Student profiles
Rakgyun Shin
Email: r.shin@lancaster.ac.uk
Thesis Title
Institution
Supervisors
Dr Justin Lo
Dr Sebastian Muth
Research Summary
Rakgyun’s PhD research investigates the language and identity of the North Korean refugee community in New Malden, Europe’s biggest Koreatown. This research aims to document New Malden North Koreans’ speech, investigate their accent, uncover what features distinguish North and South Korean speakers, and how North Koreans negotiate their identity through accent. By combining variationist approaches and linguistic ethnography, this research aims to better understand not only how they use different variables when they interact with the people within and outside their community but also the social, linguistic factors that influence their speech.
Research Interests
Sociolinguistics, sociophonetics, accent variation, language and identity, North Korean
Publications
Evans, Bronwen G; Shin, Rakgyun; Lo, Justin; (2023) Being North Korean in Koreatown: The role of identity & experience in accommodation in the London North Korean community. In: Skarnitzl, Radek and Volín, Jan, (eds.) Proceedings of the 20th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences – ICPhS 2023. (pp. pp. 3537-3541). The International Phonetic Association: Prague, Czech Republic.