Dr Stuart Dunmore
Background
I received my undergraduate MA (Hons) degree in Celtic and Linguistics from the University of Edinburgh in 2008, before graduating from the University of Oxford with a Master’s degree (MSt) in 2010. My PhD, funded by the inter-university research network Soillse, examined long-term outcomes of Gaelic-medium education in Scotland. My current research interests are in the sociolinguistics of minority language use, language ideology, and the sociology of the Celtic languages.
After completing my doctorate in 2014 I was employed at the University of Glasgow on a major study of language proficiency among new speakers, then as Soillse Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh. In 2016 I was awarded a British Academy postdoctoral fellowship to investigate new speaker practices and ideologies in Scotland and Nova Scotia, Canada. After completing this fellowship in 2019 I was appointed to teaching roles in the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, and subsequently at the ÌLE in Moray House. I have held additional research positions at the Universities of Glasgow, Sussex, Cardiff and Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris III) and in 2022 I was RSE Fulbright scholar at Harvard University.
Qualifications
MA PhD (Edin) MSt (Oxf)
Undergraduate teaching
Introduction to Gaelic Language and Culture
Linguistics and the Gaelic Language (Pragmatics, Second Language Acquisition, Bilingualism)
Celtic Civilisation 1A & 1B
Postgraduate teaching
I currently supervise Masters students completing postgraduate degrees in Language Education, Intercultural Communication and TESOL at Moray House School of Education, and I have previously supervised postgraduate students on the MSc Applied Linguistics degree in Linguistics and English Language.
Research summary
Sociolinguistics, Bilingual education, Bilingualism, Celtic language maintenance, Language policy and planning
Current research interests
I am interested in the sociolinguistics of Celtic languages in Britain, Ireland and among diasporas. My British Academy fellowship (2016-19) assessed the role of 'new' speakers in Gaelic revitalisation initiatives in two divergent contexts. Gaelic is a minority language, spoken by just over 1% of the total population of Scotland, with another small community of speakers in Canada. New speakers in these contexts have acquired Gaelic as an additional language outside of the home and make frequent use of it in their daily lives. Whilst attitudes to Gaelic have been examined in quantitative surveys, the relationship between bilingual individuals’ attitudinal perceptions of their languages and their actual linguistic practices remains an understudied area of sociolinguistic analysis. Through a combination of mixed methods, my project built on work I have previously conducted to investigate the nature of that relationship among new speakers in both Scotland and Nova Scotia.Affiliated research centres
Project activity
Examining language use, identities and ideologies among new Gaelic speakers in Scotland, New England and Nova Scotia through ethnographic and semi-structured interviews, participant observation and statistical analysis.
Past project grants
2022 Fulbright-Royal Society of Edinburgh Scholar Award ($15,000) Harvard University, Cambridge MA
British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship 2016-19 'Linguistic practice and ideology among new speakers of Gaelic in Scotland and Nova Scotia, Canada' (£255,000)
Erasmus+ Mobility Grant 2019, Visiting Fellow, Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris III)
Invited speaker
10th October 2024 Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan: "Revitalisation and (post)vernacularity: Gaelic identities in multicultural Scotland and the diaspora"
2nd November 2023 Oxford Celtic Seminar, Faculty of English, University of Oxford: "Language acquisition motivations and identity orientations in Gaelic"
2nd March 2023 Guest Lecture, School of Welsh, Cardiff University.
18th November 2022 Applied Sociolinguistics MA Seminar, Birmingham City University.
29th April 2022 Graduate Center, City University of New York, Sociolinguistics Seminars: “Indexing heritage, iconizing language: Linguistic ideology in discourses of Gaelic acquisition in Nova Scotia and New England”
28th April 2021 Leiden University Centre for Linguistics, Netherlands, Language Policy and Practices Seminar [online].
17th March 2021 Space, Place and Belonging Seminar, University of Liverpool [online].
28th September 2020 Mercator Research Centre Seminar, Ljouwert, Netherlands [online].
6th November 2019 Bristol Centre for Linguistics Seminar, UWE Bristol.
28th April 2019 Language, Ideology and Power Seminars, Lancaster University.
20th March 2019 Sabhal Mòr Ostaig Seminars, University of the Highlands and Islands. ‘Dualchas is dearbh-aithne nan Gàidheal’ [Gaelic Heritage and Identity]
27th Februay 2019 Université Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris. Graduate Seminar: ‘Language and ideology in Scotland’.
17th November 2018 Celtic Sociolinguistics Symposium Plenary Lecture, NUI Galway, Ireland.
15th August 2018 Atlantic Canada Communities Series, St Mary’s University/Chestico Museum, Port Hood NS, Canada.
22nd September 2017 Linguistics in Progress Series, St Mary’s University, Halifax NS, Canada.
Organiser
"Approaches to Migration, Language and Identity 2021", University of Sussex, Brighton, 9-11 June 2021
"Speaking Citizens Project Conference: The Uses of Oracy", University of Sussex, Brighton, 24-26 January 2022
Participant
14-16th April 2023 North American Gaels Conference, Concordia University, Montréal, Québec.
17th March 2023 Minority Languages in the City Conference, Ljouwert, Friesland.
15th July 2022 Sociolinguistics Symposium 24, Ghent, Belgium.
15th-19th November 2021 120th American Anthropological Association Annual Meeting, Baltimore MD.
12th July 2021 DN27: Language ideologies and political discourse, Open University [online].
24th March 2021 International Conference on Minority Languages, Bilbao, Euskadi / Spain [online].
2nd July 2019 9th Cambridge Conference on Language Endangerment, University of Cambridge.