AHSS Research Seminars, 'Researching Language and Religion in Different Contexts', Stephen Pihlaja (Newman University)

Religious faith and identity is often treated as a stable category. However, interaction between religious believers and people both in their own community and those who don’t share the same religious beliefs reveals that religious identity is more complex and beliefs can be articulated in different ways depending on the context. This presentation will focus on how discourse analysis can be used to track and trace positioning around religious belief and how constituent parts of religious belief shifts depending on the people interacting. The effects of social media and other mediated contexts on the presentation of belief will also be explored, with a focus on how linguistic methods can be used to understand the emergence of religious identities in interaction.

About the speaker

Stephen Pihlaja is a linguist teaching and researching at Newman University in Birmingham (UK). His work focuses on the dynamics of discourse, or language in use, particularly as it relates to religious identity.

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