Dr Jonathan Kasstan

I was appointed as Lecturer in French and Linguistics at the University of Westminster in January 2019. Before arriving at Westminster, I lectured at Queen Mary University of London (2015-2018), predominantly in quantitative and qualitative sociolinguistics and research methods. From 2014-2015, I held two posts simultaneously: I was Associate Lecturer in the Department of French at the University of Kent, where I taught introductory linguistic theory and sociolinguistics, and I also held the post of Maître de langue in the Département du monde anglophone at the Université Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3, where I taught courses in applied phonology and linguistic variation. I hold an MPhil in Linguistics from Cambridge University and a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Kent.

My research interests broadly fall within quantitative and qualitative sociolinguistics, with a particular focus on language variation and change in lesser-studied varieties. I also conduct research on heritage languages. 

I am involved in a number of ongoing research projects in sociolinguistics:

• Universals of Grammatical Change in Language Obsolescence (funded previously by the Leverhulme Trust)
• Linguistics in MFL Project (funded by the AHRC Open World Research Initiative - Language Acts and World Making, led by Prof. Michelle Sheehan, Newcastle University)
• Swiss Islands in North America (led by Prof. Anita Auer, Université de Lausanne)

Recent research activities

RECENT INVITED TALKS:

• Maintenance in shift: On nasalisation in transitional Francoprovençal and Occitan areas. Société de Linguistique de Paris (SLP) (avec Michela Russo, 12 juin 2021).
• Contact in the past: How contact has shaped language in society. Philological Society (avec Tamsin Blaxter, Victoria Beatrix & Robin Meyer, 7 mai 2021). [télécharger].
• Do endangered-language speakers have styles? University of Banger (3 mai 2021).

RECENT PAPERS:

• Meyerhoff, Miriam, Abtahian Ravindranath, Maya, Gafter, Roey J., Horesh, Uri, Kasstan, Jonathan, Keegan, Peter and Jeanette King. (in press). Styles, standards, and meaning: Issues in the globalisation of sociolinguistics’, Language Ecology.
• Kasstan, Jonathan. (in press). Modeling stylistic variation in threatened and under-documented languages. Language Ecology.
• Kasstan, Jonathan & Itxaso Rodríguez-Ordóñez. (in press). New speakers of heritage languages. In: Alexandra D’Arcy, Paul Kerswill & Yoshiyuki Ashahi (eds.), Routledge Handbook of Variationist Socioliguistics. London: Routledge.
• Abtahian Ravindranath, Maya & Jonathan Kasstan. (2020). Language contact and sociolinguistic variation. In: Raymond Hickey (ed.), The Handbook of Language Contact. 2^nd Ed. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, pp. 221-239.
• Amos, J., Kasstan, J. R. and W. Johnson 2020. ‘Reconsidering the variable context: A phonological argument for (t) and (d) deletion’, English Today, 36(3): 6-13
• Kasstan, J. R. 2019. Emergent sociolinguistic variation in severe language endangerment. Language in Society 48(5): pp. 685-720.

RECENT EXAMINED PHDs:

• Rinzin, Wangchuk. 2019. A Sociolinguistic Analysis of Dzongkha: Variation in Final Nasals and Rhotics. PhD Dissertation, University of Essex.
• Booth, Andrew. 2019. Manx English: A Phonological investigation into levelling and diffusion from across the water. PhD Dissertation. University of Westminster.

RECENT MEDIA:

• The Economist (August 2020): https://www.cantab.net/users/jrkasstan/Kasstan_Economist2020.jpg

For details of all my research outputs, visit my WestminsterResearch profile.