Language practices and policies in a post-colonial setting

Jacqueline Rowe (2016) graduated from Jesus College last year with a BA in Linguistics. Her dissertation considered the role of Portuguese, Creole and indigenous languages in Bissau-Guinean society and schools, and the impact of globalisation on indigenous language practices. She collected data for this project via a research trip to Guinea-Bissau which was partially funded by a Jesus College Study Grant.

Whilst carrying out her fieldwork, Jacqueline filmed a series of interviews in order to create a short documentary outlining the political tensions surrounding language use and language choices in Guinea-Bissau. This documentary was recently published by Cambridge Language Sciences, and can be found, along with a brief article describing Jacqueline’s research project, here.

Jacqueline currently works as a Programme Assistant at the International Law Programme at Chatham House, and will continue her studies with an LLM in Human Rights at Birkbeck University later this year.