About 

• Assistant Professor at the Chair for Development and Variation of the English Language at the University of Potsdam, Germany (since 01/2016).
• Extraordinary Researcher in the research focus area 'Understanding and Processing Language in Complex Settings' (UPSET) at North-West University Vaal, South Africa (since 06/2020).
• Habilitation (German post-doctoral degree): "Black South African English: Language, culture, and cognition" (2023).
• Doctor philosophiae (PhD): “Linguistic change in Galway City English: a variationist study of (th) and (dh) in urban western Irish English” (2015).
• Visiting researcher at Universitet i Bergen, Norway (08/2019-09/2019).
• Visiting researcher at North-West University Vaal, South Africa (07/2016-09/2016).
• Guest lecturer at Chu Hai College of Higher Education, Hong Kong (02/2011-04/2011).
• Akademischer Mitarbeiter (research and teaching position) as well as PhD student at the Chair for Development and Variation of the English Language at the University of Potsdam, Germany (10/2009-12/2015).

Current research projects

“Black South African English: Language, culture, and cognition” (Post-Doc/Habilitation)

"Exploring the interplay of language and body in South Africa, Namibia, The Netherlands, and Germany" - with Susan Coetzee-van Rooy (North-West University Vaal), Anne Schröder (Universität Bielefeld) & Rias van den Doel (Universiteit Utrecht)

Research interests 

• Variationist Sociolinguistics / Cognitive Sociolinguistics
• (Applied) Cultural Linguistics
• Anthropological Linguistics
• Corpus Linguistics
• Sociophonetics
• (Cognitive) Contact Linguistics
• Theories of Language Change
• Forensic Pragmatics: The socio-cultural and cognitive bases of threatening as a speech act
• Languages in Ireland and Great Britain / Celtic Englishes / English in Galway City / Geographical and social variation of Irish (Gaeilge)
• Development and variation of English in rural and urban settings in Ireland, North America, Africa, Asia
• Multilingualism in South Africa

Teaching (BA/MA)

• Introduction to Synchronic Linguistics / Diachronic Linguistics / Sociolinguistics
• Old English / Middle English / (Early) Modern English / Present-day English
• Language(s) in Britain and Ireland
• Celtic Englishes
• Varieties of English in Ireland / Africa / Asia / Postcolonial settings
• Methods in qualitative and quantitative research
• Variationist Sociolinguistics / Cognitive Sociolinguistics
• Cultural Linguistics / Anthropological Linguistics
• Theories of Language Change

Conferences organised

(2022) Universität Landau - International Symposium (with Neele Mundt, Frank Polzenhagen and Monika Reif): Metaphor Variation in Englishes Around the World 4

(2021) Universität Bielefeld - International Workshop (with Prof. Dr. Gigi Adair, Prof. Dr. Barbara Job, Prof. Dr. Joachim Michael and Prof. Dr. Anne Schröder): Southern Futures

(2018) Universität Potsdam & Universität Bielefeld - International Conference (with Marion Schulte): New Perspectives on Irish English 5

(2015) Universität Potsdam - Workshop (with Hans-Georg Wolf and Charles Marfo): English Studiesin an International Perspective

(2012) Universität Potsdam - Workshop (with Paula Orzechowska): Phonetics, Phonology, PRAAT Guest speaker: Prof. John Harris (University College London)

Publications

Monographs

Peters, A. (in preparation) Black South African English: Language, culture, and cognition.

Peters, A. (2016) Linguistic change in Galway City English: a variationist study of (th) and (dh) in urban western Irish English. [Duisburg Papers on Research in Language and Culture, Vol. 116]. Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang.

Edited works

Peters, A. & Mundt, N. (2021) Cultural linguistics applied: Trends, directions and implications. [Duisburg Papers on Research in Language and Culture, Vol. 127]. Frankfurt a.M.: Peter Lang.

Wolf, H.-G., Polzenhagen, F. & Peters, A. (2017) Cultural Linguistic contributions to World Englishes.Special issue of International Journal of Language and Culture 4(2).

Book chapters and articles

Peters, A. & Siebers, L. (in preparation). "A re-analysis of left dislocation in Black South African English"

Peters, A. (accepted). "Cultural conceptualizations in Irish English", In K. Bolton (ed.) The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of World Englishes. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell.

Peters, A. (accepted). "Cultural conceptualizations in Black South African English", In K. Bolton (ed.) The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of World Englishes. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell.

Peters, A. & Polzenhagen, F. (accepted). “World Englishes in advertising in Africa," In K. Bolton (ed.) The Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of World Englishes. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell.

Peters, A. (2023, fc.). "English in Galway City", in R. Hickey (ed.) Oxford Handbook of Irish English. Oxford: OUP.

Peters, A. (2023, fc.) "Review of The dynamics of English in Namibia: Perspectives on an emerging variety, edited by Anne Schröder." Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies.

Peters, A. (2022). "Corpus-linguistic and cultural-cognitive perspectives on SILENCE in Black South African English.", in: M. Mayar & M. Schulte (eds.) Silence and its derivatives: Conversations across disciplines. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Wolf, H.-G. & Peters, A. (2022b). "African witchcraft revisited: new cognitive-sociolinguistic findings from a comparative perspective", In A. Ngefac, H.-G. Wolf & T. Hoffmann (eds.) World Englishes and creole languages today. Vol. I. Sociolinguistic paradigms and current trends in action. München: Lincom Europe.

Wolf, H.-G. & Peters, A. (2022a). "Cognitive Sociolinguistic studies of African English(es): A methodological review and outlook", In G. Kristiansen, K. Franco, S. De Pascale & L. Rosseel (eds.) Cognitive Sociolinguistics Revisited, 457-466. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton.

Peters, A. (2021). "Lexical evidence for ancestral communication in Black South African English.", in: H.-G. Wolf, D. Latic, & A. Finzel (eds.) Cultural-linguistic explorations into spirituality, society, and sexuality, 23-39. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Peters, A. (2021) "Cultural conceptualisations of WITCHCRAFT and TRADITIONAL HEALING in Black South African English herbalist classifieds", in: F. Sharifian & M. Sadeghpour (eds.) Cultural Linguistics and World Englishes, 333-359. Singapore: Springer.

Coetzee-Van Rooy, S. & Peters, A. (2021). "A portrait-corpus study of language attitudes towards Afrikaans and English". Language Matters 52(2), 3-28.

Mundt, N. & Peters, A. (2021) "Cultural linguistics applied: status quo and new directions". in: A. Peters & N. Mundt (eds.) Exploring cultural linguistics: Trends, directions and applications. [Duisburg Papers on Research in Language and Culture, Vol. 127], 13-27. Berlin: Peter Lang.

Peters, A. & Polzenhagen, F. (2021) “Genres and text-types from a cross-varietal and cognitive-cultural perspective: A case study on the contextualisation of classified adverts”, in: M. Callies & M. Degani (eds.) Metaphor in Language and Culture across World Englishes. London: Bloomsbury.

Peters, A. & Van Hattum, M. (2021). “Pseudonyms as carriers of culture-specific threat in 19th-century Irish threatening notices”. English World-Wide 42(1), 29-53.

Peters, A. & Coetzee-Van Rooy, S. (2020). “Exploring the interplay of language and body in South African youth”.Cognitive Linguistics 31(4), 579-608.

Peters, A. (2018) "Review of Ugandan English - Its sociolinguistics, structure and uses in a globalising post-protectorate, edited by Christiane Meierkord, Bebwa Isingoma, and Saudah Namyalo. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Anglistik - International Journal of English Studies 29(1), 185-188.

Peters, A. (2017) "FAIRIES, BANSHEES, and THE CHURCH: Cultural conceptualisations in Irish English" International Journal of Language and Culture, 4(2), 127-148.

Wolf, H.-G., Polzenhagen, F. & Peters, A.  (2017) "Cultural linguistic contributions to World Englishes" International Journal of Language and Culture, 4(2), 121-126.

Peters, A. (2016) "Urban development, language contact, and sociolinguistic transformations in Galway City" 10plus1 - Living Linguistics, 106-117.

Peters, A. (2013): “We had things then that they don't have now - The Case of Dental Fricatives in Galway City English”, in: C. Schlaak / A. Hennemann (eds.), Korpuslinguistische Untersuchungen: Analysen einzelsprachlicher Phänomene, 163-174. Berlin: Frank & Timme.

Peters, A. (2012): “Linguistic change in Galway City English: A study of phonological features in the district of Bóthar Mór”, in: B. Migge & M. Ní Chiosáin (eds.), New Perspectives on Irish English, 29-45. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Memberships

• The Irish English Network (IrEN)
• Centre for Language, Variation, Multilingualism (SVM - Zentrum für Sprache, Variation, Mehrsprachigkeit)
• International Association for World Englishes (IAWE)
• International Society for the Linguistics of English (ISLE)
• Deutscher Anglistenverband e.V. (DAV)
• Deutscher Hochschulverband (DHV)
• Potsdam Graduate School (PoGS)