Contact Information
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Dept. of Linguistics, MC-168
707 South Mathews Avenue
Urbana, IL 61801
USA
Biography
I am a doctoral candidate at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. My research focuses on the discursive construction of bi/multilingual identities in Bahraini youth, welding a scalar framework with plural approaches to world Englishes and Arabic sociolinguistics.
Research Interests
Sociolinguistics
Discourse Analysis
Multilingualism, Globalization and Global Englishes
Arabic(s) and Code-Switching
Education
PhD Linguistics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, expected 2023
MA Linguistics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2020
Diploma in Translation (English-Arabic DipTrans), Chartered Institute of Linguists, 2016
BA English, University of Bahrain, 2016
Grants
SLCL Dissertation Completion Fellowship, 2022
University of Illinois Linguistics Summer Fellowship, 2021
Fulbright Graduate Scholarship, 2017
Awards and Honors
Silver Jubilee Award for Outstanding TA in Linguistics, 2022
Linguistics Student Leadership Award, 2022
Chin W. Kim Research Award in Linguistics, 2021
Henry R. Kahane Award for Outstanding TA in non-Western Languages, 2019
List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students, Fall 2017, Spring 2018, Fall 2018*, Spring 2019*, Summer 2019, Fall 2019, Summer 2020*, Fall 2020, Summer 2021*, Fall 2021, Spring 2022* (*=outstanding rating)
Courses Taught
Linguistics:
LING 222 Language in Globalization
LING 250 American Voices: Linguistic Diversity in the US
Arabic:
ARAB 201 Elementary Standard Arabic I
ARAB 202 Elementary Standard Arabic II
ARAB 403 Intermediate Standard Arabic I
ARAB 404 Intermediate Standard Arabic II
ARAB 405 Advanced Standard Arabic I
ARAB 407 Topics in Standard Arabic Language & Literature I
ARAB 408 Topics in Standard Arabic Language & Literature II
ARAB 409 Advanced Topics in Standard Arabic Language & Literature I
ARAB 412 Business Arabic
ARAB 490 Readings in Advanced Arabic
Additional Campus Affiliations
Language and Society Discussion Group
Sociolinguistics Symposium at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (2022 and 2023 co-chair)
Illinois Language and Linguistics Society
Graduate Employees' Organization
Recent Publications
Journal articles:
Al-Alawi, W. (under review). Multilingualism, Translanguaging and (In)Discreteness: a scalar-chronotopic approach.
Al-Alawi, W. (2022). English at the center of the periphery: ‘Chicken nuggets’, chronotopes and scaling English in Bahraini youth. Language in Society. 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1017/S004740452200015X
Book reviews:
Al-Alawi, W. (in press). Review of the book Linguistic Identities in the Arab Gulf States: Waves of Change (Routledge Studies in Language and Identity). Routledge. Journal of Arabic Sociolinguistics.