Stockholm university
Denna sida på svenska

Linus SalöProfessor

About me

I am Professor, Research Leader and Deputy Director at the Centre for Research on Bilingualism. Engaging broadly with language policy, ideology and practice, my work spans the gamut from language issues and phenomena in academia to mother tongue instruction and the impact of the humanities in wider society (see Research and Publications below – see also my Researchgate).

I have currently the following engagements

Mini CV

I hold a BA in Language Consultancy Work from Umeå University (2009), and a PhD in Bilingualism from Stockholm University (2016), where I became Docent (Associate Professor) in 2020 and Full Professor in 2023. Between 2017 and 2022 I worked in various capacities at the Royal Institute of Technology, Division of History of Science, Technology and Environment. Previously, I have also worked at the Language Council of Sweden and at Södertörn University.

In recent years, I have had a number of collegial assignments and have participated in several contexts relating to leadership, research, evaluation and expert tasks:

  • 2024–2025, I was External Expert in a national evaluation review of Sweden’s HEIs’ collaboration with surrounding society, run by the Swedish Higher Education Authority (UKÄ)
  • During 2024, I was Appointed Expert within the context of educational assessment at The University of Gothenburg as well as within a
  • 2022–2023, I was commissioned expert for the governmental committee Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Tornedalians, Kvens and Lantalaiset (SOU 2023:68), Ministry of Culture.
  • 2021–2023, I was International Expert at Independent Research Fund Denmark, Danish Minister for Higher Education and Science, and 2019–2023 I was Scientific Expert in the Reference Group for Revitalization Grants, Institute of Language and Folklore, Uppsala.
  • Between 2017 and 2023, I worked within the research project Making Universities Matter (Vinnova)
  • Between 2021 and 2024, I was engaged within the national, cross-institutional think tank Humtank, acting as its Co-Director 2023–2024.
  • 2021–2025, I was Director of Studies for the PhD Program in Bilingualism.
  • I have held several roles at the Department of Swedish Language and Multilingualism, such as Coordinator of Research and Collaboration. 

Teaching

I teach and supervise at all levels: from undergraduates to the PhD Studies Program. Broadly, my teaching deals with the sociolinguistics of multilingualism, history of thought in bilingualism research, language politics and ideology, and bilingual education. Another theme is methodological approaches within such research areas. Courses taught over the last few years include:

  • Multilingualism – in Individuals and Societies (2025, MA level)
  • Bilingualism from a Disciplinary and History of Ideas Perspective (2024, PhD level)
  • Bilingualism in Society (2024, MA level)
  • Critical Sociolinguistic Approaches to Bi- and Multilingualism Studies (2025, MA level) 
  • Advanced Studies in Sociolinguistic Approaches to Bi- and Multilingualism (2025, MA level)
  • Rethinking methodology in Language and Literature Educational Research (2023, PhD level)
  • Ethical Research Design for a Postdigital and Globalized Era (2023, PhD level)
  • Bilingualism from an Educational Perspective (MA level, 2023).

Previously taught courses include:

Sociolinguistic Research on Multilingualism, Bilingualism from a Field/Subject and Historical Perspective, Critical Sociolinguistic Approaches to Bi- and Multilingualism Studies, Advanced Studies in Sociolinguistic Approaches to Bi- and Multilingualism, Thesis Course in Swedish as a Second Language, Sociolinguistic Perspectives on Multilingualism, Society, Culture and Industry in a Historical Perspective, Text analysis and Multimodality, Discourse and Pragmatics in Professional Life, Sociolinguistic and Sociopolitical approaches to Multilingualism, Bilingualism in Society, Oral and Written Communication in Health Communication, Educational Science, Organization and steering in the Public Sphere.

Research

I am active in a number of fields, including sociolinguistics,  bi/multilingualism, language policy, linguistic anthropology, science studies (history, sociology and sociolinguistics of science), and sociology of knowledge and education. First and foremost, my work deals with language policy and multilingualism in society. This includes historical enquiries into the education of linguistic minorities and other matters pertaining to minority language policy. Another bedrock knowledge interest is the sociolinguistics of science in the era of internationalization, as unfolding within publishing language, language of instruction and workplace discourse. Within science studies, I also take an interest in science–society interaction, practices of research evaluation, knowledge impact and knowledge politics of the humanities. I edited 4 volumes and a special issue, authored one research monograph and some 60 scientific publications (see below).

Publications (all types)

2025/In press: peer reviewed and other scientific

  • [103] Müller, K., Sörlin, S. & Salö, L. In Press. The peer review transition: Editorial responses to the formalization of quality cultures in humanities journals. Minerva.
  • [102] Holmes, L. & Salö, L. In press. Echoes of linguistic internationalism: Voice, access, and (ir)responsibility in the internationalising Swedish humanities. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2025.2562097
  • [101] Karlander, D. & Salö, L. In press. Historicizing semilingualism: On the theoretical origins of a linguistic pathology. Makoni, S., Severo, C. & Abdelhay, A. (Eds.) Insecurities in Language Policy and Planning: Decolonial Theories and Practices. Multilingual Matters.
  • [100] Salö, L., Benner, M., Hammar, I., Hammarfelt, B. & Schubert. Cultures of humanities publishing: Introducing the PACE-index to understand diversity and conformity in scholarly communication. PREPRINT (Version 1) available at Research Square https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7507698/v1
  • [99] Salö, L. 2025. For metascience: A postscript. In Soler, J. & Kaufhold, K. (Eds.) Language and the Knowledge Economy. Multilingual Scholarly Publishing in Europe, 210–228. New York: Routledge. http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9781003413066-14 

2025: debate, outreach, science communication 

2024: peer reviewed and other scientific 

2024: debate, outreach, science communication 

2023: peer reviewed and other scientific 

2023: debate, outreach, science communication 

2022: peer reviewed and other scientific  

2022: debate, outreach, science communication 

2021: peer reviewed and other scientific  

2021: debate, outreach, science communication 

2020: peer reviewed and other scientific  

2020: debate, outreach, science communication 

2019–2010

Research projects

Humanities in Transition

This project endeavors to map landscapes of humanities research in Sweden. It sets out to explore, on the one hand, trends and patterns of publishing and, on the other, ways on which research policy impacts on the humanities in Sweden as compared to the situation in other countries.

Painted grey and yellow, person seen from above, painting in the middle.
Language, Globalization, and the Nation

This workshop series, The Joint Committee for Nordic research councils in the Humanities and Social Sciences, explores how changing language practices and language ideologies are linked to the discursive (re/de)construction of the nation state and national identities in Denmark, Norway and Sweden in the time leading up to and following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Research
Making Universities Matter

Within this knowledge platform – funded by Vinnova – we set out to understand how universities arrange their activities and how they are aligned with different interests in society.

Research
Edit the profile

Professor of Bilingualism | sociolinguistics of multilingualism | language ideology and policy

profilePageLayout