As a sociolinguist, I critically explore the ways in which language reflects, reinforces, or contests social inequalities, in the online and offline worlds. Since March 2023, I am Assistant Professor of German Sociolinguistics at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. I am also a member of the Heritage Language Lab Leiden and a Research Fellow at the Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Centre on Governance of Migration and Diversity. Among other themes, I welcome BA, MA and PhD theses and collaborations on language ideologies, multilingualism, creative online practices, gender. Prior to my appointment at Leiden University, I was a full-time researcher and lecturer in German Linguistics at the University of Leipzig. During my PhD in cotutelle, I worked between the Free University Berlin and Sorbonne University in Paris. I am also an Alumna of the Wissenschaftskolleg in Greifswald (Germany). I am passionate about Open Science, and I am honored to have been awarded the Open Science Research Data Award of the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation in the category “reuse of data” in 2022.

More information about Naomi Truan

Fields of interest

multilingualism – migration – globalization – digital communication – social media – parliamentary debates – political discourse – person reference – pronouns

Research

In my dissertation, The Politics of Person Reference. Third-Person Forms in English, German, and French (published with John Benjamins), I focused on:

- person reference and speech roles (see Truan 2021);
- pronouns and forms of address (see Truan 2015, Truan 2022);
- contrastive discourse analysis (see Truan 2019a);
- parliamentary discourse (see Truan 2016, Truan 2020, and most publications 2015-2019);
- populism (see Truan 2019a, Truan 2019b).

Since my PhD, my research interests revolve around two areas:

1) language ideologies around multilingualism (sociolinguistics of German)

- adult-migrant contexts, especially French-speaking communities in Germany (ongoing);
- gender, for instance in multiethnolects (see Truan & Oldani 2021);
- linguistic racism (see Oldani & Truan 2022)

2) language and identity in digital spaces

- gender and hashtags in Twitter protests (#CoronaEltern) (see Truan & Fischer 2023);
- the use of forms of address in online communities (T-form / V-form in German) (see Truan 2022);
- the creation of communities of practice, for instance people enacting their cats online (see Truan 2022);
- digital practices in the classroom and in higher education (see Truan & Dressel 2021, Truan & Dressel 2022).

Grants and awards

Awards
2022: Open Science Award for Research Data from the French Ministry of Science and Research
2021: Student Teaching Award for Online Teaching of the University of Leipzig
2018: Graduate Student Travel Award of the American Pragmatics Association

Fellowships and grants
2021-2022: Junior Fellow of the Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg Greifswald
2018: Fulbright Scholarship Program
2016-2019: German Academic Exchange Service
2016-2019: Deutsch-Französische Hochschule
2018: Arthur King Peters Memorial Travel Grant
2014-2015: Alfred Töpfer Stiftung F.V.S.
2012-2013: Internationales Parlamentsstipendium des Deutschen Bundestages

Curriculum vitae

Academic Employment
since 03/2023: Assistant Professor of German Sociolinguistics, Leiden University
2019-2023: Full-time Researcher and Lecturer in German Linguistics, Universität Leipzig
2021-2022: Junior Fellow of the Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg, Greifswald, Germany
2016-2019: Full-time PhD Student in Linguistics, Sorbonne Université Paris
2015-2019: Lecturer in Linguistics, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin & Freie Universität Berlin
2014-2019: Associated Researcher, Centre Marc Bloch, Berlin

Education
2014-2019: PhD in Linguistics, summa cum laude (Freie Universität Berlin / Sorbonne Université Paris)
2013-2014: Agrégation in German – Specialisation in Linguistics (rank: 3). Competitive Examination for Civil Service in the French Public Education System
2012-2013: MA German Studies, summa cum laude – École Normale Supérieure de Lyon
2012-2013: Study at the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin
2011-2012: Study at the Freie Universität Berlin
2010-2011: BA German Studies, magna cum laude – Université Lumière Lyon 2, France
2010-2016: Admission at the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon – normalienne. Student and Trainee Public Servant (Excellence Scholarship)
2008-2010: Classes Préparatoires aux Grandes Écoles – Lycée Edouard Herriot, France

Visiting Positions
2021/2022: Junior Fellow of the Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg, Greifswald, Germany
05/2018: Visiting Scholar, Georgetown University, Washington, DC
02-06/2018: Fulbright Visiting Scholar, State University of New York, Albany, NY
10-12/2015: Visiting Scholar, University of Oxford/Maison Française d’Oxford, UK

Publications

Activities