new faculty
Professor Cécile Vigouroux transfers to Linguistics from the Department of French
During Fall 2025, Dr. C茅cile Vigouroux is transferring to Linguistics from the Department of French. Vigouroux鈥檚 research focuses on transnational identity formation, the reshaping of linguistic ideologies, sociocultural transformations triggered by new forms of mobility, socioeconomic inequalities, the impact of informal economy on language practices and La Francophonie.
Professor Vigouroux has held fellowships at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Religious and Ethnic Diversity, in G枚ttingen, Germany (Spring 2012), the Mellon Foundation, through the University of Cape Town, South Africa (Oct. 2012), and the Collegium de Lyon, France (2013-14).
Vigouroux has also served as a visiting speaker to give research talks at universities and institutions across the globe. One such talk, delivered at Pennsylvania State University during the African Studies Global Virtual Forum, was titled Why and how 鈥渋nformal鈥� economy is relevant to understanding language practices and ideologies in the context of migration: Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa. This annual forum led by Dr. Sinfree Makoni seeks to decentre hegemonic epistemologies and to decolonize the Western canon to facilitate other ways of knowing. In her talk, Vigouroux contended that examining migrants鈥� language practices from the perspective of informal economy makes it possible to foster new debates on the fuzzy and highly instrumentalized notion of socio-economic integration.
Vigouroux鈥檚 work aims to bridge sociolinguistics and other disciplines such as geography and economics. This fall, she is teaching an introductory course, Communication and Language, as well as an upper division course, Topics in Linguistics II.