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 dedicated officers.
Co-President: Dr Anna Havinga
Department of German / School of Modern Languages; University of Bristol
Anna Havinga (she/her) 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. Together with Sascha Stollhans, she is co-lead for German in the Linguistics in MFL project, which aims to address the decline in language learning in UK schools by introducing linguistics to the Modern Foreign Language curriculum.
Sascha Stollhans (he/him) is Professor of Language Education and Linguistics at the University of Leeds, where he also holds the role of Pro-Dean for Student Education in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures. His research explores the interplay between linguistics and language education, in particular the representation and role of sociolinguistic variation in language teaching and learning. Together with Anna Havinga, he co-leads the German strand of the Linguistics in Modern Foreign Languages project.
Treasurer: Dr Geraldine Horan
Department of German / SELCS; University College London
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.