I am an Associate Professor in Swedish at Södertörn University with a sustained research interest in communication and literacy practices in multilingual contexts shaped by migration. My work examines how literacy and interaction take shape in diverse multilingual settings, such as education, workplace, healthcare, and public authorities. Through ethnographic methods, I investigate how people engage with texts and talk in everyday situated interactions, exploring the role of these practices in shaping people’s identities.

My methodological approach draws on linguistic ethnography, encompassing text and discourse analysis, participant observation, and interviews. Theoretically, my work aligns with the sociolinguistics of globalization and discourse studies, providing a framework to understand the complex social dimensions of language use in multilingual environments. I completed my Ph.D. at Lancaster University, UK, where my doctoral research focused on the role of literacy in vocational education.

Here, you can find information about my current and past research projects.

Policies, practices, and perceptions of minority language education: teaching Greek in Sweden

2023-2025

This project investigates two parallel contexts of heritage language education in Sweden: state-provided mother tongue tuition (MTT) and community-led complementary schools. Using Greek language education as a case study, the primary aim is to examine and compare how these two systems construct language and cultural knowledge, as well as the roles assigned to Swedish and other languages. The project addresses questions related to policy frameworks, teaching practices, and perceptions among students, parents, and educators.

Adopting a linguistic ethnographic approach, the study combines participant observations, interviews, and discourse analysis to explore the educational experiences of students in these settings. This work contributes new perspectives to the fields of discourse studies and language ideologies in multilingual and migratory contexts, while offering broader insights into the dynamics of heritage language education within Sweden’s multilingual society.

The research team also includes Maria Rydell (Stockholm University) and Natalia Ganuza (Uppsala University).

Linguistic justice, global migration and Nordic welfare states

2023-2026

This interdisciplinary project explores linguistic justice within Nordic welfare institutions, focusing on the linguistic challenges faced by migrant families with children and older migrants. Researchers from the fields of social work, ethnology, and sociolinguistics collaborate to understand how linguistic power asymmetries impact access to social services, particularly in Sweden and Finland. Key research questions address the meaning of linguistic justice in multilingual settings, the nature of linguistic power imbalances in welfare encounters, and the concept of "authority literacy" from the perspectives of both service users and providers.

As a comparative study, this project involves researchers from Linné University, University West, and Södertörn University in Sweden, as well as Åbo Akademi in Finland. The research team includes Kristina Gustafsson, Camilla Nordberg, Hanna Kara, Eveliina Tolvanen, and Linnéa Åberg, in addition to myself. Methodologically, the study is grounded in Institutional Ethnography and Linguistic Ethnography, employing interviews, observations, and discourse analysis to examine multilingual interactions within welfare settings. Funded by the Swedish Research Council, this project aims to bridge policy and practice gaps and advance understanding of linguistic rights and social justice in the Nordic welfare model.

You can read more about the project here: https://lnu.se/en/research/research-projects/project-linguistic-justice-global-migration-and-the-nordic-welfare-state/ Länk till annan webbplats.

Past research projects

Migrants’ narratives in the asylum process

In this research project we examined the role that language and communication play in the Swedish asylum process. More specifically, the study examined how the narrative about the asylum seeker is shaped and reshaped during the asylum process and seeks to answers the following questions:

• How is the narrative about the asylum seeker co-constructed by the asylum seeker, the caseworker, the interpreter and the assigned counsel?
• How does the narrative change when it is converted from an oral into a written version in the Migration Agency’s draft decisions?
• How do the participants experience the interaction that takes place during the asylum interview and how do they make sense of the written documentation?

The project got funded by the Foundation for Baltic and East European Studies and the research team also included Hanna Sofia Rehnberg (Södertörn University) and Cecilia Wadensjö (Stockholm University).

Health literacy and knowledge construction in the information society

This research project was funded by the Swedish Research Council (2015-2017) and carried out at the universities of Uppsala, Södertörn and Stockholm, Sweden. It investigated how pregnant women and their partners, as well as parents to children with congenital heart defects, navigate through the resources offered by care givers, search engines, medical websites, private blogs, online social networks and patient organizations after receiving a pre-natal diagnosis of a congenital heart defect in their fetus. We studied how they experience communication with health care institutions, how they search, value and produce information and how they build knowledge about the heart defect and what it means to them. The research time also included: Anna-Malin Karlsson (Stockholm University) Ulla Melander Marttala (Uppsala Universoty) and Mats Landqvist (Södertörn University). The project was concluded in 2018. Results and relevant publications can be found here: https://www.su.se/forskning/forskningsprojekt/h%C3%A4lsolitteracitet-och-kunskapsbyggande-i-informationssamh%C3%A4llet Länk till annan webbplats, öppnas i nytt fönster.

Literacy and learning at the workplace: Swedish as a second language in the Swedish work context

In this post-doctoral research project, I examined the literacy practices of factory workers with Swedish as a first and as a second language. The focus lied on the new demands placed upon workers in the "new work order" and the consequent proliferation of texts in the workplace. The project was funded by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare (Forte). The publications resulting from this study can be found here:

http://sh.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:857562/FULLTEXT01.pdf Länk till annan webbplats, öppnas i nytt fönster.

http://sh.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:762244/FULLTEXT01.pdf Länk till annan webbplats, öppnas i nytt fönster.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0741088316653391 Länk till annan webbplats, öppnas i nytt fönster.

Language work as care work: Affordances and restrictions with Swedish as a second language in the new work order

In this project we focused on carers and assistant nurses within the elder care sector in Sweden. The aim of the project was to examine the documentation and oral communication practices of care-workers in elder care facilities and the impact these have on their work practices as well as on the construction of their work identities. The research team also included Gunilla Jansson and Anna-Malin Karlsson (Stockholm University).