Prof. Dr. Miriam Locher

Chair of the Linguistics of English
miriam.locher-at-unibas.ch

On 1 August 2008, Miriam Locher started her position as Professor for English Linguistics at the University of Basel. Before this, she worked as senior assistant of English Linguistics at the University of Berne and the University of Zurich.

She is the administrator of the SWELL (Swiss Works in English Language and Linguistics) mailing list, which is used for the networking of all Swiss doctoral and Habilitation researchers. If you would like to join this list, send a request to her. She is a board member of SAUTE, the Swiss Association of University Teachers of English, as secretary, webmaster and delegate to the Swiss Academy of Humanities and Social Sciences.

Miriam Locher's work has been in the field of linguistic politeness and the exercise of power in oral communication (Power and Politeness in Action: Disagreements in Oral Communication, Mouton de Gruyter, 2004) and advice-giving in an American Internet advice column (Advice Online, Benjamins, 2006). She has edited a collection of papers on impoliteness together with Dr. Derek Bousfield from the University of Central Lancashire, UK (Impoliteness in Language, Mouton, 2008) and one on Standards and Norms of the English Language (Mouton, 2008), together with Dr. Jürg Strässler, University of Zurich. A special issue on computer-mediated communication and politeness for the Journal of Politeness Research and the handbook on Interactional Pragmatics (Mouton), compiled with Dr. Sage Lambert Graham, from the University of Memphis, appeared in 2010.

Currently she is working on an interdisciplinary research project on http://illness-narratives.unibas.ch/Life (beyond) writing: Illness narratives and one on Relational work in Facebook and continues her research on politeness, disagreement and advising in English.

Office hours: Please sign up online.

Important note for AT 2012:

Please note that I will be on sabbatical in autumn 2012.  During my absence, I will continue to supervise papers and am also available for exams in December 2012. Please consult the information on oral and written exams before getting in touch with me on email.