Biography
Originally from Virginia in the US, Cassie received her PhD from the University of Glasgow in 2012 for her thesis on code-switching and language maintenance in a Gaelic-speaking family on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. From 2012-2016, Cassie was a research fellow for Soillse, the interuniversity Gaelic language research network, for the University of the Highlands and Islands. Part of this fellowship was spent at Lews Castle College on the Isle of Lewis and between 2014-2015, Cassie also held a fellowship at the Institute for the Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Edinburgh, during which time she completed her monograph Family Language Policy: Maintaining an Endangered Language in the Home (Palgrave, 2016). Other publications include articles in the Journal of Pragmatics; Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development; Current Issues in Language Planning; Language, Culture and Curriculum; and theInternational Journal of the Sociology of Language. Cassie is currently at the University of Limerick with a Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded by the Irish Research Council to conduct a comparative study of Family Language Policy (FLP) in Scotland and Ireland.
Research Interests
Multilingualism; Language Shift and Maintenance; Family Language Policy; Minority Language Issues; Code-Switching; Language and Migration; New Speaker Issues; Pragmatics; Conversational Analysis
Professional Activities
Committee
- 2017 Foundation for Endangered Languages,
Award
- 2016 - Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship
- 2014 - Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Institute for the Advanced Studies in the Humanities
- 2014 - British Association of Applied Linguistics/ Cambridge University Press Seminar Award
Association
- 2016 Coordinating Communications Officer, COST New Speakers in a Multilingual Europe: Opportunities and Challenges
Employment
- 2012 University of the Highlands and Islands - Soillse Research Fellow
Education
- 2012 University of Glasgow - PhD
- 2007 Leiden University - MA
- 2006 College of William and Mary - Bachelor of Arts
Outreach
-
In 2014, I organised Là Fealla-Dhà/Gaelic Family Fun with Commun na Gàidhlig. This event was held at Lews Castle College, Stornoway, and was aimed at promoting the use of Gaelic in fun and family-centred activities.
I currently am one of the coordinators for the Migration and Asylum Network (MAN) within COST New Speakers in a Multilingual Europe: Opportunities and Challenges.
Publications
Books
Family Language Policy: Maintaining an Endangered Language in the Home
Smith-Christmas
(2016)
Family Language Policy: Maintaining an Endangered Language in the Home
Basingstoke :
Palgrave
DOI: 10.1057/9781137521811
Book Chapters
Family Language Policy: New Directions
Smith-Christmas, Cassie
(2017)
Family Language Policy: New Directions
In Family Language Policies in a Multilingual World Opportunities, Challenges, and Consequences;
London :
Routledge
[ULIR]
Gaelic Scotland and Ireland: issues of class and diglossia in an evolving social landscape
Smith-Christmas, C and Ó hIfearnáin, T
(2015)
Gaelic Scotland and Ireland: issues of class and diglossia in an evolving social landscape
In Globalising Sociolinguistics Challenging and Expanding Theory;
London :
Routledge
pp. 256-269
DOI: 10.4324/9781315697826
Voicing the other' Code-switching in discourses of Gaelic language ideologies
Dunmore, S. and Smith-Christmas, C.
(2015)
Voicing the other' Code-switching in discourses of Gaelic language ideologies
In Language Variation - European Perspectives V: Selected papers from the Seventh International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE 7), Trondheim, June 2013;
Amsterdanm :
Johns Benjamins
pp. 87-98
DOI: 10.1075/silv.17.07dun
[ULIR]
Code-Switching in Flannan Isles': A Micro-Interactional Approach to a Bilingual Narrative
Smith-Christmas
(2014)
Code-Switching in Flannan Isles': A Micro-Interactional Approach to a Bilingual Narrative
In Sociolinguistics in Scotland;
Basingstoke :
Palgrave
pp. 277-295
DOI: 10.1057/9781137034717
Stance and code-switching: Gaelic-English bilinguals on the Isles of Skye and Harris
Smith-Christmas, C
(2013)
Stance and code-switching: Gaelic-English bilinguals on the Isles of Skye and Harris
In Language Variation - European Perspectives IV Selected papers from the Sixth International Conference on Language Variation in Europe (ICLaVE 6), Freiburg, June 2011;
Amsterdam :
Johns Benjamins
pp. 229 -246
DOI: 10.1075/silv.14
Peer Reviewed Journals
Is it really for talking?': the implications of associating a minority language with the school
Smith-Christmas, C
(2017)
Is it really for talking?': the implications of associating a minority language with the school
In Language Culture And Curriculum;
pp. 32-47
DOI: 10.1080/07908318.2016.1230619
[ULIR]
Regression on the fused lect continuum? Discourse markers in Scottish GaelicEnglish speech
Smith-Christmas, C
(2016)
Regression on the fused lect continuum? Discourse markers in Scottish GaelicEnglish speech
In Journal Of Pragmatics;
pp. 64-75
DOI: 10.1016/j.pragma.2016.01.007
Being socialised into language shift: the impact of extended family members on family language policy
Smith-Christmas, C
(2014)
Being socialised into language shift: the impact of extended family members on family language policy
In Journal Of Multilingual And Multicultural Development;
pp. 511-526
DOI: 10.1080/01434632.2014.882930
Complementary reversing language shift strategies in education: the importance of adult heritage learners of threatened minority languages
Smith-Christmas, C and Armstrong, T.C.
(2014)
Complementary reversing language shift strategies in education: the importance of adult heritage learners of threatened minority languages
In Current Issues in Language Planning;
pp. 312-326
DOI: 10.1080/14664208.2014.915460
Gaelic on the Isle of Skye: older speakers' identity in a language-shift situation
Smith-Christmas, C and Smakman, D
(2009)
Gaelic on the Isle of Skye: older speakers' identity in a language-shift situation
In International Journal Of The Sociology Of Language;
pp. 27-47
DOI: 10.1515/IJSL.2009.043
Other Journals
BAAL/CUP Seminar 2014: Languages in the UK: Bridging the gap between the classroom and the community in language learning
Smith-Christmas, C
(2015)
BAAL/CUP Seminar 2014: Languages in the UK: Bridging the gap between the classroom and the community in language learning
In Language Teaching;
pp. 556-660
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444815000270
Other Publications
I am a white linguist
Smith-Christmas, C
(2016)
I am a white linguist
In Belonging, Identity, Language Diversity Research Group;
Language and Place: Insights from World War II Evacuees to Gaelic-Speaking Areas.
Smith-Christmas, C
(2015)
Language and Place: Insights from World War II Evacuees to Gaelic-Speaking Areas.
In Earthlines Magazine;