Dr. Christina Higgins is Professor in the Department of Second Language Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. She is a sociolinguist who studies multilingualism from a discursive perspective, drawing on social constructionist, semiotic, critical, and postmodern frameworks. She strives to be a sociolinguist for the "real world" and to engage in scholarship that will effect positive change in society. Her research examines multilingual practices and identities among people who navigate local-global affiliations and tensions, with particular attention to marginalized populations. Much of her research has been in post-colonial contexts, including Tanzania and Hawaiʻi. She has examined the expression of different world views in public health communication, linguistic hybridity in everyday conversation and in the media, language learning and identity among transnationals, and the shifting nature of the value of languages in their linguistic landscapes. Her current projects include research on family language policy and practices among new speakers of Hawaiian and a collaborative redesign of the linguistic and semiotic landscape of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa's campus, with attention to Hawaiian history, language, culture, and geography. She is also involved in several citizen sociolinguistics projects about multilingual Hawaiʻi.
Dr. Higgins is co-director of the Charlene Junko Sato Center for Pidgin, Creole, and Dialect Studies, which works to document, describe, and advocate for better understandings of Hawaiʻi Creole (known more commonly as Pidgin) and other historically stigmatized languages.
She teaches courses in sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, narrative analysis, intercultural communication, linguistic landscapes, and qualitative research methods. Prospective doctoral students interested in the sociolinguistics of multilingualism are welcome to contact her with inquiries about applying to the Ph.D. program in Second Language Studies.
Dr. Higgins is co-director of the Charlene Junko Sato Center for Pidgin, Creole, and Dialect Studies, which works to document, describe, and advocate for better understandings of Hawaiʻi Creole (known more commonly as Pidgin) and other historically stigmatized languages.
She teaches courses in sociolinguistics, discourse analysis, narrative analysis, intercultural communication, linguistic landscapes, and qualitative research methods. Prospective doctoral students interested in the sociolinguistics of multilingualism are welcome to contact her with inquiries about applying to the Ph.D. program in Second Language Studies.
Latest publications
Higgins, C. & Urada, K. (2025). Citizen sociolinguists on the entanglements between Pidgin and English in social media spaces. In J. W. Lee and S. Rudiger (Eds.) Entangled Englishes (pp. 17-31). New York: Routledge.
Nguyen, H., Higgins, C. & Lipe, K. (2025, aop). At an epistemological crossroads: International students’ experiences with a decolonizing campus tour. The Journal of Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2025.2473707
Higgins, C. (2024). Toward un-WEIRDing academic publishing about language. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 289-290, 27-31.(Special Issue: The Politics of Academic Reading: 50th Anniversary Issue of IJSL)
Higgins, C. & Urada, K. (2025). Citizen sociolinguists on the entanglements between Pidgin and English in social media spaces. In J. W. Lee and S. Rudiger (Eds.) Entangled Englishes (pp. 17-31). New York: Routledge.
Nguyen, H., Higgins, C. & Lipe, K. (2025, aop). At an epistemological crossroads: International students’ experiences with a decolonizing campus tour. The Journal of Higher Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/00221546.2025.2473707
Higgins, C. (2024). Toward un-WEIRDing academic publishing about language. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 289-290, 27-31.(Special Issue: The Politics of Academic Reading: 50th Anniversary Issue of IJSL)
Contact information:
Christina Higgins
Department of Second Language Studies
1890 East-West Road
University of Hawaii at Mānoa
Honolulu, Hawai`i 96822
USA
[email protected]
808-956-8610
Christina Higgins
Department of Second Language Studies
1890 East-West Road
University of Hawaii at Mānoa
Honolulu, Hawai`i 96822
USA
[email protected]
808-956-8610
