What are your research topics?
My research interest is digital media usage among indigenous and minority groups. I am particularly interested in how social media and mobile technologies enable these groups to question, negotiate and challenge established authority and power structures.
I am also interested in multilingualism and how digital media can support language learning and linguistic diversity.
Where and how does the topic of your research have an impact?
Despite the fact that multiculturalism and multilingualism are, and have always been, part of our societies, much of what we see and experience in public environments indicates a normative homogeneity and uniformity.
My research strives for increasing awareness of, and the visibility of, the plurality of cultures and languages that shape our societies.
What is particularly inspiring in your field right now?
One thing that inspires me is the strong engagement and activism from indigenous communities to address the environmental challenges we are facing, and to present modes of knowledge for meeting these challenges.
I find lots of motivation in the work of young scholars in developing and pushing forward the fields of indigenous research and digital ethnological research.
Coppélie Cocq is the professor of ethnology at the Faculty of Arts.
Watch Coppélie Cocq’s inaugural lecture as a new professor on 29 May 2019.
Get to know the other new professors.