FGLS

Forum for Germanic Language Studies


The Forum for Germanic Language Studies (FGLS) is an informal grouping for researchers interested in the linguistics of the Germanic languages in the UK and Ireland.

Founded in 1994, the group's purpose is to promote research and teaching in the Germanic languages.


Meet Our Officers

To coordinate activities, FGLS elects three dedicated officers.

President: Professor Kristine Horner

Centre for Luxembourg Studies, University of Sheffield, 1 Upper Hannover Street, Sheffield, S3 7RA

Kristine Horner is Professor of Multilingualism and Luxembourg Studies at the University of Sheffield, where she is also Director of the Centre for Luxembourg Studies. She has published widely in the areas of language politics, language ideologies and multilingualism. Recent publications include Multilingualism, (Im)mobilities and Spaces of Belonging (2019, with Jennifer Dailey-O’Cain) Introducing Multilingualism: A Social Approach (2018, with Jean-Jacques Weber), The German-speaking World: A Practical Introduction to Sociolinguistic Issues (2018, with Patrick Stevenson, Nils Langer and Gertrud Reershemius). Her current projects are focused on the interface between language policy and spaces of belonging.

Treasurer: Dr Geraldine Horan

Department of German / SELCS, University College London, 17 Gordon Square, London, RH19 2LA

Geraldine Horan is Associate Professor in German Language at University College London. Her research interests lie in feminist and historical linguistics, discourse analysis, and political discourse, with a particular focus on the relationship between gender, discourse and nationalism. She is co-editor of Doing Politics: Discursivity, Performativity and Mediation in Political Discourse (2018, with Michael Kranert), and of The Discourse of British and German Colonialism: Convergence and Competition (2020, with Felicity Rash). Her current projects include the discourses of German anti-feminism, and Nazi-related insults in English and German.

Secretary: Dr Anna Havinga

Department of German, University of Bristol, 21 Woodland Road, Bristol, BS8 1TE

Anna Havinga is Senior Lecturer in Sociolinguistics at the University of Bristol. She completed her PhD in 2016, working on language standardisation and the invisibilisation of Austrian German variants. Her more recent research focuses on vernacularisation in late medieval legal texts. She is co-lead for German in the Linguistics in MFL project, which aims to address the UK’s language crises by introducing linguistics to the Modern Foreign Language curriculum.