RESEARCH

Münster’s English Department is one of the biggest in Germany and a hub for cutting-edge research in the areas of English language education and English linguistics, especially variation linguistics, as well as in American, British and postcolonial literary and cultural studies. Additionally, we have a focus on anglophone book and publishing studies, which is unique in Germany.

We are embedded within the Faculty of Philology (Fachbereich 09) and have built strong connections within the department, faculty and university. Together, we have brought in ample funding from competitive funders such as DFG, BMBF, Volkswagen Stiftung, ERASMUS+, DAAD, the EU COFUND stream, to name a few.

Our five major research areas (status quo: May 2025) are listed below, as well as their integration into the University of Münster’s designated Impact Areas. We are delighted to share a few indicative collaborative projects. For further details on the individual research profiles and publications of our professors and their teams, please see the individual websites (see the links on the right-hand side). Please also see CRIS, the University of Münster’s research output portal.

 

English Around the World
(Impact Areas: Accessing Cultures & Dynamics of Social Plurality)

Within this research area, we focus on global Englishes language teaching, issues of migration and diaspora, and the language, literature and cultures of Nigeria, the Caribbean, and South Asia.

Projects and activities include:

COFUND Postdoctoral Fellowship Programme “Migration, Diaspora, Citizenship” (2024–2029)
Translokalität in der anglophonen Karibik II: Soziophonetische Variation und Perzeption (DFG, since 2014)

Pragmatic strategies by multilingual speakers of English in Nigeria (Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, 2020 – 2024)
The phonology of Nigerian English – national and transnational patterns of variation (DFG, since 2023)
Variation im Englischen im Internet und ihre Implikationen: Eine empirische Studie über Register im Netz in südasiatischen Ländern (DFG, since 2020)
LONGGELT: A Longitudinal Analysis of (Future) English Teachers’ Attitudes towards Global Englishes Language Teaching (est. 2025)

 

Reading, Publishing and Critical Publics
(Impact Areas: Accessing Cultures, Dynamics of Social Plurality)

Within this research focus, we specialize in issues of gender, migration, cosmopolitanism and citizenship as well as sustainability and ecocritical discourse. Here, book and publishing studies intersect with literary and cultural studies in new and fruitful ways.

Projects and activities include:

SFB 1385 Law and Literature (DFG, 2019–2024)
Banned Books Network Münster (est. 2025)
MigraMedia: ERASMUS+ Project (ERASMUS+, 2023–2026)
Gender Imbalance in the Book Industry (DAAD, 2021–2023)

 

Cultural and Linguistic Diversity
(Impact Areas: Healthy Individuals, Dynamics of Social Plurality)

The role and significance of literature (canonization, representation, worldmaking, kinship) is at the heart of this research area. Within this research area, we also specialize on individualized and differentiated teaching methods, language learning aptitudes, multilingualism, and peace and social justice education.

Projects and activities include:

Poetik der Modelle – Ein partizipativer Ansatz zur Energiewende (DFG, 2025–2030)
GLLAD Language Learning Aptitude (Karg-Stiftung, from 2023)
Ehrenpreis Centre for Swift Studies

 

Studying Children’s and Youth Cultures
(Impact Areas: Accessing Cultures, Dynamics of Social Plurality)

This research area is dedicated understanding the seismic shifts (and continuities) in children’s and youth literatures and cultures. Key areas of interest are young learners and children’s rights education, as well as issues of canonization, representation, and worldmaking in children’s and YA literatures.

Projects and activities include:

CIRCE (Counteracting accent dIscrimination pRactiCes in Education) (EU-funded, since 2023)
KiwiS: Kinder wollen internationale Sprachen (from 2025)
Reading Young Adult (YA) Literature in the Classroom and Beyond (2022)

 

Digitality and Emerging Technologies in Language Research and Education
(Impact Areas: Conceptual Foundations and Emerging Technologies)

Within this dynamic research area, we focus on digital humanities and corpus-based research, on XR (AR/VR), videogames, and generative AI, as well as diagnostics and social media.

Projects and activities include:

International Corpus of English – Trinidad & Tobago
International Corpus of English – Nigeria
International Corpus of English – Scotland
PAX: Pedagogical Alliance for XR-Technologies in (Teacher) Education (EU-funded, from 2024)
Game-On (part of the Vifo-Net Project) (BMBF-funded, from 2023)