Dominika M Baran

My research interests encompass language, identity, and migration, as well as language, gender, and sexuality. My 2017 book, Language in Immigrant America, is an interdisciplinary examination of language as a site for the contestation of  “immigrant” and “American” identities, and argues that these two categories have always been overlapping, conflicting, fluid, and mutually constitutive, as well as formed in the context of multilingualism. My current book project focuses on narratives of migration and belonging among former fellow refugees, and on narratives and discourse on social media. I am particularly interested in how migrant identities are formed and enacted through discourse and linguistic practices, such as code-switching and translanguaging. Simultaneously, I have been researching anti-LGBTQ+ discourses and far-right nationalism with a focus on Poland. This work is based on critical analyses of Polish far-right media, political, and ultraconservative Catholic discourses since 2019, and unmasks how queerphobia is mobilized to support multiple far-right agendas including extreme nationalism and conspiracy theories around COVID-19 denial.