Angela Hoffman

Angela Hoffman serves as Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor in the Department of English within Uppsala University's Faculty of Languages. Her academic career centers on the sociolinguistic dynamics of Swedish-American communities, with emphasis on language contact phenomena and heritage language preservation.

Education:

• PhD in English, University of Minnesota–Twin Cities, 1999
• MA in English, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas, 1988
• BA in English Teaching, summa cum laude, Bethany College, Lindsborg, Kansas, 1984

Hoffman's research investigates language shift, language ideology, and postvernacularity—the process where languages gain symbolic value as daily usage declines—within Swedish heritage communities in America. She employs sociolinguistic fieldwork, archival analysis, and discourse studies of community cookbooks, immigrant letters, church records, and oral histories to examine how Swedish has evolved in U.S. contexts. Her work reveals how cultural artifacts maintain linguistic identity across generations despite language shift pressures.

Her publication portfolio demonstrates consistent focus on historical sociolinguistics of immigrant communities, particularly through textual analysis of Swedish-American cultural production. Recent work shows increasing emphasis on educational contexts for heritage language transmission and the role of religious institutions in language maintenance. A strong interdisciplinary thread connects linguistic analysis with cultural anthropology and historical studies.

Scientific Awards:

• Pedagogical Prize (Pedagogiska priset) from Uppsala University (2011)
• Distinguished Teacher (Excellent lärare) from The Faculty of Languages at Uppsala University (2014)

Hoffman supervises MA thesis projects and has held significant administrative roles including Director of Doctoral Studies (two terms), Deputy Chair, and MA Program Coordinator. She currently serves on Faculty of Languages and Department of English boards. Her collaborative work includes co-editing Historical Sociolinguistic Studies of Language Islands in the Americas with Anita Auer and Joshua R. Brown, and comparative studies of language shift in Swedish-American congregations with Brown. These partnerships form the core of her ongoing research network focused on transnational heritage language communities.

Her team-based approach integrates archival research with contemporary fieldwork, particularly examining how community cookbooks and religious records document linguistic transitions. Current projects explore the intersection of food culture, music, and language maintenance in postvernacular contexts.