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Convenors:
Prof. Peter L. Patrick
Language & Linguistics
University of Essex
Wivenhoe Park
Colchester
CO4 3SQ
Essex, UK
+44 (0) 1206 872088

Prof. Monika Schmid Language & Linguistics University of Essex & University of Groningen
+44 (0) 1206 872089  

Dr. Karin Zwaan
Centre for Migration Law Radboud University Nijmegen P.O. Box 9049
6500KK Nijmegen
the Netherlands
+31 24 361.2934

E-mail: larg@essex.ac.uk

Fallou Ngom

Fallou Ngom photoExpertise:

  • Sociolinguistics - African Linguistics - French Linguistics - LADO Practitioner

Qualifications:

  • Maitrise d'anglais (Gaston Berger de Saint-Louis)

  • MA (Montana)

  • PhD (Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)

Dr. Fallou Ngom is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of the African Language Program at Boston University's Anthropology Department. Dr. Ngom’s work has appeared in the International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, Language Variation and Change, and African Studies Review, among other journals.

Dr. Ngom’s current research interests include the interactions between African languages and non-African languages, the Africanization of Islam, and Ajami literatures (records of West African languages written in Arabic script). He hopes to help train the first generation of American scholars to have direct access into the wealth of knowledge still buried in West African Ajami literatures, and the historical, cultural, and religious heritage that has found expression in this manner.

Dr. Ngom has also worked as researcher and language analyst in asylum cases, a sub-field of the field of forensic linguistics. His work in LADO addresses the intricacies of using knowledge of varied West African languages and dialects to evaluate the claims of migrants applying for asylum, in order to determine if the person is actually from the country that he or she claims. He was a founding member of the Language & National Origin Group who authored the 2004 Guidelines.

In addition to French and English, Dr. Ngom is a fluent speaker/writer of Wolof, Mandinka, Pular (Fuuta Jalon) and Kriyol (Creole Portuguese of Guinea-Bissau), and also speaks some Arabic, Sereer, Spanish and several other languages. He conducts regular linguistic fieldwork trips in Wolof, Mandinka and Fulani communities in Senegambia, and has held Guggenheim, Fulbright and ACLS (American Council of Learned Societies) fellowships and awards.

Fallou Ngom's webpage

Email:

fngom                Please add:        @bu.edu   

Related Publications

2009. (with Toyin Falola.) Oral and Written Expressions of African Cultures. Durham NC: Carolina Academic Press.

2008. Forensic language analysis in asylum applications of African refugees: Challenges and promises. In Niyi Afolabi, Toyin Falola & Aderonke A. Adesanya (eds.), Migrations and creative expressions in Africa and the African Diaspora, 219-237. Durham NC: Carolina Academic Press.

2006. Loanwords in the Senegalese speech community: Their linguistic features and sociolinguistic significance. Language, Communication & Information, Tome 1: 103-113.

2004. (coauthor) Guidelines for the use of language analysis in relation to questions of national origin in refugee cases. The International Journal of Speech, Language and the Law: Forensic Linguistics, 11(2): 261-266. Available at http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/ 

2004. Language and ethnic identity in the Senegalese speech community. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 170: 95-111.

2003. Wolof. (Linguistic Description.) Studies in Sociolinguistics 05. Munich: Lincom Europa Academic Publishers.

2000. Phonetic and phonological description of Mandinkakan as spoken in Ziguinchor. Studies in African linguistics. Munich: Lincom Europa Academic Publishers.