Anik Nandi is a guest researcher at the Leiden University Centre for Linguistics. Anik Nandi specialises in interdisciplinary approaches to study language policy and literacy practices in multilingual societies.

More information about Anik Nandi

Fields of interest

• Multilingualism
• Language policy and planning
• Minority languages
• Ethnography
• Educational Sociolinguistics
• Critical Theories

Research

My current research brings together work in both critical theories and language policy. Drawing on ethnographic mixed methods and discourse-analytical tools, I analyse the complex association between governmental policies and how these policies are interpreted, appropriated, implemented and negotiated by a diverse range of social actors (i.e., policymakers, teachers, parents, students and other members of the civil society) on the ground, opening up ideological spaces for the use or non-use of certain languages. Since language policies are socially situated and context-specific, I strongly believe that a lot can be learnt – either negatively or positively – comparing different societies. I have been studying different forms of language governance mainly in four very different geopolitical settings: India, Spain, Latin America and the United Kingdom.

Curriculum vitae

I earned my Ph.D. in 2017 in Sociolinguistics from the School of Social Sciences at Heriot-Watt University (Edinburgh, UK) as a prestigious James Watt Scholar. While my doctoral research (2012-16) offered new insights into the understudied domain of family language policy in contemporary Galicia (North-western Spain), my postdoctoral research (2017-19) at Queen’s University Belfast (Northern Ireland) focussed on educational policies and inclusion practices with regard to migrant newcomer children in Northern Ireland and Scotland. Before joining Queen's, I was directly involved in language planning activities in the Galician language context and worked closely with the policymakers and practitioners at the General Directorate of Language Policy of the Autonomous Government of Galicia. My work frequently features in the Galician media and I have had several television appearances and interviews with local radio stations and newspapers about my research on Galician.

In addition to my current role at LUCL, I am working as a Senior Research Associate in the Sociolinguistics Division of the Real Academia Galega (Spain). I am co-PI on one of its work packages focusing on the impact of language policy in the intergenerational transmission of Galician.

I am also External Research Collaborator at the research centre attached to the UNESCO Chair on World Language Heritage at the University of the Basque Country (Spain).  

During my PhD, I was an active member of the Language Policy Working Group of the EU funded COST Action on New Speakers in a Multilingual Europe: Opportunities and Challenges (2013- 2017). As part of this research network, I developed links with 300 key researchers across the 28 European countries which were part of the Action. Later, while at Queen’s, I worked simultaneously as a Consultant in a sociolinguistic project ‘Sowing the seeds at Semente: Grassroots revitalization and language activism in contemporary Galicia’ (2017-19) funded by the Smithsonian Centre for Folklore and Cultural Heritage (Prof. Bernadette O’Rourke, the University of Glasgow as PI). 
 

Key publications

Journal Articles

1. Nandi, A. and Zabrodskaja, A. (in press). ‘Family members at the epicentre of language policy discourses: Arguments for a Special Issue’, Sociolinguistic Studies.
2. Nandi, A. (in press). Family dynamics towards heritage language maintenance: The case of Indian transnationals in Northern Ireland, Sociolinguistic Studies.
3. Yvette, B. and Nandi, A. (in press). Actores humanos en las políticas y planificaciones lingüísticas. Agencia, ideología y prácticas, Boletín de Filología de la Universidad de Chile, 58(2).
4. Nandi, A. and Vázquez-Fernández, M. (in press). Agencia humana y civismo sociolingüístico en la Galicia contemporánea: Ideologias, gestión y prácticas hacia revitalización lingüística, Boletín de Filología de la Universidad de Chile, 58(2).
5. Nandi, A.; Kasares, P. and Manterola, I. (2023). Countering government’s low-intensity language policies on the ground: Family language policies in Castilian-Spanish dominated Galicia and Navarre, Critical Inquiry in Language Studies, 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427587.2023.2247510
6. Nandi, A. (2023). Micropolíticas lingüísticas familiares de resistencia. Estrategias parentales para la transmisión intergeneracional del gallego, Revista Española de Lingüística Aplicada/Spanish Journal of Applied Linguistics, 36(1), 154-177. https://doi.org/10.1075/resla.20046.nan
7. Nandi, A. (2022). Review of Jeremie Bouchard and Gregory Paul Glasgow (Eds). 2019. Agency in Language Policy and Planning: Critical Inquiries, Sociolinguistic Studies, 16 (2–3), 361–367. https://doi.org/10.1558/sols.21677
8. Nandi, A. (2021). Review of Sonia Wilson. 2020. Family Language Policy: Children’s Perspectives. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978‐3‐030‐52437‐1 (eBook), Russian Journal of Linguistics 25(4), 1136–1142. https://doi.org/10.22363/2687-0088-2021-25-4-1136-1142
9. Carruthers, J. and Nandi, A. (2021). Supporting speakers of community languages: a case study of policy and practice in primary schools, Current Issues in Language Planning, 22(3), 269-289. https://doi.org/10.1080/14664208.2020.1838748
10. Monteagudo, H.; Nandi, A. and Loredo, X. (2020). La transmisión intergeneracional del gallego en Galicia. Estrategias de mantenimiento y convivencia, HispanismeS, 16, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.4000/hispanismes.782
11. Reyna, F.; Manterola, I. and Nandi, A. (2019). Educación plurilingüe con lenguas minoritarias en contextos de diáspora y su impacto en las políticas lingüísticas en familias neo-hablantes: el caso del gallego en Argentina, Lengua y Migración/Language and Migration, 11(2), 107-134. DOI: https://hdl.handle.net/10017/41213. CiteScore 0.19 SJR 0.178 SNIP 0.492 [Quartile: 2]
12. Nandi, A. (2019). Política lingüística familiar. O papel dos proxenitores pro-galego na transmisión interxeracional, Estudos da Lingüística Galega, 11, 77-101. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.15304/elg.11.5064.
13. ’Rourke, B. and Nandi, A. (2019). New speaker parents as grassroots policy makers in contemporary Galicia: ideologies, management and practices’, Language Policy, 18, 493–511. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10993-018-9498-y
14. Nandi, A. (2018).  Parents as stakeholders: Language management in urban Galician homes, Multilingua: Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication, 37(2), 201-223. https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2017-0020.
15. Nandi, A. (2017). Language Policies and Linguistic Culture in Galicia, LaborHistórico, 3(2), 28-45. https://dx.doi.org/10.24206/lh.v3i2.17124.

Book Chapters in edited volumes

1. Nandi, A. (in press). ‘Human agency in language policy: Family members at the epicentre of language, communication and conflict’. In Aditi Ghosh (Ed.), Language, communication and conflict in south and southeast Asia. Kolkata: Asiatic Society.
2. Nandi, A. (2023). A política lingüística individual e a revitalización do galego: Prácticas de transmisión interxeracional nas familias urbanas/periurbanas. In IESCHA (ed.) Lingua e Identidade: Relatorios das Xornadas 2021 E 2022. Vilalba, Spain: Consello da Cultura Galega, pp. 61-79.
3. Nandi, A.; García-Ruiz, M. and Manterola, I. (2023). Reclaiming voice through bottom-up family language policies: Sociolinguistic citizenship in Castilian-dominated multilingual urban settings. In J. Gspandi, C. Korb, A. Heiling, E. J. Erling (eds.) The Power of Voice in Transforming Multilingual Societies. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters, pp. 101-120.  https://doi.org/10.21832/GSPAND2033
4. Nandi, A.; Manterola, I.; Reyna-Muniain, F. and Kasares, P. (2022). Effective family language policies and intergenerational transmission of minority languages: Parental language governance from autochthonous and diasporic contexts. In M. Hornsby and W. Mcleod (Eds.), Transmitting minority languages: Complementary reversing language shift strategies. London: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 305-329. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-87910-5_12
5. Monteagudo, H.; Loredo, X. Nandi, A. and Salgado, X. (2019). ‘A importancia dos novos contextos urbanos e periurbanos en Galicia na transmisión lingüística interxeracional da lingua galega’ (in Galician). In M. Barreiras, and C. Ferrerós (Eds.), Transmissions. Estudis sobre la transmissió lingüística. Barcelona, Spain: EUMO, pp. 11-26.
6. Nandi, A. and Devasundaram, A. I. (2017). ‘Contesting the Conventionalising of Castilian: The Role of Galician Parents as Counter-Elites’. In F. Lauchlan, F. and M.C. Parafita-Couto (Eds.), Bilingualism and Minority Languages in Europe: Current trends and developments. Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 12-33

Book

1. Monteagudo, H.; Loredo, X.; Vazquez-Grandio, G and Nandi, A. (2021). Prácticas lingüísticas na infancia: A xestión lingüística nos primeiros contextos de socialización. A Coruña: Real Academia Galega. https://doi.org/10.32766/rag.389