The Critical Inquiries in Multilingualism (CIM) Research Cluster gathers faculty and graduate students from UC Irvine to investigate the societal, political, and/or pedagogical aspects of multilingualism or language plurality, broadly conceived, ideally guided by an explicit or implicit orientation to critical theory. In this sense, “critical inquiries in multilingualism” can be reflective of inquiry into the question of multilingualism or language plurality from the perspective of critical theory but also critically-oriented scholarship of artifacts, social interaction, and phenomena in multiple languages or pluralistic linguistic forms/practices. Some of our members explicitly engage with and research questions of multilingualism or language difference, while others pursue critically-oriented research that demands competence in multiple languages or multiple dialects or registers.
The CIM Research Cluster was established in part to accommodate a wide range of perspectives on multilingualism by providing an intellectual space for scholars across campus who are conducting research that is guided, directly or indirectly, by the conditions of multilingualism. It is further designed not only to stimulate such research activity, but to promote greater critical awareness of how the faculty, staff, and student demographics at UCI are reflective of the realities of multilingualism as the global norm beyond, and indeed within, the US.
Our activities have supported by sponsorships and partnerships with the following units at UCI:
-Humanities Center
-Department of Anthropology
-Department of Asian American Studies
-Department of Comparative Literature
-Center for Critical Korean Studies
-UCI Critical Theory
-Department of East Asian Studies
-Department of European Languages & Studies
-Department of Gender & Sexuality Studies
-Department of Global & International Studies
-Department of Language Science
-Program in Global Languages & Communication
-International Center for Writing & Translation