My Research Concerning the Russian-Ukrainian War

I’ve shared this project briefly on a few separate occasions, but linguistics have played a very large role in my undergraduate studies. Some of my coursework has included anthropological linguistics, varieties of English, sociolinguistics, linguistic researching methods, history of the English and its modern day usage, semantics, pragmatics, and technical communications.

In March of 2022, I listened to a podcast episode of a Ukrainian woman commenting on the conflict, and I was intrigued by the wrestling of languages that she illustrated for the audience. I approached the professor who had shared the podcast and asked if I might be able to do a larger research project on the subject. She happily agreed to oversee it.

She and I worked together to build an IRB application and a Qualtrics survey over the course of summer 2022; it received approval in November, and we distributed the survey in December.

The working title of the project is Russian language attitudes shifting amid the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, with a scholarly focus on how this recent conflict has impacted views of and reactions to the Russian language from people of all backgrounds. Thus far, I’ve gathered 72 complete responses, and will be conducting the analysis process in May.

Our research abstract has been accepted and we have been invited to present at the 18th International Pragmatics Conference in Belgium at the Université Libre de Bruxelles this coming July. It will be presented within a panel of research studies exclusively focusing on linguistic impacts of the war.

Just a few weeks ago, our abstract and proposal was also selected to be included as a chapter in a research publication proposal. I’m very excited to have the opportunity not only to study language and its innate connection to identity, but to also make a valuable contribute to such significant conversations.

I will continue to share updates as my research unfolds!