Stephanie Rudwick
Stephanie Rudwick
QUALIFICATIONS
2024 Habilitation, Faculty of Social Science, Charles University
2006 Ph.D., Linguistic Anthropology, University of KwaZulu-Natal
2001 Magister, Ethnologie/Social Anthropology, Ludwig-Maximilians University Munich
PRINCIPAL RESEARCH INTERESTS
Linguistic Anthropology; Language Politics; Ethnolinguistic Identity; Marriage and Co-habitation; African Diaspora; English Cultural Politics; English as a Lingua Franca; Ethnicity and Race; Southern Africa; Central Eastern Europe
RESEARCH PROFILE
My current research centers around the African Diaspora in Czechia and Central Eastern Europe more generally. The primary focus of this work is on the intersections of language, race and ethnicity. I focus on the lived raciolinguistic experience of people with migration background in relatively homogenous settings. As a linguistic anthropologist I am profoundly interested in the politics of linguistic and racial identities and I combine ethnographic and sociolinguistic techniques in finding answers to questions related to belonging. Central to this research is how multiple dynamics of feeling or being perceived as Other as well as how individual and collective ‘ways of being’ in Czechia and in the world unfold.
Previously my research was focused more on South Africa, spanning from studies on language and ethnicity, to language politics as well as marriage and co-habitation. I also continue some of this work in collaboration with scholars, for instance, at the University of KwaZulu-Natal where I hold an honorary lecturer position. In my monograph on the ‘Ambiguity of English’ I examine how raciolinguistic politics currently play out in a country like South Africa where racism was insititutionalised for multiple decades. Broadly, my work engages with current raciolinguistic injustices both in the global South and in central eastern Europe.
Books
2022 The Ambiguity of English as a Lingua Franca: Politics of Language and Race in South Africa. London/New York: Routledge.
Edited Volumes
2025 The Routledge Handbook of Language and Race. London/New York: Routledge. (co-editors Makoni, Sinfree Makoni – Antia, Bassey)
2019 Africa on the Move: Shifting identities, Histories, Boundaries. Berlin: Lit Verlag. (co-editors Hana, Horáková – Schmiedl, Martin)
Journal Articles
2024 Restricted Affiliation: The Costs of Otherness among Afroczechs. Journal of Ethnic and Racial Studies 47(15): 3259–3279. (co-author Nwagbo, Angela)
2023 African diasporic narratives from the Czech Republic. Diaspora Studies 16: 264–286. (co-author Simuziya, Nsama)
2023 Decolonising Applied Linguistics in Africa and its diasporas: Disrupting the centre. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies. 21(3): 285–306. (co-authors Makoni, Sinfree – Idem, Unyieri)
2023 ‘It’s not our problem’: Czech online discourse on kneeling in football and Black Lives Matter. Sport in Society 26(10): 1701-1722. (co-author Schmiedl, Martin)
2021 Politics of Language in Covid-19: Multilingual Perspectives from South Africa. Politikon 48(2): 242–259. (co-authors Sijadu, Zameka – Turner, Irena)
2021 Southernizing and decolonising the Sociology of Language: African scholarship matters. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 167/169: 159–163. (co-author Makoni, Sinfree)
2020 “English is the best way to communicate”: South African Indian Students’ bling spot towards the relevance of Zulu. Sociolinguistica 34(1): 155–171. (co-author Jeewa, Sana)
2020 ‘Revisiting the Prevalence of English: Language Use Outside the Home in South Africa’. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 43(8): 774–786. (co-authors Posel, Dorrit – Hunter, Mark)
2018 Language, Africanisation and Identity Politics in South African tertiary education. Language, Identity and Education 17(4): 255–269.
2018 Englishes and Cosmopolitanisms in South Africa. Human Affairs 28(3): 417–428.
2017 Compulsory African language learning at a South African Tertiary Institution. Language Problems and Language Planning 41(2): 115–135.
2015 Intersections of two isiZulu genderlects and the construction of skesana identities. Stellenbosch Paper in Linguistics Plus 46: 51–66. (co-author Msibi, Thabo)
2015 Zulu bridewealth (ilobolo) and womanhood in South Africa. Social Dynamics 41(2): 289–306. (co-author Posel, Dorrit)
2014 Contemporary functions of ilobolo in urban South African Zulu society. Journal of Contemporary African Studies 32(1): 118–136. (co-author Posel, Dorrit)
2014 Marriage and ilobolo in contemporary Zulu society. African Studies Review 57(2): 51–72. (co-author Posel, Dorrit)
2013 Divided Loyalties: Zulu vis-à-vis English at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. Language Matters 44(3): 85–104. (co-author Parmegiani, Andrea)
2013 Ukukipita (cohabiting): Socio-cultural constraints in urban Zulu society. Journal of Asian and African Studies 49(3): 282–297. (co-author Posel, Dorrit)
2013 Changing patterns and marriage and co-habitation in South Africa. Acta Juridicta 13: 169–180. (co-author Posel, Dorrit)
2011 Is marriage a dying institution in South Africa? Exploring changes in marriage in the context of ilobolo payments. Agenda 87: 108–117. (co-authors Posel, Dorrit – Casala, Daniela)
2011 South African Indian English: A qualitative study of attitudes. World Englishes 30(2): 251–168. (co-authors Wiebesiek, Lisa – Zeller, Jochen)
2011 Zulu Varietäten als Ausdruck unterschiedlicher Kulturansprüche und Geschlechterverhältnisse im heutigen Südafrika. Archiv Orientalni 79: 27–45.
2010 ‘Gay and Zulu – we speak isiNgqumo’. Ethnolinguistic identity constructions. Transformation 74: 112–134.
2009 Hlonipha and rural Zulu women. Agenda 82: 66–75. (co-author Shange, Magcino)
2009 Shifting norms of linguistic and cultural respect: Hybrid sociolinguistic Zulu identities. Nordic Journal of African Studies 17(2): 152–174.
2008 “Coconuts and Oreos: English-speaking Zulu people in a South African township? World Englishes 27(1): 101–116.
2006 ‘Ulimi lwenkululeko’: Township ‘women’s language of empowerment’. Agenda 67: 57–65. (co-authors, Shange, Magcino – Kathala, Nkomo)
2006 “Sociolinguistic oppression or expression of ‘Zuluness’? ‘IsiHlonipho’ among isiZulu-speaking females. South African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 24(4): 473–482. (co-authors, Shange, Magcino)
2004 “‘Zulu - we need [it] for our culture’: Umlazi adolescents in the post-apartheid state”. South African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies 22(3): 159–172.
Book Chapters
2025 Multilingualism from a postcolonial perspective. In: Maartens, Lutz - Kula, Nancy - Hurst-Harosh, Ellen – Zeller, Jochen (eds.): The Oxford Reader of Bantu Linguistics. Oxford. Oxford University Press.
2024 Gender(ed) Language and the Linguistics of Sexuality. In: McCallum, Cecilia - Posocco Sylvia and Fotta, Martin (eds), The Cambridge Handbook of the Anthropology of Gender and Sexuality. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 213–236.
2022 Language Politics in Stellenbosch University. In: Nekula, Marek - Sherman, Tamah - and Zawiszova Halina (eds.), Interests and Power in Language Management. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, pp. 101–122.
2021 Englishes and Cosmopolitanism in South Africa. In: Hrubeš, Marek – Kasanda, Albert (eds.). Africa in a Multilateral World: Afropolitan Dilemmas. London/New York: Routledge, pp. 229–241.
2018 The struggle to promote and African language at a South African university: A language management perspective. In: Fairbrother, Lisa – Nekvapil, Jiří – Sloboda, Marián (eds.) The Language Management Approach: Focus on Research Methodology. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, pp. 157–182.
2016 Social and linguistic representations of South African same-sex relations. In: E. Levon, Erez - Mendes, Ronald Belinde (eds.), Language, Sexuality and Power. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 39–59.
2015 To be or not to be ‘African’: Discursive race politics in a South African online forum. In: Dedaic, Mirjana (ed.). Amsterdam: John Benjamins, pp. 67–86.
2014 English Bilingualisation at the University of KwaZulu-Natal: An Exploration of Students’ attitudes. In: Hibbert Liesl - Van der Walt, Christa (eds.). Multilingual Universities in South Africa. Bristol: Multilingual Matters, pp. 107–122.
2013 Gendered linguistic choices among isiZulu-speaking women in contemporary South Africa. In L.L. Atanga, Lilian Lem - Ellece, Sibonile - Litosseliti, Lia – Sunderland, Jane (eds), Gender and Language in Sub-Saharan Africa. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins, pp. 233–252.
Ongoing Projects and Grants
2024–2028 Migration and Us: Mobilities, Refugees and Borders from
the Perspective of the Human Sciences (MyGRACE). Operační Program Jan Amos Komensky (OPJAK). Principal Investigator of the Institute of Ethnology.
Editorial Work
Since 2018 Modern Africa: Politics, History and Society, Editor-in-Chief.
Board Memberships
2024-2028 Wenner-Gren Foundation, Member of the Advisory Council
Ongoing Member of Organizing Committee of the 10th biennial European Conference of African Studies, ECAS 10.
External Reviewing
Book Proposal and Manuscript Evaluation: John Benjamins; Multilingual Matters; Routledge; Palgrave Macmillan
Journal Articles Manuscript Review: African Studies; African Affairs; Agenda; Anthropology Southern Africa; Australian Journal of Linguistics; Discourse and Language; Journal of Contemporary African Studies; Journal of Gender and Sexuality; Journal of Language and Culture; Journal of Language and Gender; Journal of Southern African Studies; Current Anthropology; Language and Sexuality; Language Learning and Teaching Journal; Journal of Modern Africa; Nordic Journal of African Studies; Plus One; Politikon; Social Dynamics; Southern African Journal of Applied Language Studies; Slovo a Slovesnost; Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics; Transformation; International Journal of the Sociology of Language
Doctoral Thesis Examination: University of Stellenbosch, University of Cape Town, University of KwaZulu-Natal
Invited Talks, Public Lectures or Roundtables
2024 September, 13. ELF language and race: voices and perspectives from the global south. Keynote – Colloquim: English as a Lingua Franca (ELF 10), Prague City University.
2023 March 16. IsiNgqumo and social dynamics. Invited Lecture to PRALASE workshop. Sorbonne and INALCO, Paris
2020 March 5. English as a Lingua Franca: Anthropological perspectives. Invited Lecture at the Center for Humanities, University of Cape Town.
2018 September 10. Gender and ‘marriageability’ in the context of African Urban Youth Languages: The case of isiTsotsi. Invited Lecture at Ethnologisches Kolloquium, University of Hamburg.
2015 September, 19. Bilingualism at a South African University: Fact or farce? Invited Lecture at the British Council Conference, University of London.
