About

I’m an applied linguist who specialises in text/discourse linguistics, with a particular focus on multimodality as well as diachronic genre-based research. More recently, I got the exciting opportunity to expand my profile and work in (variationist) sociolinguistics as well: Since March 2022, I have been working as a research assistant in the FWF-funded project “Testing the Limits of the Sociolinguistic Monitor” (2021-2025; PI: Prof Dr Erik Schleef, together with Bradley K. Mackay) at the Department of English and American Studies at the University of Salzburg.

From Oct 2017 to Feb 2022, I worked as a research assistant in English and Applied Linguistics in the Department of English and American Studies at the University of Salzburg (Chair: Prof. Dr. Hartmut Stöckl). Previously, I worked at the University of Bremen (2017, Chair: Prof. Dr. John A. Bateman), the University of Halle-Wittenberg (2015-2017, Chair: Pro. Dr. Ulrich Busse), and the University of Salzburg (2015-16, Chair: Prof. Dr. Hartmut Stöckl), where I also had the chance to teach classes. In 2022, I completed my binational PhD project located in the areas of text/discourse linguistics and multimodality research (Thesis: Genre Development in Science Journalism: A Multimodal Discourse Analysis of the National Geographic Feature Article. 1915 – 1965 – 2015), co-supervised at the University of Salzburg (Austria) as well as at the University of Halle-Wittenberg (Germany). Since 2017, I have been working as an editor of the international journal Visual Communication (Sage Publishing). Prior to this (2014-2017), I was co-editor of the linguistic eJournal 10plus1: Living Linguistics, which I founded together with Dr. Peter Schildhauer (University of Bielefeld).

Since 2014, I have published and presented widely and internationally in the areas of multmodality, text/discourse linguistics, and beyond, collaborating with colleagues from Austria, Australia, Denmark, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands, Serbia, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, to name but a few. I have also been involved in a large number of outreach activities, such as co-convening national and international conferences, workshops, citizen science events (6:40 min: Pecha Kucha Talks on Language Change and Corpus Linguistics, or a dramatic reading of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in Original Pronunciation), and further volunterring (OEAD Young Science Ambassador).

I obtained a teacher training degree (majors: English and Fine Arts; minors: Education Studies and Educational Psychology, 1.0, with honours) from Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg and Burg Giebichenstein Hochschule für Kunst und Design Halle. My final thesis was entitled On Visualising Linguistic Theories: Potential and Constraints of Transmodal Shifting from the Visual to the Verbal Mode (2014), which promoted the idea of transforming theoretical arguments led in academic texts on linguistics into complex infographic form. This work received much attention and has since resulted in several publications (on ‘how to visualise a theoretical text’ and related design work), invited talks/workshops (e.g., Halle, Bonn, Bielefeld, Sydney, Odense, Berlin), and a teaching award.

At the University of Halle-Wittenberg, I was a tutor for Introduction to English linguistics (2010-2014) and a student assistent to Prof. Dr. Alexander Brock and Prof. Dr. Ulrich Busse, English linguistics (2011-2012, 2013-2014 and 2014) at Department of English and American Studies. I also worked as a student assistent at the university’s e-learning center @LLZ – Multimediales Zentrum für Lehren und Lernen (2012-2013).

Apart from academic employments, I worked as a Foreign Language Assitant (PAD/British Council-scholarship) at Lampton School in London, UK (2007-2008) as well as an FLA Ambassador with UK-German-Connection in London, UK . At the art museum Stiftung Moritzburg Kunstmuseum des Landes Sachsen-Anhalt, I worked as a tour guide for exhibitions on Renaissance art, Expressionism, and the New Objectivity (2006-2009).

I carry a sketchbook with me wherever I go.

Contact: jana (dot) pflaeging (at) plus.ac.at
Photo: (c) 2017 | Yvonne Most