Naomi Truan is Assistant Professor of German Sociolinguistics at Leiden University. She is an award-winning teacher and recipient of the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research Open Science Award. Her research brings together sociolinguistics, multilingualism, and digital communication to examine language in an increasingly globalized and AI-mediated world. She also contributes to interdisciplinary work on multilingualism, migration, heritage languages, and the societal implications of digital technologies, as well as research ethics, responsible data practices, and open science. She serves as Faculty Representative for the Open Science Community and was elected to the Young Academy Leiden (2026–2031). Her work has appeared in leading international journals, and her first monograph, The Politics of Person Reference, explores how ways of referring to people reflect broader social and political dynamics.

More information about Naomi Truan

Research

My research examines how language shapes social life in multilingual, transnational, and increasingly digital and AI-mediated societies. A recurring concern in my work is the gap between institutional and public representations of linguistic diversity and the often more complex realities experienced by speakers themselves. I therefore investigate language not as a bounded system, but as a set of social practices embedded in mobility, migration, digital communication, and political life.

Language, categorization, and social identities
My early research focused on person reference, pronouns, forms of address, and parliamentary discourse. In my monograph The Politics of Person Reference (John Benjamins), I examined how linguistic choices contribute to the construction of social and political relationships, paying particular attention to speech roles, person reference, and populism across British, French, and German parliamentary debates. This interest in the relationship between language and social categorization continues to inform my work on language ideologies, gender-inclusive language, and political communication.

Multilingualism, migration, and language ideologies
A second strand of my research explores how linguistic diversity and variation is experienced and negotiated in multilingual and transnational contexts. Much of this work focuses on non-L1 speakers of German or on German speakers in spaces in which their language and varieties are not dominant, examining whether language ideologies transfer across languages (short answer: yes, and even from the L2 to the L1 sometimes!). I have also argued that despite critiques of native speakerism and monolingual bias, many research designs continue to reproduce these hierarchies.

Digital communication and emerging technologies
I also have developed a sustained interest in how language practices evolve in digital environments. This includes research on online personae, digital activism, forms of address in online interaction, and even people acting as their cats online (stay with me!). I am increasingly interested in the role of digital technologies and artificial intelligence in shaping communication, meaning-making, and information practices. Through the Birmingham-Leiden Strategic Collaboration Meaning Making and Information Integrity in the Age of AI, I explore how linguistic perspectives can contribute to contemporary debates on AI and digital societies.

Open science and research ethics
Alongside my research, I contribute to discussions on open science, research culture, and responsible research practices. My work in this area focuses on the challenges of sharing and documenting multilingual and qualitative datasets: how can research become more transparent and reusable without losing sight of privacy, consent, representation, and the responsibilities involved in working with vulnerable populations? More recently, I have become interested in the question of who open science is actually for and how hesitant, indifferent, or unconvinced colleagues engage with—or disengage from—open science initiatives, particularly in the social sciences and humanities. In 2022, I received the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research Open Science Award for my work on research data.

Methodologically, I combine qualitative and quantitative approaches, including interviews, ethnography, discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, and digital methods. I welcome collaborations and student projects and I look forward to hearing from you.

Curriculum vitae

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 cotutelle PhD, I worked between the Free University Berlin and Sorbonne University in Paris. My research was supported by the DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service), the Franco-German University, and several other research grants, including a Fulbright Visiting Scholarship at the University at Albany (SUNY). Following the completion of my PhD, I was a Junior Fellow at the Alfried Krupp Wissenschaftskolleg in Greifswald (Germany).

Selected publications

Monograph
Truan, Naomi, 2021. The Politics of Person Reference. Third-Person Forms in English, German, and French (Pragmatics & Beyond New Series). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. URL: https:⁠/⁠/benjamins.com/catalog/pbns.320.

Recent papers (selection)
Storme, Benjamin, Naomi Truan, Jo Lychnara & Gráinne Deasy. 2026. Is gender-inclusive language left-wing? Political perception of four gender-inclusive strategies in French and German. Journal of Sociolinguistics. https:⁠/⁠/onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/josl.70026.

Truan, Naomi. 2025. Becoming a speaker of German as an L1 French speaker: elite multilingualism as a means of distinction in a globalised world. International Journal of Multilingualism 1–20. https:⁠/⁠/doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2024.2443154.

Truan, Naomi. 2024. Whose language counts? Native speakerism and monolingual bias in language ideological research: Challenges and directions for further research. European Journal of Applied Linguistics. 12 (1). 34–53. https:⁠/⁠/doi.org/10.1515/eujal-2024-0006.

Truan, Naomi & Martina Oldani 2021. The view from within: Gendered language ideologies of multilingual speakers in contemporary Berlin. Journal of Sociolinguistics 25(3). 374–397. https:⁠/⁠/doi.org/10/gjv9sg.

Activities