This doctoral project investigates the study abroad (SA) experiences of six Russian academic sojourners in the UK through consideration of identity, voice and ideologies. The main goal of the project is to explore the phenomena of developing voice trajectories through the lens of ideologies within migrant settings, while negotiating identities, simultaneously experiencing and using two (or more) languages and cultures, and dealing with social inequalities.
This study contributes to the existing body of work on SA, which has been criticised for its imbalance and inconsistency (Benson et al., 2013; Badwan, 2015). The practical relevance of the project is determined by the growing number of Russian-born residents in the UK and increasing popularity of SA amongst Russian people. The study therefore addresses a) the previously undocumented experiences of Russian academic sojourners, b) the lack of research on Russian migrants’ voice development and identity construction in relation to their sociolinguistic activity and (language) ideologies, and c) the methodological limitations of existing studies.
The project’s research data comes from seven rounds of individual and pair interviews conducted on a regular basis. While eulogising the principle of holistic enquiry, the analysis is centred around the concept of voice. Through approaching this phenomenon from a number of different theoretical perspectives (Bakhtin, 1963; Holliday, 1999; Hymes, 1996; Blommaert, 2010; Couldry, 2010; Bamberg and Georgakopoulou, 2007), this study enables insights into the complex interplay of factors contributing to sojourners’ ideological becoming in the context of sociocultural heterogeneity, linguistic superdiversity and cross-time-and-space mobility.
