Assiociate Professor
TSHD: Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences
TSHD: Department of Culture Studies
After a B.Ed. (HONS) in English Language and Education at the University of Oxford, I have obtained an MA in Applied Linguistics at Goldsmiths College, University of London. I have then read for a PhD in Sociolinguistic Ethnography at the Department of Language & Culture at Tilburg University, defended in 2007.
After co-managing the Babylon Centre for the Study of Super-diversity at the same institution, I am now an Associate Professor in Digital Literacies and Ethnography at the Department of Culture Studies, School of Humanities and Digital Sciences.
My research interests focus on identity and school classrooms, linguistic landscaping, migrants and their processes of socio-cultural as well as sociolinguistic integration. Further, my work on the digitalisation of literacy skills has brought me to investigate the gains and losses of learning literature from printed books to software-based games. Next, I have a vivid interest in language policies and sociolinguist practices across the gl
1) asylum-seeking practices and the politics of suspicion in power saturated environments both online and offline
2) Language policies and sociolinguistic grassroots practices across the globe
3) language, identity and super-diversity in regular and non-regular learning environments
4) e-citizenship apprenticeship, e-inclusion/exclusion through CEFR-based frameworks for learning an L2
I teach various research skills courses that range from ethnography to the use and the analysis of digital literacies. Further, I am part of the teaching team of the MA management of cultural diversity where I take care of teaching about language, migration and super-diversity in urban and non-urban environments.
Next to that, I have a small group of PhD students under my supervision whose work ranges from ethnographic linguistic landscapes, to language policies in the Dutch Caribbeans, to the investigation of blogs as a form of political activism in Bangladesh, to the construction of preaching leaderships identities in online Muslim communities in Indonesia.
http://www.meertens.knaw.nl/cms/nl/
http://www.mmg.mpg.de/departments/socio-cultural-diversity/
https://ecspm.org/who_we_are/our-mission/
https://taalunie.org/over-de-taalunie-/organisatie
https://www.nwo.nl/en/advisory-structure-nwo-domain-social-sciences-and-humanities
Spotti, M., & Blommaert, J. (2023). Sociolinguistics and Superdiversity: Innovations and Challenges at the online-offline nexus. In S. Vertovec, F. Messner, & N. Sigona (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Superdiversity (pp. 107). Article 31 Oxford University Press.
Aarts, R. (Author), Spotti, M. (Author), & Swanenberg, J. (Author). (2022). Lesmodule Superdiversiteit voor Kinderen. Web publication/site, Tilburg University. https://www.tilburguniversity.edu/nl/onderwijs/junior/junior-kennisbank/superdiversiteit
Spotti, M. (2018). "It's all about naming things right": The Paradox of Web Truths in the Belgian Asylum-Seeking Procedure. In: Gill, N. & A. Good (eds.) Asylum Determination in Europe - Ethnographic Perspectives. London: Palgrave, 69-90.
Garcia, O., Flores, N. & M. Spotti (2017) (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Language and Society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.