Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Government, Harvard University, Madrid

Postgraduate studies in United Kingdom, 2012

My name is Alfonso Sánchez-Moya and, after obtaining my PhD in Linguistics at the Complutense University of Madrid and the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam (Extraordinary PhD Award / Premio Extraordinario de Doctorado), I am currently a RCC Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Government at Harvard University. My research continues to be focused on digital discourse and its central role in different socio-political settings. In my thesis, I explored the linguistic patterns that women survivors of gender violence in a digital community used to talk about themselves and their abusers at different stages of the abusive relationship. So far, my research has combined the exploration of several fields within linguistics. Embedded within Discourse Studies as the overarching approach, I devoted more than  five years to analysing the discourse used by female survivors of Intimate Partner Violence when representing themselves and their male perpetrators in an online forum. To this end, I adopted a multi-faceted methodological framework, which moved from a more quantified analysis of the online discourse at hand (sentiment analysis) to more abstract/metaphorical realisations of these women and the perpetrators. By and large, and based on the linguistic analysis at the textual level, findings have shed light on these women's concerns, worries and realities. Overall, my research is concerned with language and how language is used by individuals who are part of a socio-cultural scenario. Even though I am particularly interested in online discourse and multimodal communication, I am also driven by the connections between language, ideology, power and identity. This explains why I have investigated several online platforms (namely online forums and WhatsApp) by connecting the discourse used therein to issues of power imbalance or gender identities, to name a few. Furthermore, I am also interested in digital discourse and communication as key components of online education, fields I have been involved with in professional terms for the last ten years. Professionally speaking, I have lectured at several universities. Quite recently, I lectured at the MA in Bilingual Education at Nebrija University, where I was also in charge of International Relationships at the Faculty of Languages and Education. I also work as a speaking examiner (up to CAE) for Cambridge ESOL Examinations. You can check my online website (www.alfonsosanchezmoya.com) to gather information about my research (relevant publications & research projects, talks & conferences, academic activities I am involved with, etc) and about my teaching experience. Don’t hesitate to contact me with comments, suggestions or anything you want to share with me. From 2020, I am a proud member of the 'la Caixa' grant holders association's executive board (Junta de la Asociación de Becarios de La Caixa). We are always happy to hear from you! :) Thanks!