Keynote speakers

SALALS Conference 2022

Professor Rajend Mesthrie

Rajend Mesthrie is Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at the University of Cape Town. He was head of the Linguistics Section (1998–2009), and currently holds an NRF research chair in migration, language, and social change. He was President of the Linguistics Society of Southern Africa (2002–2009) and President of the International Congress of Linguists (2013–2018). He is a past co-editor of English Today (2008–2012). Amongst his book publications are Language in Indenture: a Sociolinguistic history of Bhojpuri-Hindi in South Africa (Routledge 1992, reprint ed. 2019), Introducing Sociolinguistics (with Swann, Deumert & Leap, Edinburgh University Press 2009), Language in South Africa (ed., CUP 2002) and Youth Language Practices & Urban Language Contact in Africa (ed., with Ellen Hurst-Harosh & Heather Brookes, CUP, 2021). He is an elected honorary life member of the SALALS and the LSA (Linguistic Society of America).

Professor Ulrike Jessner-Schmid

Ulrike Jessner is Professor at the University of Innsbruck (Austria) and the University of Pannonia, Veszprem (Hungary) where she acts as Founding Member of the International Doctoral School of Multilingualism. She has published widely in the field of multilingualism with a special focus on the acquisition of English in multilingual contexts. She is the co-author of A Dynamic Model of Multilingualism (with Philip Herdina in 2002) which pioneered CDST in language acquisition research. She has been engaged in the development of the research area of third language acquisition/multilingualism as a Founding Member and President of the International Association of Multilingualism. She is Founding Editor of the International Journal of Multilingualism and the book series Trends in Applied Linguistics (Mouton de Gruyter). With her work on metalinguistic awareness in multilingual learning she opened a new research avenue on metacognition in multilingual learning and teaching.

Professor Thabo Ditsele

Prof Thabo Ditsele spent nearly two decades in industry before accepting a Senior Lecturer position in 2015 at TUT (Tshwane University of Technology). In 2021, he became an Associate Professor of Sociolinguistics at TUT. He holds a BA (Communication and Setswana), and a B.Admin Honours (Industrial Relations) from North-West University’s Mafikeng campus. He also holds an MPhil (Second Language Studies) from Stellenbosch University, and a DTech (Language Practice) from TUT. Prof Ditsele is a leading researcher on Sepitori. He has published nearly 20 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and a chapter on Sepitori in a book titled: Global perspectives on youth language practices (2022). He has received two research grants from the NRF (National Research Foundation of South Africa), for Tsotsitaal (2014–2016) and for Sepitori (2019–2021). In 2021, he gathered the first and largest corpus on Sepitori at 12 townships in Pretoria, Cullinan, and Brits. He is an established researcher in South Africa with a C2 rating at the NRF. As a fiction and non-fiction writer, he has published a Setswana novel titled: Maile maila boganana (2008), two Setswana short stories in an anthology titled: Pelo e ganne molora (2008), and his memoir in English titled: From an obscure village to around the world: Volume 1, Americas (2020). Publishing literature in Setswana and English was first achieved by Solomon Plaatje in the first half of the 1900s; it is still a rare achievement in South Africa and Botswana.

Doctor Kim Wallmach

Dr Kim Wallmach is the Director of the Language Centre at Stellenbosch University. Kim has over twenty years' experience in teaching translation and interpreting at university level, as well as many years' practical experience in translation and interpreting. Her main research interests are multilingualism and nation-building, sign language interpreting, corpus-based translation and interpreting, and blended and online learning.