Nicolas Femia

PhD student in Swedish as a Second Language at the Department of Swedish, multilingualism and language technology, University of Gothenburg

I have recently completed a master’s degree in Bilingualism at Stockholm University. During my time there I developed an interest in multilingualism linked to marginalized identities and silenced ideologies in different social processes. In the program I focused mainly on multilingualism and multiculturalism linked to youth, migration, and education, and have in that way encountered decolonial perspectives on language. For my master’s thesis I explored adolescents’ experiences and desires regarding their multilingual repertoires, as well as the school’s role in constructing and maintaining positive ideologies of multilingualism. Earlier I took free courses in linguistics and literature at Lund University, which led to a bachelor’s degree in Italian Studies. I have also been working for a long time with researchers in linguistics both from Swedish and foreign universities as a research assistant within the frame of different projects.

For my doctoral project I plan to study the entanglements of dominant and silenced ideologies about multilingualism and literature, and how these are made visible through languaging practices in a school environment. I am especially interested in the employment of languaging practices and their influence for (dis)empowerment of students in identity construction, meaning making and learning processes. Studies engaging with marginalized individuals’ identities and forms of knowledge have lately become more broadly represented in western research. My project falls into this tradition and builds on decolonial perspectives on multilingualism, literature, and education as an attempt to give voice to adolescents’ subjective understandings and experiences on these dimensions.