The Department’s research has benefited from financial support from the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) and the Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation (Riksbankens Jubileumsfond) as described below.

Two major research areas, World Englishes and academic uses of English, reflect the current status of English as a global language. Thus, alongside the Department’s literary scholars’ interest in post-colonial writers, members of staff (including Peter Sundkvist, who is among the world’s leading experts on the Scandinavian-influenced English of the Shetland Islands north of Scotland) are working in World Englishes, or varieties of English. Beyza Björkman Nylén has built up a name for herself with work on the use of English as a lingua franca in academic environments.

Academic English and its uses for teaching, learning and publication purposes form a closely-related focus of interest in the Department. For example, Maria Kuteeva, Beyza Björkman Nylén, Kathrin Kaufhold, Spela Mezek have an increasing number of publications in the area, contributing to a turn in the field towards studies of the learning process, in addition to textual studies. Other prominent reseach areas include language policy (Josep Soler), cognitive-functional approaches to language (Mikko Höglund), and various forms of communication in early English books and manuscripts (Hanna Salmi). Marta Andersson is a postdoc working on a project on impoliteness in digital communication.

Further information about current research areas is available on the personal webpages of all our academic staff and PhD students.

The Department runs a Higher Seminar in English linguistics every week and co-operates with other language departments in the FAS series of research seminars on second language acquisition.