Cardiff School of English Communication and Philosophy

PhD Research

Title: The usages of English in a community of practice in urban India

My PhD research explores India's hip hop movement. An ethnographic fieldtrip to Delhi will be conducted in 2013. I'm especially interested in communicative global flows and the transculturation of subculture as a commodity for empowerment of the urban poor. The project is situated somewhere between linguistic anthropology/sociolinguistics and discourse analysis and is designed to give an account of local usages of Indian Englishes and ideologies of modernity. Another strand of my research investigates informal settlements and poverty in urban India.  

Supervisor: Professor Srikant Sarangi, Dr Mercedes Durham

Academic Background

I studied Medieval and Modern History, Philosophy and English Linguistics at Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany. For my MA dissertation I conducted a mini-fieldwork in Southall, West London. I looked linguistic variation and cultural identity in the South Asian diaspora there. This was followed by a 4-months ethnography in a multiethnic youth-club in Germany. After teaching one semester at Mainz University, I came to Cardiff and started another MA at the Centre for Language and Communication Research. In my dissertation I theoretically explored the epistemology of critical discourse analysis.

Publications

Wengoborski, Sonja and Jaspal Naveel Singh (forthcoming) Creating the city of Delhi: Stories of strong women and weak walls. In: Hans-Christian Petersen (ed.) Looking behind the Facade of the Ghetto: Perspectives of Cultural Sciences on Urban Slum Areas and Their Inhabitants. Mainz: Forschungsschwerpunkt Historische Kulturwissenschaften.

Conferences, Symposia and Seminars

2008   E-waste and media scholars
          Flow Conference
          University of Texas at Austin, USA

2010   Khalistani rappers of London: Creating the Third Place
          47. Studentische Tagung Sprachwissenschaft (StuTS)
          Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany

          Ich, Du und andere Fremde: Die Befremdung der Heimat (with Yalız Akbaba)
          Ein, zwei, drei… heimisch!?
          Aktives Museum Spiegelgasse, Wiesbaden, Germany

          Interview design and interactional dynamics
          48. Studentische Tagung Sprachwissenschaft (StuTS)
          University of Potsdam, Germany

2011   Forensic Linguistics: The language of law and justice
          Invited lecture
          The National Law Institute University, Bhopal, India

          Dharavi: Ein Builtenvironment zwischen Interessen.
          Introduction to a screening of the documentary Dharavi: Slum for Sale
          CinéMayence, Mainz, Germany

2012   Stylizing the Third Place: Khalistan in contemporary music
          (Re-)Constructing Multiculturalism Matinée Sessions
          Cardiff University, UK

          Leben in Armut in Indien: Perspektiven, Herausforderungen, Konsequenzen,
          (conference organization with Sonja Wengoborski)
          Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany

          A History of English in India
          Lecture Series: Understanding India
          Translation Studies, Johannes Gutenberg University Germersheim, Germany

          Transculturation and the appropriation of styles: Hip hop culture in India
          Transitions Conference
          Cardiff University, UK

          Icons of repertoires: Approximation and material ‘feel’ in crossing situations
          Discursive Crossings: Subversion and Affirmation of Power Relations
          Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Germany

2013   (submitted) Glocal flows: India’s hip hop online communities between universal
          authenticity and indigenous practices
          13th International Pragmatics Conference, Delhi, India

Teaching

2011   Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Department of English and Linguistics:
          Four modules Spoken English – Phonetics and Phonology of English.

Links

http://cardiff.academia.edu/JaspalNaveelSingh