Researching Multilingually

Including a ‘Researching Multilingually’ approach in your research

Workshop Convenors/Facilitators:

Prue Holmes, Durham University

Sara Ganassin, Newcastle University

Judith Reynolds, Newcastle University

• Am I allowed to include literature in Turkish?

• What if I conduct my interviews in Mandarin but have to write all my thesis in English?
• If I include data in Hindi, how will this affect my word count? How will the thesis be examined?
• Do I transcribe first then translate, or the other way round?

If you encounter one or more of these questions in your research, then this workshop is for you!

In this face-to-face event, we will explore the possibilities for and complexities of what we term “researching multilingually”—how researchers draw on their own linguistic resources, and those of others, when undertaking research involving more than one language. Drawing on our recent edited volume The Politics of Research Multilingually (Holmes, Reynolds and Ganassin, 2022), we will share theoretical insights and methodological guidance with doctoral students who operate across multiple languages, whether as part of reviewing the literature, collecting and analysing data, or disseminating their research findings and implications.

Through a combination of workshop-style discussions and activities, we will be inviting our participants, to explore and apply these insights to their own research projects. Our aim is to support participants’ developing researcher awareness with regard to their practices of researching multilingually. In this way we will be working towards a more clearly articulated ‘researching multilingually’ methodology.

Workshop Programme

11.00-11.30 Registration, tea and coffee

11.30-13.00 Introducing Researching Multilingually Theory-Interactive presentation: Participants will be introduced to the concept of ‘researching multilingually’ (theoretical insights and methodological guidance; discussion in small groups and in plenary)

13.00-14.00 Lunch and networking

14.00-15.00 Case study reading and reflection: participants will work on allocated case studies in small groups

15.00-16.00 Researching multilingually in your project: participants will be offered research tools to develop a researching multilingually approach in their own research

16.00-16.30 Final remarks

To register via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/researching-multilingually-an-esrc-nine-dtp-workshop-tickets-587127523227