Dr L.M. Rojas Berscia (Luis Miguel)
Assistant professor - Department of Modern Languages and Cultures
Postdoc - Centre for Language Studies
Erasmusplein 1
6525 HT NIJMEGEN
Postbus 9103
6500 HD NIJMEGEN
I currently focus on the dynamics behind language emergence, diversification an obsolescence, as well as on the communicative place of lects in Western and non-Western linguistic ecologies. My work draws on first-hand data collected in the Amazon (Peru-Brazil), the Great Sandy Desert (Australia), Yilan County (Taiwan), Tierra del Fuego (Argentina-Chile), and, most recently, the city of Nijmegen (the Netherlands).
My current research interests are: the communicative place of Nimwèègs in the linguistic landscape of Nijmegen, the meaning of 'language loss', syntactic embedding, the effectiveness of intercultural communication, as well as anthroponymy.
I have a background in field sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, formal syntax, thanatology and TCFL (Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language).