Dr Alina Kamalova, PhD in Russian and Sociolinguistics, the University of Edinburgh

Profile

My research focuses on discursive identity construction, language policies and ideologies, multilingualism, and media discourse. Combining approaches from critical discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, memory studies, and visual culture, I examine how language both shapes and is shaped by the societies we live in.

Currently, I am working on a book that explores how the war in Ukraine influences language ideologies and national identity construction in Kazakhstan.

Before joining QMUL, I taught at various international institutions, including Moscow State University, Nazarbayev University, the University of Edinburgh, and Suleyman Demirel University. I have designed and taught modules at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels in areas such as Discourse, Culture, and Communication; Russian Language and Culture; Research Methods in Sociolinguistics; and Negotiating Identities. Additionally, I have co-supervised PhD students on topics including the construction of gendered stereotypes in media, bilingualism in Kazakhstan’s education, and the role of English in different social spheres across the post-Soviet region.

I am currently a member of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies; the Eurasian Regions Study Group within the British Association for Slavonic and East European Studies; and the Linguistic Society of America.

Teaching

This semester I teach SML4006 Language and Culture and FLM6071/RUS6071 Contemporary Post-Soviet Documentary.

Research

Publications

2025 Kamalova, Alina. It’s Your Fault: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Narratives Surrounding Gender-Based Violence in a Russian Talk Show. Language, Culture & Society [in press]

2025 Kamalova, Alina. Constructing the ideologies of globalisation and elitism: the analysis of English-written signs in Kazakhstani coffee shops. In International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Special Issue: The globalisation of English and the Turkic speaking countries of the Formner Soviet Union: attitudes, policy and implementation [in press]

2025 Kamalova, Alina. Speak Kazakh: Language ideologies in Kazakhstan's social media in times of Russian-Ukranian war. Journal of Sociolinguistics [in press]

2024 Kamalova, Alina. You are a murderer: critical discourse analysis of conversations around abortions in the Russian talk show. In Discourse & Society, 35 (2), pp. 194-222.

2022 Kamalova, Alina. Motherhood and child abandonment: narrative and critical discourse analysis of tabloid talk show communication. In Emergence, Vol. XII, pp. 56-74.

Dissemination

Conferences (for the last three years):

Speak Kazakh: Language ideologies in Kazakhstan’s social media in times of war, Flipping the Script: Language Policies in Flux Across Eurasia Conference, UC Berkeley, Jan, 24, 2025.

Signs of Change: English, Globalism and Neoliberalism in Kazakhstan's Coffee Shops, Plenary Session "Crossing Boundaries: Connections, Mobilities, and Infrastructures in Central Asia and the Caucasus Throughout the Centuries", ASIAC XVIII Annual Conference, Ca'Foscari University, Venice, Dec 9-11, 2024.

Language ideologies in Kazakhstan in times of geopolitical crisis - Roundtable "Multilingualism in the Urban Space: Language Policy and Diversity", 1st Eurasian Congress of Linguists, Dec, 11, 2024.

Mockery in Kazakhstan's Social Media as a tool of constructing language hierarchies, 4th Central Asia Language and Education Conference, KIMEP University, Almaty, 16-17 May, 2024.

How dare you – you’re a mother: familial identity constrcution in media discourse, 3rd International Conference on Sociolinguistics, Prague, Czech Republic, 24-26 August, 2022.

Negotiation of norms and identites in family conversations: corpus- assisted critical discourse analysis of the Russian talk show, Sociolinguistic Symposium 24, Ghent, Belgium, 13-16 July, 2022.