Miriam Neuhausen

As a researcher and lecturer at Heidelberg University, I study how people change their way of speaking in different groups and situations. I am interested in what happens when people are part of groups that may disagree with one another and how this shows in language.

Queer and religious? Performing conflicting identities through language

As a queer sociolinguist, I am interested in how speakers use language to perform identities in conflict with one another, e.g. when religious beliefs and sexual preference clash. We know that we speak like the people we associate with, e.g. either the jocks or burnouts in high school. But not much is known about what happens when we have conflicting identities, e.g. when our lifestyles contradict our own prevailing narratives, and how that shows in language. My research suggests that speakers can use language to identify not with one group or the other, but create their own linguistic repertoire.