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Term Papers

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Curriculum Vitae

Michael Wentker studied English Linguistics and Dutch Language and Culture at the University of Duisburg-Essen (Germany), from which he graduated with a 2-Fach-Master of Arts degree in 2017.

His master’s thesis is titled "Metapragmatic Negotiations on Facebook – Evidence from Online Discussions in the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election Campaign". It investigates the forms and functions of metapragmatic utterances from an interpersonal pragmatics perspective. In particular, the study analyses how in- and outgroup identities as well as intergroup impoliteness are constructed and negotiated metapragmatically in a semi-public online environment. His thesis was honoured as the best MA thesis in the academic year 2016/17 by the Faculty of Humanities in Essen.

During his time as a student, Michael repeatedly received the UDE-scholarship for highly talented students. Furthermore, he worked as a student assistant in the Department of Anglophone Studies, the Department of Dutch Language and Culture, as well as in an interdisciplinary research project investigating the manifestation of visual multilingualism in the Ruhr area.

Michael has worked as a research assistant at the chair of English Linguistics at the Department of Anglophone Studies at the University of Duisburg-Essen from 2017 to 2022, while pursuing his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Dr Birte Bös. The working title is: “An Audience Perspective on Multimodal Consumer Reviews – Metapragmatic Negotiations of Norms, Identities and Authenticity Online”.

As of October 2022, Michael is working as a full-time lecturer (Lehrkraft für besondere Aufgaben) at Bielefeld University.

Research Interests

• Computer-Mediated Communication
• Interpersonal Pragmatics
• Language and Identity
• (Political) Discourse Analysis

Teaching

Seminars

Past Courses:

• PS Morphological and Syntactic Features of English(es) (SS 2017)
• ÜB Introduction to Linguistics (Gr. 8 + 9 + 11) (WS 2017)
• PS The Pragmatics of Online Interaction (SS 2018)
• ÜB Introduction to Linguistics (Gr. 8 + 9) (WS 2018)
• HS The British Rock Invasion of the 1960s (WS 2018)
• Constructing Identity in Interaction (SS 2019) [MA class taught at Fort Hays State University, KS, USA]
• ÜB Introduction to Linguistics (Gr. 2 + 3) (WS 2019)
• PS Areas and Approaches II (Morphology and Syntax) (SS 2020)
• ÜB Introduction to Linguistics (Gr. 4 + 5) (WS 2020)
• IOS Sprachkurs Niederländisch A2 (WS 2020)
• HS The Sociopragmatics of Digital Discourse (SS 2021)
• IOS Sprachkurs Niederländisch A1 (SS 2021)
• IOS Sprachkurs Niederländisch A2 (SS 2021)
• HS Digital Genres (WS 2021)
• NL, Mündliche Sprachpraxis A (WS 2021)
• NL, Mündliche Sprachpraxis B (WS 2021)
• NL, Schreibpraxis Niederländisch (WS 2021)
• IOS Sprachkurs Niederländisch A1_G4 (WS 2021)
• IOS Sprachkurs Niederländisch A1_G5 (WS 2021)
• HS Multilingualism (SS 2022)
• IOS Sprachkurs Niederländisch A1_G3 (SS 2022)

Lectures

Contributions to Lecture Series:

• Ring-VL Mehrsprachigkeit: Codeswitching als sprachlicher Ausdruck soziokultureller Identität: Theoretische Hintergründe und Datenanalyse (with Birte Bös) (WS 2017)
• Ring-VL Mehrsprachigkeit: Codeswitching als sprachlicher Ausdruck soziokultureller Identität: Theoretische Hintergründe und Datenanalyse (with Birte Bös) (WS 2018)
• Ring-VL Mehrsprachigkeit: Codeswitching als sprachlicher Ausdruck soziokultureller Identität: Theoretische Hintergründe und Datenanalyse (with Nuria Hernández) (WS 2019)
• Ring-VL Mehrsprachigkeit: Codeswitching als sprachlicher Ausdruck soziokultureller Identität: Theoretische Hintergründe und Datenanalyse (with Carolin Schneider) (WS 2020)
• Ring-VL Mehrsprachigkeit: Codeswitching als sprachlicher Ausdruck soziokultureller Identität: Theoretische Hintergründe und Datenanalyse (with Birte Bös) (WS 2021)

Publications & Talks

Publications:

• Wentker, Michael (with Carolin Schneider). 2022 (in press). "And She Be like ‘Tenemos Frijoles en la Casa’: Code-Switching and Identity Construction on YouTube". Languages 7:0. [Special Issue: "Interdisciplinary Approaches to Data Collection, Annotation and Computational Processing of Code-Switched Languages around the World"] [Link]
• Wentker, Michael (with Derya Gür-Şeker and Ute K. Boonen). (in press). "#conspiracymemes: A Multimodal Analysis of Conspiracy Memes and their Negotiation on Instagram" In: Massimiliano Demata, Virginia Zorzi, Angela Zottola (eds), Conspiracy Theory Discourses. Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 267-293. [Link]
• Wentker, Michael (with Ute K. Boonen and Derya Gür-Şeker). 2018. "Nomination Strategies in the Language of Right-Wing Populists. The Discursive Construction of Migrant Identity in the Political Discourse of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany". In: Massimiliano Demata, Ljiljana Šaric, Andreja Vezovnik (eds), I-LanD Journal 1/2018 (Discursive Constructions of Migrants. Verbal and Visual Images of the "Other"), 102-126. [Link]
• Wentker, Michael. 2018. "Code-Switching and Identity Construction in WhatsApp: Evidence from a (Digital) Community of Practice". In: Birte Bös, Sonja Kleinke, Nuria Hernández, Sandra Mollin (eds), The Discursive Construction of Identities On- and Offline. Personal – Group – Collective, Amsterdam: John Benjamins, 109-132. [Link]

Conference Contributions:

• 2022. (accepted) (with Birte Bös) "’Couldn't watch past a minute... the screaming, flailing arms, editing cuts every second, the whiney overdramatic voice’: Multimodality and Metamodality in Critical Online Commentary", Approaches to Digital Discourse Analysis 3 (ADDA 3), University of South Florida (USF),13-15 May 2022. [Talk]
• 2021. "The Metapragmatic Negotiation of Critical Comments on YouTube Electronic Word-of-Mouth", 17th In­ter­na­tional Pragmatics Conference (IPrA17), Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Winterthur, 27 June-2 July 2021. [Talk]
• 2020. "Multimodality, Interactivity and Authenticity in YouTube Reviews – Methodological Challenges and Analytical Benefits", 2nd In­ter­na­tional Conference on In­ter­net Prag­mat­ics (Net­Pra2), University of Helsinki, 22-24 October 2020. [Talk]
• 2019. (with Carolin Schneider) "'Things our Latina moms say' – The Dynamics of Code-Switching and Identity Construction in Discursive Practices on YouTube", 2nd International Conference on Bilingualism, University of Malta, 25-27 March 2019. [Talk]
• 2018. "The Significance of Authenticity in a Multimodal Online Genre – A Metapragmatic Analysis of Youtube Consumer Reviews", 6th Conference on Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) and Social Media Corpora, University of Antwerp, 17-18 September 2018. [Poster Presentation]
• 2015. "Code-switching and Group Identity in an Electronic Community of Practice - A Sociolinguistic Analysis of a WhatsApp Group Conversation between German University Students", Second International Symposium on “The Linguistic Construction of Personal and Group Identity – Structure, Pragmatics, Cognition”, University of Duisburg-Essen, 18-20 June 2015. [Talk]

Translations:

• van der Weel, Heleen. 2017. "Stadtmusikanten auf hohem Niveau. Die Glockenspielkultur in den Niederlanden von den Anfängen bis zur Gegenwart." [Translated from Dutch into German by Michael Wentker]. In: Jörg Engelbrecht †, Simone Frank, Ralf-Peter Fuchs & Christian Krumm (eds), Rhein-Maas Studien zur Geschichte, Sprache und Kultur. Vol. 7 (2017): Vom Minnesang zur Popkultur. Hamburg: tredition, 31–51.