applied and sociolinguistics called "Open Landscapes" in 2020, and I am a founding member of the "African Studies Collective" (2023).
I am actively involved in various interdisciplinary research projects with colleagues from Africa and Europe. This includes research on:
- tourism discourse, esp. on sustainability in offline and online tourist spaces of the Nordics [with C. Ackermann-Boström, Uppsala; M.-L. Brunner, Trier; C. Gerber, Cologne; T. Schnellinger, Trondheim], funded by NTNU Oceans
- place- and space-making in East Africa [with A. Mietzner, Cologne], funded by the Erich Auerbach Institute for Advanced Studies and ecological linguistic landscapes in selected African countries [with M. Kretzer, Aachen], funded by the ENHANCE alliance
- interdiscplinary perspectives on sound and text in African political and social spaces [with T. Abebe, A. Rasch & S. Hovde, Trondheim], funded by NTNU Community
- the semiotic landscape of Trondheim [with S. Hårstad, R. van Ommeren, R. Vangelokosta, Trondheim & S. Rottschäfer Dortmund]
- gestures in hunting in Southern Africa, e.g., in Tjwao [with A.-M. Fehn, Porto, A. Andrason, Cape Town & A. Phiri, Stellenbosch]
Besides my engagement at my home university, I am a member of several international networks on:
- social participation in linguistically diverse societies, Next Generation Literacies
- social spaces and language practices in Africa, the research groups 'Africa in the Indian Ocean' and 'Africa in the World' (AEGIS)
- linguistic diversity in Ireland, the Irish Deaf Research Network and the Irish English Research Network
- the language diversity, vitality and endangerment working group as part of the Language in the Human-Machine Era COST Network
Awards and fellowships
2024, Senior fellowship, Erich Auerbach Institute for Advanced Studies, Cologne.
Project: (In)visible borders in East Africa. Place- and space-making in a precarious world
2020 - 2021, Senior fellowship, Cluster of Excellence "Africa Multiple", Bayreuth.
Project: Language learning in superdiversity. A case study of the tourist space of Zanzibar
2020, Feodor Lynen return fellowship, Alexander von Humboldt foundation.
Project: The sociolinguistics of mobility on social media
2018 - 2019, Feodor Lynen fellowship, Alexander von Humboldt foundation.
Project: Linguistic repertoires and language choices in a superdiverse space. Language as commodity in tourism in Zanzibar
2017 - 2020, Appointed member of the "Junges Kolleg", North Rhine-Westphalian Academy of Sciences, Humanities and the Arts
2008 - 2011, PhD scholarship, a.r.t.e.s. Graduate School of the Humanities Cologne
Previous research & memberships
- New Englishes, New Methods network
- Co-leader of the interdisciplinary research group "Narrative across Media"
- Mass and countability from a cross-linguistic perspective, esp. in Ghanaian languages [with D. P. Agyepong, Legon]
- Varieties of English in the ELT classroom in Germany and the Nordic countries [with S. Jansen, Paderborn & J. Forsberg, Stockholm]; Global Englishes in ELT in Germany network
- Informal language learning and the work place in Norway [with T. Aagaard, B. Myhre & K. Johansen, Trondheim]
Publications
I have published monographs, article collections and individual articles and book chapters on issues relating to my research in sociolinguistics, anthropological and applied linguistics. This includes, for instance, monographs on Nominal Pluralization and Countability in African Varieties of English in Routledge's Studies in World Englishes series in 2022, and Mouth Actions in Sign Languages - An Empirical Study of Irish Sign Language in De Gruyter's Sign Languages and Deaf Communities series in 2014. I have edited several special issues on topics relating to discourses and communicative interaction in Africa, most recently (2023) "Communicative Action and Interaction in Africa" in the Journal of Pragmatics (with Klaus P. Schneider & Jemima A. Anderson) and "African Sociolinguistics between Urbanity and Rurality" in Sociolinguistic Studies in 2020 (with Helene Steigertahl), as well as a volume on informal language learning entitled Learning Languages, Being Social (with Lindsay Ferrara) as part of the Anthropological Linguistics Series at De Gruyter in 2024. A special issue on"Multimodality in Africa and its diasporas" for the Journal of Postcolonial Linguistics is in preparation (with Tatjana Schnellinger & Dorothy P. Agyepong). You can find a full list of publications here.
Most recent publications:
2024
Learning Languages, Being Social. Informal Language Learning and Socialization in Additional Languages. Berlin & Boston: De Gruyter Mouton; with Lindsay Ferrara.
Hunting gestures in Tjwao. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics 45(2): 185-213; with Alexander Andrason, Admire Phiri, Ndliso Sibanda and Mthandazo Vundla.
Setting the scene: Informal language learning and socialization in additional languages. In Susanne Mohr & Lindsay Ferrara (eds.) Learning Languages, Being Social. Boston & Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 1-15; with Lindsay Ferrara.
Bergen? A semiotic landscape analysis of arrival in Bergen, Norway. Linguistic Landscape 10(3): 273-301.
English-medium instruction in higher education in East Africa. In Kingsley Bolton, Werner Botha & Benedict Lin (eds.) Routledge Handbook of English-Medium Instruction in Higher Education. Routledge, 297-310; with David Barasa.
Irish Sign Language. Ireland's third official language. In Raymond Hickey (ed.) The Oxford Handbook of Irish English. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 646-686; with Lorraine Leeson.
2023
Communicative Action and Interaction in Africa. Special issue of the Journal of Pragmatics; with Klaus P. Schneider and Jemima A. Anderson.
Communicative action and interaction in Africa: Towards a broader picture [Editorial]. Journal of Pragmatics 215: 96-100; with Klaus P. Schneider and Jemima A. Anderson.
Sociolinguistics in Southern Africa. In Martin J. Ball, Rajend Mesthrie and Chiara Meluzzi (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Sociolinguistics around the World (2nd edition). London & New York: Routledge, 400-411; with Irina Turner and Sibonile Ellece.
"For explorers by explorers". A discursive analysis of cruise tourism in Norway. Scandinavian Studies in Language 14(1): 1-29; with Constanze Ackermann-Boström.
2022
Nominal Pluralization and Countability in African Varieties of English. Oxon & New York: Routledge.
Investigating English in multilingual contexts online: Identity construction in geotagged Instagram data. Frontiers in Communication 6: 778050. doi: 10.3389/fcomm.2021.778050.
The cultural adaptation of quantity judgment tasks in Ghanaian English and Akan. Contemporary Journal of African Studies 9(2): 120-146; with Dorothy P. Agyepong.
Gesture, sign languages and multimodality. In Svenja Völkel and Nico Nassenstein (eds.) Approaches to Language and Culture. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, 159-196; with Anastasia Bauer.
Language ideologies in the English language classroom: suggestions for EIL informed teacher education. In Marcus Callies, Stefanie Hehner, Philipp Meer and Michael Westphal (eds.) Glocalising Teaching English as an International Language: New Perspectives for Teaching and Teacher Education in Germany. London & New York: Routledge, 63-81; with Sandra Jansen & Julia Forsberg.
Review of Storch, Anne and Angelika Mietzner (2021) The Impact of Tourism in East Africa: A Ruinous System. Bristol: Channel View. Journal of Postcolonial Linguistics 8: 25-30.
Language ideologies and media ideologies. In Britta Schneider and Bettina Migge (eds.) Changing Language Ideological Concepts in the Human-Machine Era. Questions, Themes and Topics. LITHME. doi: 1013140/RG.2.2.25867.36649; with Britta Schneider & Bettina Migge.
Teaching
Teaching experience and foci
I have taught internationally in higher education, especially in Germany, South Africa and Norway. Topics included sociolinguistics (e.g. language attitudes, varieties of English), general linguistics (e.g. introduction to linguistics, phonology), applied linguistics (e.g. translation studies, methods in applied linguistics) and sign language linguistics (e.g. introduction to sign language linguistics, iconicity). At NTNU, I teach courses on (English) sociolinguistics at BA and MA level, and in the Take Credit programme for in-service teachers, such as Varieties of English (ENG1001), Global English (ENG6026), Sociolinguistic Theory and Methods (SPRÅK3100), Research Methods in Linguistics (SPRÅK3001), interdisciplinary courses together with colleagues from cultural studies (ENG2501, most recently with the topic "Africa in the postcolony") and independent study courses on sociolinguistic topics (SPRÅL3800).
Further, I am a member of the study programme council (studieprogramråd) for English.
Supervision
I supervise MA and PhD candidates in my teaching areas, and relating to my research interests mentioned above. Ongoing MA projects at NTNU are being conducted on, for instance, code-switching in K-pop and K-drama and Irish English accent features in the TV show Derry Girls. I also mentor postdoctoral researchers.
Completed MA projects at NTNU are:
Alnes, S. E. (2022). Linguistic stereotyping of South African Englishes via the /r/-sound: A sociolinguistic case study of Trevor Noah's impersonations of South Africans.
Bøe, K. G. (2022). "Jeg kan ikke tro at jeg ser det in real life altså". A sociolinguistic study of English borrowings in Norwegian youth radio.
Buseth, A. S. (2024). Emotion in informal language learning. How participation in an online gaming-oriented Discord community impacts learners' attitudes towards English.
Grytten, E. S. (2024) Attitudes toward outer and expanding-circle accents of English. A mixed methods approach on accent evaluation from a South African point of view.
Meyer, M. M. K. (2023). Is it impolite, or is it just Norwegian? A study of email etiquette in staff-student correspondence.
Olsen, R. (2024) Teachers' attitudes towards post-colonial Englishes in Norwegian ELT.
Søreng, E. K. (2023). Code-switching on TikTok. Characteristics of and motivations for English-Norwegian code-switching on social media.
Teichroeb, E. A. (2022). Norwegian attitudes toward non-native English speakers and accents.
Watering Love, M. (2023). How bad can it be? A look at attitudes to swear words amongst adult learners of English as a foreign language.
Ongoing PhD projects are:
Tatjana Schnellinger. Kiss-Teeth and Cut-Eye in impolite discourse contexts: Afro-Surinamese co-speech gestures and pragmatic markers in multilingual interactions [working title]. PhD in Language and Linguistics, NTNU.
Lionel Sango. The speech act of apology in urban Cameroon [working title]. External supervisor, PhD in English Linguistics, University of Heidelberg.
Mentoring of postdoctoral projects:
Billian K. Otundo. Multilingual learning spaces: Translanguaging practices in the Kenyan classroom. English Linguistics, University of Bayreuth.
Outreach
2024
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Academic lectureMohr, Susanne. (2024) Englishes, tourism and sustainability from a Nordic perspective. Nordic Editors and Translators ry English as a Lingua Nordica conference , Turku 2024-08-30 - 2024-08-31
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Academic lectureMohr, Susanne. (2024) Exclusive flows? The discursive and communicative construction of offline and online spaces in Zanzibar. Auerbach lecture , Cologne 2024-06-03 -
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Academic lectureMohr, Susanne; Ackermann-Boström, Constanze; Schnellinger, Tatjana Juliana Shannon; Brunner, Marie-Louise. (2024) Under SCRUTINY – Exploring Multimodal Sustainability Discourses in Norwegian Cruise Tourism. Sustainability and Tourism: Interdisciplinary Perspectives 2024-05-14 -
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Academic lectureMohr, Susanne; Brunner, Marie-Louise; Schnellinger, Tatjana Juliana Shannon. (2024) The semiotic landscape of cruise tourism in Norway - Stylistic considerations on multimodal sustainability discourses. Poetics and Linguistics Association conference , Sheffield 2024-06-26 - 2024-06-29
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Academic lectureBrunner, Marie-Louise; Mohr, Susanne. (2024) Multimodal and multilingual practices in “floating cities”? – Sustainability discourses as a factor in identity negotiation. Biennial International Conference on the Linguistics of Contemporary English 10 , Alicante 2024-09-24 - 2024-09-28
2023
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Academic lectureMohr, Susanne; Ackermann-Boström, Constanze. (2023) Ship ahoy! Exploring the Norwegian coast through linguistic ethnography in motion. Under SCRUTINY: Exploring sustainability and cruise tourism in Norway from a sociocultural and linguistic perspective , Trondheim 2023-11-17 - 2023-11-17
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Academic lectureMohr, Susanne; Trøen, Oda. (2023) Velkommen til Bergen! A semiotic landscape analysis of arrival in Bergen, Norway. Linguistic Landscape Workshop 14 , Madrid 2023-09-06 - 2023-09-08
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Academic lectureMohr, Susanne. (2023) World Englishes and transnational flows: A discursive analysis of the promotion of yoga retreats online. International Association of World Englishes Conference 25 2023-06-15 - 2023-06-17
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Academic lectureMohr, Susanne. (2023) Eudemonic tendencies in contemporary African tourism. Searching for meaningfulness or chasing fantasies?. European Conference on African Studies 9 2023-05-31 - 2023-06-03
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Academic lectureMohr, Susanne; Schnellinger, Tatjana Juliana Shannon; Andrason, Alexander; Fehn, Anne-Maria. (2023) Finding the needle in a haystack – sustainability in complex fieldwork practices. Sustainable linguistics: theories and methods , Helsinki 2023-08-24 - 2023-08-25
2022
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Academic lectureMohr, Susanne. (2022) Some considerations on sociolinguistics, tourism and sustainability. Interdisciplinary understandings of sustainability in and for linguistics , Roskilde 2022-05-23 - 2022-05-24
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Academic lectureMohr, Susanne. (2022) Performing cultural imaginaries under global capitalism: Insights from tourism in Zanzibar. Anglistentag 2022 , Mainz 2022-09-02 - 2022-09-05
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Academic lectureMohr, Susanne. (2022) Critical perspectives on applied linguistics and tourism research. 11th Bonn Applied English Linguistics Conference , Bonn 2022-06-24 - 2022-06-25
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Academic lectureMohr, Susanne; Ackermann-Boström, Constanze. (2022) "For explorers by explorers": A sociolinguistic study of the cruise tourism industry in Norway . Sosiolingvistisk nettverk konferanse , Tromsø 2022-04-21 - 2022-04-22
2021
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Academic lectureMohr, Susanne. (2021) The meaning of I love you: A multimodal analysis of the representation of South African Sign Language on social media. Institut für Ethnologie und Afrikastudien Anthropological Linguistics: Insights into Language and Culture , Mainz/online 2021-04-20 -
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Academic lectureMohr, Susanne. (2021) Tourism discourse online: A case study of hashtags in Instagram posts from Zanzibar. International Society for the Linguistics of English conference 6 , Joensuu/online 2021-06-02 - 2021-06-05
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Academic lectureAckermann-Boström, Constanze; Mohr, Susanne. (2021) 'For explorers by explorers'. A discursive analysis of cruise tourism in Norway. Institutionen för moderna språk, Uppsala Universitet Högre seminarium i tyska 2021-12-08 -
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Academic lectureMohr, Susanne. (2021) "Kwa quotes nzuri za kiswahili kuhusu mapenzi na maisha follow hapa". Inspirational quotes as advice activity in the digital linguistic landscape of Zanzibar. "Africa Multiple" Cluster of Excellence Workshop "Advice in African multilingual contexts" , Bayreuth 2021-10-07 - 2021-10-08
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Academic lectureJansen, Sandra; Mohr, Susanne; Reckermann, Julia. (2021) Rethinking CLT's principle of fluency before accuracy in times of World Englishes. Anglistentag 2021 , Passau/online 2021-09-19 - 2021-09-22
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Academic lectureMohr, Susanne. (2021) Transdisciplinary approaches to investigating Englishes in their multilingual environments: methodological and ethical considerations. Linguistics Society of Ghana , online 2021-01-15 -
2020
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Academic lectureMohr, Susanne; Renkwitz, Katrin. (2020) Ireland's languages from a multimodal perspective: Focus on Irish Sign Language and Irish English. Linguistisches Kolloquium , Würzburg 2020-12-08 -
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Programme participationMohr, Susanne. (2020) #ResearchAcrossBorders (Wissenschaftler*innen des Jungen Kollegs der Nordrhein-Westfälischen Akademie der Wissenschaften und Künste). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v5PcrDMXns&feature=youtu.be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9v5PcrDMXns&feature=youtu.be [Internet] 2020-04-30
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Academic lectureMohr, Susanne. (2020) Language learning in the Zanzibari tourist space: Some considerations on the concept of 'grassroots'. Bayreuth Academy of Advanced African Studies, Cluster of Excellence 'Africa Multiple' , Bayreuth 2020-05-23 - 2020-05-23
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Academic lectureMohr, Susanne; Renkwitz, Katrin. (2020) Multimodal politeness in Ireland: A cross-linguistic comparison of Irish Sign Language and Irish English. Symposium on Multimodal (Im)Politeness , online (hosted in Zurich) 2020-10-23 - 2020-10-23
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Academic lectureMohr, Susanne. (2020) -6.161098, 39.191684: Working with geotagged Instagram data in linguistic tourism research. New Englishes, New Methods, New Modes Workshop , online 2020-06-19 - 2020-06-19