Elizabeth Lanza is Professor Emerita of Linguistics at the University of Oslo and former Director of the Center for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan (MultiLing) from its establishment in 2013 until her retirement at the end of 2021. She is an elected member of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and was appointed as a Research Fellow at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Study (STIAS) in South Africa the first semester of 2024.
Research Interests
Bilingualism/ Multilingualism, Sociolinguistics, Language socialization, Family multilingualism, Family language policies and practices, Discourse analysis and interactional analysis, Narratives, Linguistic Landscapes, and Research methodology
Background
Elizabeth Lanza is Professor Emerita of Linguistics at the University of Oslo. From June 1, 2013 until her retirement on December 31, 2021, she was the Director of the Center for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan (MultiLing) (opened 2013), funded by the Research Council of Norway's Centre of Excellence scheme. For the period of January 2007 to March 2008, she was appointed Director of the French – Norwegian Centre for Research Collaboration in the Social Sciences and Humanities/Centre franco-norvégien en sciences sociales et humaines in Paris.
Lanza received her PhD in Linguistics, with distinction, from Georgetown University in 1990 with a specialization in sociolinguistics. Her main field of interest and research is bilingualism/multilingualism. Her work is mainly sociolinguistically oriented, drawing specifically on perspectives from discourse analysis/interactional analysis.
She is on the Editorial Board of the journals International Journal of Bilingualism, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Linguistic Landscape, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, Journal of Multilingual Theories and Practices, Multilingual Margins and Journal of Postcolonial Linguistics. She is also on the editorial board of the fully open access book series Current Issues in Bilingualism. Lanza was on the board of the former book series IMPACT: Studies in Language and Society (John Benjamins).
Lanza is a member of: Scientific Committee of the Centre for Multilingualism and Diversities Research at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa; External Advisory Board of the Center for Multilingual and Intercultural Communication at Stony Brook University, USA; and Advisory Board of the AHRC funded (OWRI Open World Research Initiative) research project Language and Community in a Globalising World, Manchester University, UK (2016 - 2019). She was in the Steering Group of the 4-year (2014 - 2018) AHRC funded research project Translation and Translanguaging: Investigating Linguistic and Cultural Transformations in Superdiverse Wards in Four UK Cities; Advisory Committee for the British Academy funded Special Research Project on the Cognitive Benefits of Language Learning, University College London, UK (2016 - 2017). She was also on the advisory board for a nationally funded research project on sociolinguistic variation in cities in Norway, including multilingualism (UPUS).
Lanza was the leader of the local organizing committee for the International Symposium on Bilingualism 8 ISB8 held in Oslo on June 15 - 18, 2011. At ISB8 she was elected Chair of the International Steering Committee of ISB for a four-year period (2011 - 2015). During her tenure as Chair, ISB9 was held in Singapore in June 2013 and ISB10 was held in New Jersey, USA in May 2015.
Ongoing research at MultiLing
Lanza’s most recent work focuses on issues of language, culture and identity in multilinguals, with a particular focus on family language policy, language practices, and language socialization. She has been the leader of the research project MultiFam: Family language policy in multilingual transcultural families, funded by the Research Council of Norway (2015 - 2018). She was the leader of the interdisciplinary project Language, Culture and Identity in Migrant Narratives, also funded by the Research Council of Norway (2008 - 2013). As part of this project, she studied narratives of migration, identity and belonging among doctors in Norway with an African background, as well as narratives of heritage language speakers of Norwegian in the US. Her work also extends to the Filipino diaspora in Oslo in which she investigated family language policies, social networks and identity. Lanza was a member of the NordForsk funded research network Identities in Motion: Multilingualism, Multiculturalism and Mobility - the 3M network, and served on the Steering Committee as Associate Director of the network (2009 - 2011).
Lanza's research also encompasses language policy more generally. She was involved in a project on multilingualism in Ethiopia, funded by the Norwegian Council for Higher Education's Programme for Development Research and Education, in collaboration with Addis Ababa University. She continues to work on sociolinguistic issues in Ethiopia with Ethiopian colleagues, particularly on the linguistic landscape and language ideologies, as well as the role of English in Ethiopian society.
Kort bio på norsk i Store norske leksikon
on MultiLing's survey on Language in Multilingual Families during the COVID-19 Pandemic in Norway, September 2021.
