Quentin E Williams
Biographic Data
| ID | 206630 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Quentin E Williams |
| GIVEN NAMES | Quentin E |
| FAMILY NAME | Williams |
| SIGNATURE | WILLIAMS Q E |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of the Western Cape |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4154-4920 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 58 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2010 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Towards a sociolinguistics of in difference: Stancetaking on others
This paper proposes a sociolinguistics of in difference , an inquiry-based approach to stancetaking on others. It describes how multilingual speakers in an online context orientate towards a stance-object and affiliate, align and negotiate difference through embodied performances, as part of advancing an ethics of responsibility for the other and aesthetic investments. In the analysis of such orientations, I draw on virtual interactional data to …
Professional Academic Development Over Here and Over There: Sociolinguistic Perspectives on North–South Collaboration and Joint PhD Research
This report develops interrelated perspectives on North–South collaboration, with a particular focus on joint PhD research. A specific – but perhaps atypical – case will be presented, in which the doctoral student is located and collects data in the Global North but is co-advised by supervisors from both Ghent University (Belgium) and the University of the Western Cape (South Africa) in the context of a strategic inter-institutional partnership b…
Public Applied Linguistics in Action: A Conversation Between Emile YX? Jansen and Quentin Williams on Hip Hop Culture & Activism, Afrikaaps, Indigeneity, and Decolonial Futures
Emile YX? & Quentin Williams: We are two activists working towards the same goal, with slightly different tools of description and analysis. Emile YX?: I bring Hip Hop culture, Knowledge of Self and Education are my tools. For me biography, a definition of activism and an understanding of the importance of language, indigeneity. and what our futures will look like as marginalized speakers are important. Quentin Williams: Aweh (that’s real). I lik…
Back inside cover
Into Collabs: Public Applied Linguistics and Hip Hop Language Technicians
In this article, I propose the idea of public applied linguistics: that is, a type of applied linguistics that sees applied linguists doing the work of activism, with language activists, in the public, are (i) invested in the artistic representation of linkages between language reinvention and new relationalities, and (ii) highlighting, documenting and framing interventionist debates around language. Public applied linguists encounter, discourse …
Kom Khoi San, kry trug jou land: Disrupting White Settler Colonial Logics of Language, Race, and Land with Afrikaaps
This article offers a broad and deep discussion of critical issues in the study of language, race, and political economy through an analysis of the verbal art, aesthetics, and performances of South African hip hop artists. In particular, we present an in-depth analysis of the Afrikaaps language movement in Cape Town, South Africa and theorize the language-race-land complex , the range of issues with respect to the co-constitution and refusal of t…
Multilingual Margins
In this article I explore the relationship between language, education and community.Based on the concepts of linguistic citizenship and funds of knowledge, I analyse education for citizenship in Mozambique, specifically the empowerment of communities and their knowledge in bilingual education as one of the impacts of the ideological and political orientations that govern the recent educational reform in Mozambique.Combining Linguistic Ethnograph…
Talking Parts, Talking Back: Fleshing Out Linguistic Citizenship
One of the greatest challenges of our times is that of lack of voice for abused bodies. These are the bodies of children and men and women who have inherited the brutalities of colonialism, plantation servitude and slavery and now re-live these miseries in the belly of a rampant global neoliberal and patriarchal capitalism. They are the racialized, sexualized, genderized and godless bodies that first took form in coloniality-modernity in conjunct…
Fitting in: Stylizing and (re)negotiating Congolese youth identity and multilingualism in Cape Town
Lusophone Hip-Hop: Who We Are’ and ‘Where We Are’: Identity, Urban Culture and Belonging, edited by Rosana Martins and Massimo Canevacci
Since its inception, Hip Hop culture has rapidly grown, redefining the nature of popular culture and music. The culture’s spread to locations far and wide across the globe has given young people, d
Linguistic creativity and the production of cisheteropatriarchy: A comparative analysis of improvised rap battles in Los Angeles and Cape Town
Multilingualism as utopia: Fashioning non-racial selves
The challenge of contemporary South Africa is that of building a (post)nation of postracial equity in a fragmented world of a globalized ethical, economic and ecological meltdown. In this paper, we seek to explore the idea of multilingualism as a technology in the conceptualization of alternative, competing futures. We suggest that multilingualism is understood in terms of how encounters across difference are mediated and structured linguisticall…
Bark, smoke and pray: Multilingual Rastafarian-herb sellers in a busy subway
This paper is an analysis of how multilingual Rastafarian-herbalists organize multilingual and multimodal interactions in a subway. The rationale has been to understand the practice of multilingual repertoires by multilingual speakers in Cape Town marketplaces. It contributes to literature on language use in marketplaces by highlighting how linguistic and non-linguistic resources are drawn on and co-produced in interaction among Rastafarians who …
Youth multilingualism in South Africa’s hip-hop culture: A metapragmatic analysis
This paper describes the practice of youth multilingualism in South Africa’s hip-hop culture, in an online social media space and an advertising space. Based on a multi-sited ethnographic ?eldwork study of youth multilingual practices, comprising of the following data sets – multilingual interviews, observations, multilingual interactions and performances, documents and online social networking interactions – the paper reports on how young multil…
Linguistic citizenship: Language and politics in postnational modernities
A major challenge facing South Africa is that of reconstructing a meaningful and inclusive notion of citizenship in the aftermath of its apartheid past and in the face of narratives of divisiveness that reach back from this past and continue to reverberate in the present. Many of the problems confronting South African social transformation are similar to the rest of the postcolonial world that continues to wrestle with the inherited colonial divi…
Battling the Race: Stylizing Language and Coproducing Whiteness and Colouredness in aFreestyleRapPerformance
In the last 19 years of post-apartheidSouthAfrican democracy, race remains an enduring and familiar trope, a point of certainty amid the messy ambiguities of transformation. In the present article, we explore the malleable, permeable, and unstable racializations of contemporarySouthArica, specifically the way in which coloured and white racializations are negotiated and interactionally accomplished in the context ofCapetonian hip-hop. The analysi…
Multilingualism Remixed: Sampling, Braggadocio and the Stylisation of Local Voice
Among the many challenges posed by contexts of social transformation and extensive mobility is the question of how multilingual voice may carry across media, modalities and context. In this article, we suggest that one approach to this complex problem may be to look at multilingual voice from a sociolinguistic perspective of performance. Our focus here is thus on how marginalised voices on the periphery of Cape Town become mainstreamed within the…
Multilingualism remixed: Sampling, braggadocio and the stylisation of local voice
Among the many challenges posed by contexts of social transformation and extensive mobility is the question of how multilingual voice may carry across media, modalities and context. In this paper, we suggest that one approach to this complex problem may be to look at multilingual voice from a sociolinguistic perspective of performance. Our focus here is thus on how marginalised voices on the periphery of Cape Town become mainstreamed within the c…
The enregisterment of English in rap braggadocio: A study from English-Afrikaans bilingualism in Cape Town
For the last three decades, globalization has been a major theme of sociolinguistics and studies of multilingualism, in keeping with large scale changes evident in late-modern societies (Blommaert, 2010). One of several stances within this research is the importance accorded to English in processes of linguistic globalization (see Leung et al, 2009). Three theoretical stances in particular have dealt with English globalization: World Englishes (e…
Multilingualism in transformative spaces: Contact and Conviviality
Performing rap ciphas in late-modern Cape Town: Extreme locality and multilingual citizenship
The study of hip-hop in Cape Town, and indeed South Africa, has traditionally focused on the narratives and poetics of resistance, race and counter-hegemonic agency in the context of apartheid and the early days of post-apartheid. Despite this attention, hip-hop cipha performances remain relatively under-researched. The aim of this paper is to suggest that cipha performances display linguistic and discursive features that not only are of particul…
Performing rap ciphas in late-modern Cape Town: Extreme locality and multilingual citizenship
The study of hip-hop in Cape Town, and indeed South Africa, has traditionally focused on the narratives and poetics of resistance, race and counter-hegemonic agency in the context of apartheid and the early days of post-apartheid. Despite this attention, hip-hop cipha performances remain relatively under-researched. The aim of this paper is to suggest that cipha performances display linguistic and discursive features that not only are of particul…
Multilingualism in transformative spaces: Contact and Conviviality
Linguistic citizenship: Language and politics in postnational modernities
A major challenge facing South Africa is that of reconstructing a meaningful and inclusive notion of citizenship in the aftermath of its apartheid past and in the face of narratives of divisiveness that reach back from this past and continue to reverberate in the present. Many of the problems confronting South African social transformation are similar to the rest of the postcolonial world that continues to wrestle with the inherited colonial divi…
Kom Khoi San, kry trug jou land: Disrupting White Settler Colonial Logics of Language, Race, and Land with Afrikaaps
This article offers a broad and deep discussion of critical issues in the study of language, race, and political economy through an analysis of the verbal art, aesthetics, and performances of South African hip hop artists. In particular, we present an in-depth analysis of the Afrikaaps language movement in Cape Town, South Africa and theorize the language-race-land complex , the range of issues with respect to the co-constitution and refusal of t…
Battling the Race: Stylizing Language and Coproducing Whiteness and Colouredness in aFreestyleRapPerformance
In the last 19 years of post-apartheidSouthAfrican democracy, race remains an enduring and familiar trope, a point of certainty amid the messy ambiguities of transformation. In the present article, we explore the malleable, permeable, and unstable racializations of contemporarySouthArica, specifically the way in which coloured and white racializations are negotiated and interactionally accomplished in the context ofCapetonian hip-hop. The analysi…
Linguistic creativity and the production of cisheteropatriarchy: A comparative analysis of improvised rap battles in Los Angeles and Cape Town
Bark, smoke and pray: Multilingual Rastafarian-herb sellers in a busy subway
This paper is an analysis of how multilingual Rastafarian-herbalists organize multilingual and multimodal interactions in a subway. The rationale has been to understand the practice of multilingual repertoires by multilingual speakers in Cape Town marketplaces. It contributes to literature on language use in marketplaces by highlighting how linguistic and non-linguistic resources are drawn on and co-produced in interaction among Rastafarians who …
Youth multilingualism in South Africa’s hip-hop culture: A metapragmatic analysis
This paper describes the practice of youth multilingualism in South Africa’s hip-hop culture, in an online social media space and an advertising space. Based on a multi-sited ethnographic ?eldwork study of youth multilingual practices, comprising of the following data sets – multilingual interviews, observations, multilingual interactions and performances, documents and online social networking interactions – the paper reports on how young multil…
Performing rap ciphas in late-modern Cape Town: Extreme locality and multilingual citizenship
The study of hip-hop in Cape Town, and indeed South Africa, has traditionally focused on the narratives and poetics of resistance, race and counter-hegemonic agency in the context of apartheid and the early days of post-apartheid. Despite this attention, hip-hop cipha performances remain relatively under-researched. The aim of this paper is to suggest that cipha performances display linguistic and discursive features that not only are of particul…
Performing rap ciphas in late-modern Cape Town: Extreme locality and multilingual citizenship
The study of hip-hop in Cape Town, and indeed South Africa, has traditionally focused on the narratives and poetics of resistance, race and counter-hegemonic agency in the context of apartheid and the early days of post-apartheid. Despite this attention, hip-hop cipha performances remain relatively under-researched. The aim of this paper is to suggest that cipha performances display linguistic and discursive features that not only are of particul…
The enregisterment of English in rap braggadocio: A study from English-Afrikaans bilingualism in Cape Town
For the last three decades, globalization has been a major theme of sociolinguistics and studies of multilingualism, in keeping with large scale changes evident in late-modern societies (Blommaert, 2010). One of several stances within this research is the importance accorded to English in processes of linguistic globalization (see Leung et al, 2009). Three theoretical stances in particular have dealt with English globalization: World Englishes (e…
Multilingualism in transformative spaces: Contact and Conviviality
Multilingualism remixed: Sampling, braggadocio and the stylisation of local voice
Among the many challenges posed by contexts of social transformation and extensive mobility is the question of how multilingual voice may carry across media, modalities and context. In this paper, we suggest that one approach to this complex problem may be to look at multilingual voice from a sociolinguistic perspective of performance. Our focus here is thus on how marginalised voices on the periphery of Cape Town become mainstreamed within the c…
Battling the Race: Stylizing Language and Coproducing Whiteness and Colouredness in aFreestyleRapPerformance
In the last 19 years of post-apartheidSouthAfrican democracy, race remains an enduring and familiar trope, a point of certainty amid the messy ambiguities of transformation. In the present article, we explore the malleable, permeable, and unstable racializations of contemporarySouthArica, specifically the way in which coloured and white racializations are negotiated and interactionally accomplished in the context ofCapetonian hip-hop. The analysi…
Multilingualism Remixed: Sampling, Braggadocio and the Stylisation of Local Voice
Among the many challenges posed by contexts of social transformation and extensive mobility is the question of how multilingual voice may carry across media, modalities and context. In this article, we suggest that one approach to this complex problem may be to look at multilingual voice from a sociolinguistic perspective of performance. Our focus here is thus on how marginalised voices on the periphery of Cape Town become mainstreamed within the…
Linguistic citizenship: Language and politics in postnational modernities
A major challenge facing South Africa is that of reconstructing a meaningful and inclusive notion of citizenship in the aftermath of its apartheid past and in the face of narratives of divisiveness that reach back from this past and continue to reverberate in the present. Many of the problems confronting South African social transformation are similar to the rest of the postcolonial world that continues to wrestle with the inherited colonial divi…
Youth multilingualism in South Africa’s hip-hop culture: A metapragmatic analysis
This paper describes the practice of youth multilingualism in South Africa’s hip-hop culture, in an online social media space and an advertising space. Based on a multi-sited ethnographic ?eldwork study of youth multilingual practices, comprising of the following data sets – multilingual interviews, observations, multilingual interactions and performances, documents and online social networking interactions – the paper reports on how young multil…
Multilingualism as utopia: Fashioning non-racial selves
The challenge of contemporary South Africa is that of building a (post)nation of postracial equity in a fragmented world of a globalized ethical, economic and ecological meltdown. In this paper, we seek to explore the idea of multilingualism as a technology in the conceptualization of alternative, competing futures. We suggest that multilingualism is understood in terms of how encounters across difference are mediated and structured linguisticall…
Bark, smoke and pray: Multilingual Rastafarian-herb sellers in a busy subway
This paper is an analysis of how multilingual Rastafarian-herbalists organize multilingual and multimodal interactions in a subway. The rationale has been to understand the practice of multilingual repertoires by multilingual speakers in Cape Town marketplaces. It contributes to literature on language use in marketplaces by highlighting how linguistic and non-linguistic resources are drawn on and co-produced in interaction among Rastafarians who …
Linguistic creativity and the production of cisheteropatriarchy: A comparative analysis of improvised rap battles in Los Angeles and Cape Town
Lusophone Hip-Hop: Who We Are’ and ‘Where We Are’: Identity, Urban Culture and Belonging, edited by Rosana Martins and Massimo Canevacci
Since its inception, Hip Hop culture has rapidly grown, redefining the nature of popular culture and music. The culture’s spread to locations far and wide across the globe has given young people, d
Multilingual Margins
In this article I explore the relationship between language, education and community.Based on the concepts of linguistic citizenship and funds of knowledge, I analyse education for citizenship in Mozambique, specifically the empowerment of communities and their knowledge in bilingual education as one of the impacts of the ideological and political orientations that govern the recent educational reform in Mozambique.Combining Linguistic Ethnograph…
Talking Parts, Talking Back: Fleshing Out Linguistic Citizenship
One of the greatest challenges of our times is that of lack of voice for abused bodies. These are the bodies of children and men and women who have inherited the brutalities of colonialism, plantation servitude and slavery and now re-live these miseries in the belly of a rampant global neoliberal and patriarchal capitalism. They are the racialized, sexualized, genderized and godless bodies that first took form in coloniality-modernity in conjunct…
Fitting in: Stylizing and (re)negotiating Congolese youth identity and multilingualism in Cape Town
Into Collabs: Public Applied Linguistics and Hip Hop Language Technicians
In this article, I propose the idea of public applied linguistics: that is, a type of applied linguistics that sees applied linguists doing the work of activism, with language activists, in the public, are (i) invested in the artistic representation of linkages between language reinvention and new relationalities, and (ii) highlighting, documenting and framing interventionist debates around language. Public applied linguists encounter, discourse …
Kom Khoi San, kry trug jou land: Disrupting White Settler Colonial Logics of Language, Race, and Land with Afrikaaps
This article offers a broad and deep discussion of critical issues in the study of language, race, and political economy through an analysis of the verbal art, aesthetics, and performances of South African hip hop artists. In particular, we present an in-depth analysis of the Afrikaaps language movement in Cape Town, South Africa and theorize the language-race-land complex , the range of issues with respect to the co-constitution and refusal of t…
Public Applied Linguistics in Action: A Conversation Between Emile YX? Jansen and Quentin Williams on Hip Hop Culture & Activism, Afrikaaps, Indigeneity, and Decolonial Futures
Emile YX? & Quentin Williams: We are two activists working towards the same goal, with slightly different tools of description and analysis. Emile YX?: I bring Hip Hop culture, Knowledge of Self and Education are my tools. For me biography, a definition of activism and an understanding of the importance of language, indigeneity. and what our futures will look like as marginalized speakers are important. Quentin Williams: Aweh (that’s real). I lik…
Back inside cover
Professional Academic Development Over Here and Over There: Sociolinguistic Perspectives on North–South Collaboration and Joint PhD Research
This report develops interrelated perspectives on North–South collaboration, with a particular focus on joint PhD research. A specific – but perhaps atypical – case will be presented, in which the doctoral student is located and collects data in the Global North but is co-advised by supervisors from both Ghent University (Belgium) and the University of the Western Cape (South Africa) in the context of a strategic inter-institutional partnership b…
Towards a sociolinguistics of in difference: Stancetaking on others
This paper proposes a sociolinguistics of in difference , an inquiry-based approach to stancetaking on others. It describes how multilingual speakers in an online context orientate towards a stance-object and affiliate, align and negotiate difference through embodied performances, as part of advancing an ethics of responsibility for the other and aesthetic investments. In the analysis of such orientations, I draw on virtual interactional data to …
Multilingual Education and Policy (18 works) · Sociology (17 works) · Discourse Analysis in Language Studies (11 works) · Linguistics (11 works) · Multilingualism (10 works) · Political science (8 works) · Art (7 works) · Second Language Learning and Teaching (7 works) · Anthropology (6 works) · Gender Studies (6 works)