Adekunmi Olatunji

RACIALIZED SHAME

Reframing racialized shame of Yorùbá heritage language users in the UK​

AAAL Conference, Chicago Illinois

21 March 2026

This study was motivated by online reactions to a BBC docu-short on a British-born Yorùbá girl’s unlearned heritage language. Dismissed as a “non-story” in the comments, this erasure reveals how linguistic experiences are trivialized when not historically or emotionally legible to dominant perspectives that marginalize languages. This incident exemplifies why interdisciplinarity is essential for interpreting language phenomena—particularly in confronting racism and advancing decoloniality amid deepening ideological divides that shape the experiences of minoritized communities. In response, I employ Ahmed’s (2004) critical affect theory and Bonilla-Silva’s (2019) concept of racialized emotions to analyze narratives of the profound, yet under-explored role of shame in heritage language use among Yorùbá generations in the UK. This qualitative study exemplifies methodological porosity by re-analyzing prior interview data alongside published stories and naturally occurring narratives in digital spaces. Departing from a singular interview-based approach, this study expands notions of what constitutes valid data in Applied Linguistics research, offering a triangulated examination of how emotions are embedded in everyday interactions and symbolic artifacts. Drawing on Ahmed’s (2004) notion of ‘sticky’ emotions, I examine how cultural objects become ‘saturated’ with shame, and how this ‘stickiness’ manifests initially as linguistic barriers, but also as shame mitigation strategies. Moving beyond purely psychological or linguistic understandings, this study positions shame not solely as individual self-evaluation, but as a racialized, intergenerationally transmitted response to colonial systems created by dominant ideologies that devalue African languages. Shame’s stickiness to certain Yorùbá linguistic forms, accents, and cultural practices contributes to linguistic silencing, self-censorship, and identity fragmentation. However, it also prompts subsequent identity reconstruction. By foregrounding the affective burdens carried by speakers of a minoritized language in a postcolonial diasporic context, the study reframes deficit narratives and highlights heritage speakers’ experience as a result of enduring historical power structures that shape linguistic practices across generations.

ADVANCING A POLITICS OF CITATION

An Action Research Intervention to Decolonize and Diversify Reading Lists

Co-presenter: Stephanie Guirand, Phavine Phung

6th EMI Symposium/3rd Annual ELINET
Conference
Department of Education, University of Oxford

3rd–4th July 2025

This project – initiated by postgraduate researchers across the University of London colleges in response to decolonizing movements such as #MyCurriculumSoWhite – addresses the politics of citation. While such higher education movements prioritize diversifying reading lists, little research investigates how transformation unfolds. We
present the process and outcomes of a participatory action research intervention to diversify the canon for three undergraduate courses at Goldsmiths College and King’s College from 2022 to 2024. Undergraduate volunteers collaborated with doctoral mentors to produce diverse bibliographies for their final assignments. Final reference lists were analysed using a typology of racialization (visible, geographic, institutional, and political) to measure diversity. This typology considered authorship, context, and linguistic content, and necessitated the creation of a word bank reflecting decolonial terminology. In 2025, these terms mirror those scrutinized under the new US administration’s policies, highlighting the broader political implications of such efforts. A catalog of alternative readings was submitted to the course convenors, with past and upcoming syllabi compared to track diversification. We examine complexities in defining racialization, measuring decoloniality and the vital relationship-building necessary for curricula transformation. We urge educators and administrators to embrace this process as a blueprint for diversifying their curricula to amplify marginalized voices.

THE COUNTER CANON CHALLENGE

An Action Research Intervention to Decolonize and Diversify Reading Lists

Co-presenter: Stephanie Guirand

AAAL Conference 2025, Denver Colorado

This project was initiated by postgraduate researchers across the University of London colleges to address the marginality of racialized (BIPOC) voices in academic contexts, as articulated in decolonial movements such as #MyCurriculumSoWhite. The decolonizing agenda within higher education, particularly the social sciences – including applied linguistics – prioritizes the diversification of reading lists. Although university libraries offer decolonizing toolkits, there is little research into how transformation unfolds. This project aims to go beyond addressing the under-representation of racialized scholars and examine the complexities of defining racialization, the linguistic challenges of reviewing reading texts for racialization, and the dynamics of the relationship-building necessary for long-lasting curricula transformation. Using a participatory action research approach, we have incorporated racialized scholars into the canon for the Principles and Methods of Social Research (PMSR) undergraduate course at King’s College London. Enrolled undergraduate volunteers, including domestic and international students, collaborated with postgraduate mentors from various universities to produce a diverse bibliography for the PMSR final assignment. We used a theoretically generated typology of racialization (visible, geographic, institutional, and political) to analyze, score, and rank the cited works based on their context and linguistic content. A catalog was then submitted to the PMSR Convenor, and we compared past and upcoming syllabi to measure the incorporation of racialized scholars onto the course reading list.  Preliminary findings indicate an increase in the availability of racialized texts for students. However, we found that, at times, students’ instrumental needs were at odds with the ideological aims of their mentors. We present an analysis of each phase of the project, including reflections from participants, and make suggestions for improving mentor-mentee relationships and accountability to the students. In particular, steps to facilitate international students expressing their perspectives on the decolonization discourse in a preferred language must be part of any systemic change.

MANAGING ACCELERATION

Integrating Temporality and Velocity in Language Program Management

Submitted and accepted to 24th Interdisciplinary SLAT Roundtable

February 2025

Summary

The accelerating pace of modern life creates new demands for language teaching organizations. Drawing on existing studies of work intensification and examples of COVID-19 induced deceleration, the presenter argues why critical perspectives on temporality and velocity should be incorporated as conceptual resources into the research agenda for language program management.

Abstract

The persistent increasing pace of modern life, theorized as ‘social acceleration’ (Rosa & Trejo-Mathys, 2013), has implications for work-life, the likes of which have been documented in education (Canning & Jay, 2024) the academy (Vostal, 2016; Rotenberg & Carlos, 2018) and TESOL (Barnawi, 2020). Emotional responses abound in a fast moving, globalized and digitizing education system. Emotionality has become a focus of research in SLS, TESOL, teacher education, and organizational psychology. Language program management (LPM) has its particular demands, constraints and emotion dimensions that are not sufficiently addressed through theoretical or empirical research.

LPM education and training courses for future leaders are becoming established within SLS and TESOL. This offers opportunities to connect theory with praxis, research with application. In addition to managers benefiting from evolving knowledge of the sphere in which they operate, more research into this area would support the often-shaky transition from teacher to manager. 

This theoretical paper calls for temporality and velocity to be considered a crucial conceptual resource within the growing LPM research and training agenda. I posit that attention to acceleration should necessarily incorporate the emotional ramifications. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, I draw on studies in sociology, psychology, education and SLS to make connections between the accelerated pace of life, work intensification, and emotional exhaustion pertinent to LPM. I refer to examples of social deceleration during COVID-19 pandemic to support the need for this perspective. I conclude by suggesting research questions for future empirical work that will connect these concepts with common topics within LPM courses.

FEELING MY WAY

Insights from self-reflection and stories of critical incidents

Action Research Network Conference 2024, University of Birmingham, Dubai

TONGUE TIED YORÙBÁ

Reflections on how Family Language Policies have contributed to language shift among Yorùbás in London

SOAS Working Papers in Linguistics, 2023 Volume 21. pp. 64-82.

This paper presents a small-scale, qualitative, interview-based investigation into Yorùbá families’ language policies, according to the tripartite model of practice, management, and beliefs. The objective was to determine factors that have resulted in the second generation of Yorùbá in London not being active speakers of their heritage language. Findings suggest that first-generation parents were not intentional about transmitting Yorùbá to the next generation because they did not perceive any value in language maintenance. Language management was primarily confined to safeguarding English; any explicit Yorùbá policies were not sustained, and a laissez-faire management style arose as a theme. As a result, the home was not an environment that supported the development of Yorùbá. In terms of language practices, the quantity and quality of language input was sufficient for the second-generation to acquire rudimentary working knowledge of Yorùbá, however because participants felt no impetus to speak their mother’s tongue, English was adopted as their ‘mother tongue’. Beliefs about language were largely centred around economic principles where value was ascribed on the basis of the ability to create numerous and economically prosperous connections. The value and utility of Yorùbá to create connections with culture and heritage has only begun to be considered important in the wake of a recent attitude shift.

KEYWORDS: Yorùbá, Heritage Language Family Language Policy