Professor Bernadette O'Rourke

Professor of Sociolinguistics and Hispanic Studies (Hispanic Studies)

email: Bernadette.ORourke@glasgow.ac.uk

Research interests

My research sits within the broad area of sociolinguistics and the sociology of language and focuses on the political and social meanings of language and their influence on society. I have specialisms in:

Minority languages
Multilingualism
Language policy
Language ideologies

I am particularly interested in the dynamics of multilingual societies, language revitalization in minoritized languages, ethnography of resistance, language ideologies and language activism. I have examined these dynamics across a range of fieldwork sites and language contexts including Galician (northern Spain), Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Faroese. Since 2011, I have been examining the experiences of “new speakers” of minority languages (so-called “non-native” speakers who acquire a language outside of the home). In more recent years, I have extended this focus beyond minority language contexts, exploring theories around the sociolinguistics of the “speaker” across a range of multilingual strands in the context of migration and transnational mobilities.

Publications

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Number of items: 68.

2024

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162, Zhao, Qunshan ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5549-9457, Dayán-Fernandez, Alejandro ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0555-3638, Dickson, Euan, Wang, Ruiyu, Wang, Mingkang, Zhang, Lei ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4767-3849 and Imran, Muhammad ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4743-9136 (2024) Integrated geospatial methods for multilingual cities: Combining GPS, electronically activated recorder, and map-based ethnographic interviews. Research Methods in Applied Linguistics, 3(3), 100147. (doi: 10.1016/j.rmal.2024.100147)

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 and Dayán-Fernández, Alejandro ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0555-3638 (2024) Discourses of solidarity and resistance in alternative linguistics spaces: Galician improvised poetry as linguistic collective action. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 28(5), pp. 79-98. (doi: 10.1111/josl.12675)

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 and Dayan-Fernandez, Alejandro ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0555-3638 (2024) Sowing the seeds at Semente: Urban breathing spaces and new speaker agency. In: Linn, Mary S. and Dayan-Fernandez, Alejandro (eds.) Agency in the Peripheries of Language Revitalisation: Examining European Practices on the Ground. Multilingual Matters. (In Press)

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 and Dayán-Fernández, Alejandro ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0555-3638 (2024) Language revitalization through a social movement lens: grassroots Galician language activism. Language Policy, (doi: 10.1007/s10993-024-09687-6) (Early Online Publication)

2022

Rodriguez-Ordoñez, Itxaso, Kasstan, Jonathan and O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2022) Responding to sociolinguistic change: new speakers and variationist sociolinguistics. International Journal of Bilingualism, 26(5), pp. 529-541. (doi: 10.1177/13670069221110381)

Pujolar, Joan and O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2022) Theorizing the speaker and speakerness in applied linguistics and sociolinguistics. Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice, 16(2), pp. 207-231. (doi: 10.1558/jalpp.22760)

Armstrong, Timothy Currie, McLeod, Wilson, Dunbar, Robert, Dunmore, Stuart ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4488-6179, O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 and Macleod, Michelle (2022) Gaelic and identity: a response to Iain MacKinnon. Scottish Affairs, 31(1), pp. 64-83. (doi: 10.3366/SCOT.2022.0398)

McLeod, Wilson, Dunbar, Robert, Macleod, Michelle, O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162, Dunmore, Stuart ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4488-6179 and Armstrong, Timothy Currie (2022) Against exclusionary Gaelic language policy: a response to Ó Giollagáin and Caimbeul. Scottish Affairs, 31(1), pp. 84-103. (doi: 10.3366/SCOT.2022.0399)

Netto, Gina, Baillie, Lynne, Georgiou, Theodoros, Wan Teng, Lai, Endut, Noraida, Strani, Katerina and O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2022) Resilience, smartphone use and language among urban refugees in the Global south. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 48(3), pp. 542-559. (doi: 10.1080/1369183x.2021.1941818)

2021

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 and Pujolar, J. (2021) The debates on "new speakers" and “non-native” speakers as symptoms of late modern anxieties over linguistic ownership. In: Slavkov, N. (ed.) The Changing Face of the "Native Speaker": Perspectives from Multilingualism and Globalization. Series: Trends in Applied Linguistics [TAL], 31. De Gruyter Mouton. ISBN 9781501512353 (doi: 10.1515/9781501512353)

2020

Holm, Elisabeth, O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 and Danson, Michael (2020) “Employers could use us, but they don’t”. Voices from blue-collar workplaces in a northern periphery. Language Policy, 19(3), pp. 389-416. (doi: 10.1007/s10993-019-09513-4)

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 and Walsh, John (2020) New Speakers of Irish in the Global Context. New Revival? Routledge. ISBN 9781138243385

Dayan-Fernandez, Alejandro ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0555-3638 and O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2020) Galician-Portuguese and the politics of language in contemporary Galicia. In: Strani, Katerina (ed.) Multilingualism and Politics. Springer, pp. 231-260. ISBN 9783030407001 (doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-40701-8_10)

2019

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 and Nandi, Anik (2019) New speaker parents as grassroots policy makers in contemporary Galicia: ideologies, management and practices. Language Policy, 18(4), pp. 493-511. (doi: 10.1007/s10993-018-9498-y)

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162, Dayan-Fernandez, Alejandro ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0555-3638 and Rego, Tamara (2019) Sowing the Seeds at Semente: Grassroots Revitalization and Language Activism in Contemporary Galicia. Project Report. Smithsonian Institution. (doi: 10.25573/data.c.6280911).

Brennan, Sara and O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2019) Commercialising the cúpla focal: New speakers, language ownership, and the promotion of Irish as a business resource. Language in Society, 48(1), pp. 125-145. (doi: 10.1017/S0047404518001148)

Hogan-Brun, Gabrielle and O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (Eds.) (2019) The Palgrave Handbook of Minority Languages and Communities. Palgrave Macmillan UK. ISBN 9781137540652

2018

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2018) Carving out breathing spaces for Galician. New speakers’ investment in monolingual practices. In: Jaspers, Jurgen and Madsen, Lian Malai (eds.) Critical Perspectives on Linguistic Fixity and Fluidity: Languagised Lives. Series: Routledge Critical Studies in Multilingualism. CRC Press. ISBN 9781138602977

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 and Breannan, Sara C. (2018) Regimenting the Gaeltacht: authenticity, anonymity, and expectation in contemporary Ireland. Language and Communication, 66, pp. 20-28. (doi: 10.1016/j.langcom.2018.10.006)

Bermingham, Nicola and O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2018) Language awareness amongst “new speakers” in a multilingual classroom. In: Helot, Christine, Frijns, Carolien, Gorp, Koen and Sierens, Sven (eds.) Language Awareness in Multilingual Classrooms in Europe. Series: Contributions to the Sociology of Language [CSL], 109. De Gruyter, pp. 143-168. ISBN 9781501510434

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2018) New speakers of minority languages. In: Hinton, Leanne, Huss, Leena and Roche, Gerald (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Language Revitalization. Routledge. ISBN 9781138674493

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2018) Introduction. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 39(5), pp. 377-381. (doi: 10.1080/01434632.2018.1429449)

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2018) Just use it! Linguistic conversion and identities of resistance amongst Galician new speakers. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 39(5), pp. 407-418. (doi: 10.1080/01434632.2018.1429455)

Walsh, John and O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2018) Special Issue: Comparing ‘New Speakers’ Across Language Contexts: Mobility and Motivations [Guest Editors]. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 39(5),

2017

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2017) Negotiating the standard in contemporary Galicia. In: Lane, Pia, Costa, James and De Korne, Haley (eds.) Standardizing Minority Languages: Competing Ideologies of Authority and Authenticity in the Global Periphery. Series: Routledge Critical Studies in Multilingualism. Routledge. ISBN 9781138125124

McLeod, Wilson and O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2017) ‘New Speakers’ of Gaelic from Outside the UK. Project Report. Soillse.

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 and DePalma, Renee (2017) Language-learning holidays: what motivates people to learn a minority language? International Journal of Multilingualism, 14(4), pp. 332-349. (doi: 10.1080/14790718.2016.1184667)

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162, Pujolar, J. and Walsh, J. (2017) Language education for new speakers. In: McCarty, Teresa L. and May, Stephen (eds.) Language Policy and Political Issues in Education. Series: Encyclopedia of Language and Education. Springer. ISBN 9783319023434

2016

Nance, Claire, McLeod, Wilson, O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 and Dunmore, Stuart (2016) Identity, accent aim, and motivation in second language users: New Scottish Gaelic speakers' use of phonetic variation. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 20(2), pp. 164-191. (doi: 10.1111/josl.12173)

García, Ofelia, Coulmas, Florian and O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2016) Editorial. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2016(237), pp. 1-2. (doi: 10.1515/ijsl-2015-1000)

Brennan, Sara C., Danson, Michael and O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2016) Selling a language to save it? The business-oriented promotion of Gaelic and Irish. In: McLeod, Wilson, Gunderloch, Anja and Dunbar, Rob (eds.) Canan & Cultar (Language and Culture): Rannsachadh na Gaidhlig 8. Dunedin Academic Press: Edinburgh. ISBN 9781780460581

2015

Walsh, John, O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 and Rowland, Hugh (2015) Research Report on New Speakers of Irish. Project Report. Foras na Gaeilge.

McLeod, Wilson and O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2015) "New speakers" of Gaelic: perceptions of linguistic authenticity and appropriateness. Applied Linguistics Review, 6(2), pp. 151-172. (doi: 10.1515/applirev-2015-0008)

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 and Pujolar, Joan (2015) New speakers and processes of new speakerness across time and space. Applied Linguistics Review, 6(2), pp. 145-150. (doi: 10.1515/applirev-2015-0007)

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162, Pujolar, Joan and Ramallo, Fernando (2015) Special Issue: New Speakers and processes of new speakerness across time and space [Guest Editors]. Applied Linguistics Review, 6(2),

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2015) Language revitalisation models in minority language contexts. Anthropological Journal of European Cultures, 24(1), pp. 63-82. (doi: 10.3167/ajec.2015.240105)

Craith, Máiréad Nic and O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2015) Anthropology and language in Europe: setting the context. Anthropological Journal of European Cultures, 24(1), pp. 1-6. (doi: 10.3167/ajec.2015.240101)

Craith, Máiréad Nic and O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2015) Special Issue: Language and Anthropology [Guest Editors]. Anthropological Journal of European Cultures, 24(1),

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162, Pujolar, Joan and Ramallo, Fernando (2015) New speakers of minority languages: the challenging opportunity - foreword. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2015(231), pp. 1-20. (doi: 10.1515/ijsl-2014-0029)

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 and Ramallo, Fernando (2015) Neofalantes as an active minority: Understanding language practices and motivations for change amongst new speakers of Galician. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2015(231), pp. 147-165. (doi: 10.1515/ijsl-2014-0036)

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 and Walsh, John (2015) New speakers of Irish: shifting boundaries across time and space. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2015(231), pp. 63-83.

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162, Pujolar, Joan and Ramallo, Fernando (2015) Special Issue: New Speakers of Minority Languages: The Challenging Opportunity [Guest Editors]. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2015(231),

McLeod, Wilson and O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2015) Irish Parents and Gaelic Medium Education in Scotland. Project Report. Soillse.

2014

Ramallo, Fernando and O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2014) Profiles of new speakers of Galician. Digithum, 16, pp. 59-66. (doi: 10.7238/d.v0i16.2300)

Walsh, John and O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2014) Becoming a new speaker of Irish: linguistic mudes throughout the life cycle. Digithum, 16, pp. 67-74. (doi: 10.7238/d.v0i16.2186)

Kitapci, K., Galbrum, L., O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 and Turner, G. (2014) Speech Intelligibility in Multilingual Spaces. In: 42nd International Congress and Exposition on Noise Control Engineering 2013 (INTER-NOISE 2013): Noise Control for Quality of Life, Innsbruck, Austria, 15-18 Sept 2013, pp. 2023-2029. ISBN 9781632662675

McLeod, Wilson, O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 and Dunmore, Stuart ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4488-6179 (2014) ‘New Speakers’ of Gaelic in Edinburgh and Glasgow. Project Report. Soillse.

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2014) The Galician language in the twenty-first century. In: Miguélez-Carballeira, Helena (ed.) A Companion to Galician Culture. Tamesis: Woodbridge, Suffolk, pp. 73-92. ISBN 9781855662773

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162, Bermingham, Nicola and Brennan, Sara (2014) Opening New Lines of Communication in Applied Linguistics. In: 46th Annual Meeting of the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL 2013), Edinburgh, UK, 05-07 Sep 2013, pp. 1-2. ISBN 9780955953361

2013

Galbrun, Laurent, O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 and Turner, Graham H. (2013) Acoustics and Speech Intelligibility in Multilingual Spaces. 46th Annual Meeting of the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL 2013), Edinburgh, UK, 05-07 Sep 2013.

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 and Ramallo, Fernando (2013) Competing ideologies of linguistic authority amongst new speakers in contemporary Galicia. Language in Society, 42(3), pp. 287-305. (doi: 10.1017/S0047404513000249)

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 and Pujolar, Joan (2013) From native speakers to “new speakers”: problematizing nativeness in language revitalization contexts. Histoire Épistémologie Langage, 35(2), pp. 47-67.

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 and Ramallo, Fernando (2013) "My variety is flawed": The social legitimacy of eofalas = "A miña variedade é defectuosa": a lexitimidade social das neofalas. Estudos de Linguistica Galega, 5, pp. 89-103.

2012

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 and Hogan-Brun, Gabrielle (2012) Language attitudes in policy and planning. In: Chapelle, Carol A. (ed.) The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Blackwell Publishers: Oxford, pp. 2945-2949. ISBN 9781405194730

2011

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 and Ramallo, Fernando F. (2011) The native-non-native dichotomy in minority language contexts: comparisons between Irish and Galician. Language Problems and Language Planning, 35(2), pp. 139-159. (doi: 10.1075/lplp.35.2.03oro)

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2011) Negotiating multilingualism in an Irish primary school context. In: Hélot, Christine and Ó Laoire, Muiris (eds.) Language Policy for the Multilingual Classroom: Pedagogy of the Possible. Series: Bilingual education and bilingualism. Multilingual Matters: Bristol ; Buffalo, pp. 105-125. ISBN 9781847693679

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2011) Sustaining minority communities: the case of Galician. In: Kirk, John M. and Ó Baoill, Dónall P. (eds.) Sustaining Minority Language Development: Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and Scotland. Cló Ollscoil na Banríona: Belfast, pp. 266-280.

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2011) Whose language is it? Struggles for language ownership in an Irish language classroom. Journal of Language, Identity and Education, 10(5), pp. 327-345. (doi: 10.1080/15348458.2011.614545)

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2011) Galician and Irish in the European Context: Attitudes Towards Weak and Strong Minority Languages. Series: Palgrave studies in minority languages and communities. Palgrave Macmillan: Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York. ISBN 9780230574038

2010

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 and Ramallo, Fernando (2010) Los nuevos hablantes de lenguas minoritarias. In: Proceedings of the IX Congreso Internacional de Lingüística General, Valladolid, Spain, 21-23 Jun 2010, ISBN 9878469367865

2009

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2009) Developing multilingual awareness amongst primary school children in Ireland: a case study. In: Newby, David and Penz, Hermine (eds.) Languages for Social Cohesion: Language Education in a Multilingual and Multicultural Europe. Series: Languages for social cohesion = Les langues pour la cohésion sociale. Council Of Europe: Strasbourg. ISBN 9789287164285

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 and Castillo Ortiz, Pedro (2009) Top-down or bottom-up language policy : public service interpreting in the republic of Ireland, Scotland and Spain. In: De Pedro Ricoy, Raquel, Perez, Isabelle and Wilson, Christine W.L. (eds.) Interpreting and Translating in Public Service Settings: Policy, Practice, Pedagogy. St. Jerome: Manchester, UK ; Kinderhook, NY, pp. 33-51. ISBN 9781905763160

2007

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2007) Falas galego?: the effects of socio-political change on language attitudes and use in the Galician sociolinguistic context. Teanga, 22, pp. 116-131.

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2007) Support for the societal presence of minority languages and as symbols of identity: assessing the views of Irish and Galician student groups. In: Pearson-Evans, A. and Leahy, A. (eds.) Intercultural spaces : language, culture, identity. Peter Lang: New York. ISBN 9780820495460

2006

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2006) Language contact between Galician and Spanish: conflict or harmony? Young people’s linguistic attitudes in contemporary Galicia. In: Mar-Molinero, C. and Stewart, M. (eds.) Globalization and Language in the Spanish Speaking World: Macro and Micro Perspectives. Series: Language and Globalization. Palgrave Macmillan UK, pp. 178-196. ISBN 9780230000186

2005

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2005) Expressing identity through lesser-used languages: examples from the Irish and Galician contexts. Language and Intercultural Communication, 5(3-4), pp. 274-283. (doi: 10.1080/14708470508668901)

2003

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2003) Conflicting values in contemporary Galicia. International Journal of Iberian Studies, 16(1), pp. 33-48. (doi: 10.1386/ijis.16.1.33/0)

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2003) Irish and Galician: a comparative analysis of minority language cases. In: Dillane, F. and Kelly, R. (eds.) New Voices in Irish Criticism. Four Courts Press: Dublin, pp. 136-146. ISBN 9781851827350

This list was generated on Sat Jun 14 09:05:09 2025 BST.

Number of items: 68.

Articles

Ramallo, Fernando and O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2014) Profiles of new speakers of Galician. Digithum, 16, pp. 59-66. (doi: 10.7238/d.v0i16.2300)

Books

O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 and Walsh, John (2020) New Speakers of Irish in the Global Context. New Revival? Routledge. ISBN 9781138243385

Book Sections

Edited Books

Research Reports or Papers

McLeod, Wilson and O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2017) ‘New Speakers’ of Gaelic from Outside the UK. Project Report. Soillse.

Walsh, John, O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 and Rowland, Hugh (2015) Research Report on New Speakers of Irish. Project Report. Foras na Gaeilge.

McLeod, Wilson and O'Rourke, Bernadette ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1556-4162 (2015) Irish Parents and Gaelic Medium Education in Scotland. Project Report. Soillse.

Conference or Workshop Item

Conference Proceedings

This list was generated on Sat Jun 14 09:05:09 2025 BST.

Grants

Collaborative projects and grants

I am currently undertaking research on language revitalisation as part of a Leverhulme Research Fellowship (2021-2022).

Between 2013 and 2017 I was Chair of an EU COST Action (IS1306) New Speakers in a Multilingual Europe: Opportunities and Challenges. The New Speaker Network http://www.nspk.org.uk has over 300 members across 28 countries. The final report of the project is available here http://www.nspk.org.uk/images/iaith_digital.pdf

This project built on the research I did during my AHRC Early-Career Fellowship (2012) on “New Speakers of minority languages and their role in the process of language revitalization” and collaborations with Wilson McLeod (University of Edinburgh) as part of a Royal Society Edinburgh Workshop Grant in the Arts and Humanities (2012) entitled “New Speakers of Minority Languages: a dialogue”.

I am working on a number of other collaborative projects with Joan Pujolar and others at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya which examine the “sociolinguistics of the speaker”. These include a project on new speakers of Faroese and labour market integration (funded by the Faroese Research Council), new speakers of Gaelic (funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh) and new speakers of Irish (with John Walsh, National University of Ireland, Galway).

I am a Fellow of the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and PI on the project “Sowing the seeds at Semente: Grassroots revitalization and language activism in contemporary Galicia”, one of six case studies funded as part of the Sustaining Minoritized Languages in Europe (SMiLE) project https://folklife.si.edu/smile/galician

Since my move to Glasgow in April 2019, I have established (in collaboration with Tom Bartlett and Guillem Colom-Montero) the new Arts Lab research cluster “Discourses of sustainability: Interconnections between language, society and the environment”.

Supervision

I would be happy to discuss potential PhD or masters projects in any of my research areas: multilingualism, minority languages, language policy and the social life of language more broadly.

I am currently supervising 10 PhD projects. These include Alexandro Dayán-Fernández (working on the Galician diaspora in London), Eneida García Villanueva (working on family language policies and language brokering amongst Spanish-speaking transnational families in Scotland), Erin McNulty ESRC- funded (working the new speakers of Manx) and Hamid Boudiaf (working on the transmission and preservation of Kabyle). I am also first supervisor for Louis Coyeman (with English and Lingusitics) on an AHRC Collaborative Doctoral Award with Education Scotland looking at the revitalisation of Scots. Sophia Roberson's project examines political discourse during the COVID19 pandemic.

I am second supervisor on Eleanor Chapman's ESRC project (jointly with Human Geography, examining multilingualism, migration and memory), Andree Tint (working on bilingual Latin American writers in the United States) and Lorraine McDonald (joint project with Heriot-Watt University, working on a corpus of new speakers of English). I am also working on a project with Noah Rose on a joint project with the Glasgow College of Art which examines the materialisation of minority languages as contemporary sculptural practice.

Albulayhid, Rasha Fawaz S
Family Language Policy: A Case Study of Saudi Academic Sojourners in the UK
Boudiaf, Hamid
Transmitting and Preserving Kabyle Language and Oral Culture beyond Homeland: An Ethnographic Approach
Coeyman, Louis
Scots language revitalisation in the 21st century
Garcia Villanueva, Eneida
‘It could not be any other way’ or: how child language brokering toddled into our family language policy (to stay!)

I supervised 8 PhDs to completion at the Heriot-Watt University, where I worked from 2007 to 2019. I was lead supervisor for Nicola Bermingham, for a PhD on Cape Verdean new speakers of Galician; Sara Brennan, working on the political economy of Irish; Anik Nandi with a project on family language policy in Galicia and Elisabeth Holm, examining the dynamics of labour market integration amongst new speakers of Faroese.

Teaching

Honours Courses

The Sociolinguistics of the Spanish-speaking world

Multilingualism in Context

Language Policy and Planning in European Minority Languages

Culture 1 (undergraduate)

Spanish in the City: Spanglish

Culture 2 (undergraduate)

Multilingualism in Spain

The politics of language in Spain

Additional information

External scholarly activities
International Expert Reviewer, Norwegian Research Council (2019-present)

Carnegie Trust Research Incentive Grant Panellist (2019-present)

International Expert Reviewer, Finnish Academy (2017-2020)

AHRC Peer Review College (2016-2020)

Executive Committee, Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities (2016-2019)

International advisor, American Smithsonian Centre (2016-present)

EU COST Actions’ Review Panel for the Humanities (2015-present)

Inaugural member, Royal Society of Edinburgh Young Academy of Scotland (2012-2020)

International advisor, Irish Research Council (2011-present)

Executive Committee, British Association for Applied Linguistics (2011-2020)

Executive Committee, Association for Study of Spanish in Society (2010-2017)

Expert advisor, EU Committee for the Regions White Paper – Multilingualism (2006)

Journal editorships and advisory boards

Editorial Board, Linguistic Minorities in Europe (de Gruyter Mouton) (2019-present)

Editor, Small Languages and Small Language Communities (SLSLC), subseries of

International Journal for the Sociology of Language (2014-2018)

Member of Advisory Board, New Voices in Translation Studies (2009-2018)

Career History
2015-19 Professor of Sociolinguistics, Heriot-Watt University

2013-15 Reader in Spanish and (Socio)linguistics, Heriot-Watt University

2007-13 Lecturer in Spanish, Heriot-Watt University

2007 Visiting Research Fellow, National University of Ireland, Galway

2005-2006 Lecturer in Spanish, Dublin City University

2000-2005 Tutor in Spanish, Dublin City University

1998-2000 Lectora, Filoloxía Inglesa, Universidade da Corunha

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