Research at the Department of Spanish

Professor Angela Bartens has specialized in Creolistics and Contact Linguistics. She is particularly interested in minority/minorized languages, pluriareal vs. pluricentric languages and Afro-Luso-Hispanic language contacts. Applied to this large field, she is interested in LPP (Language Policy and Planning), specifically language ideologies, vitality, and development including orthography development and grammar writing. She is also interested in language variation and change; and Spanish and Portuguese morphosyntax. She has also worked on Critical Discourse Analysis and NSM theory.

Since 2010, Angela Bartens has participated in the following research projects:

• Procesos de gramaticalización en la historia del español (I–VII): coordinators José Luis Girón Alconchel, since 2016 Francisco Javier Herrero Ruiz de Loizaga, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, 2005–2025. 
• APiCS (Atlas of Pidgin and Creole Language Structures), coordinators Susanne Michaelis, Philippe Maurer, Magnus Huber and Martin Haspelmath, Max Planck Institute, Leipzig, 2006–2012. 
• The World Atlas of Varieties of English, coordinators Bernd Kortmann and Kerstin Lunkenheimer, 2009–2012. 
• LingTerm, coordinator Angela Bartens, 2026–
• Documentación audiovisual, archivo y retorno comunitario de prácticas culturales, memoria oral, saberes de cuidado y transmisión intergeneracional en lengua palenquera, coordinator Wendy Váldez Jiménez, 2027-

Furthermore, Angela Bartens is a member of the following networks:

• Comparing and Contrasting Languages and Cultures (CoCoLaC), University of Helsinki, 28.02.2011–
• LANGNET Writing Systems, theme group, 2023–

LAMA (Language Making Network), coordinator Philipp Krämer, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 2016–

Senior Lecturer, Hanna Lantto, specializes in sociolinguistics, multilingualism, and contact linguistics. She has published several studies on bilingual speech and the influence of language ideologies on language practices in the context of language revitalization in the Basque Country. Lantto has also received the Lauaxeta Honorary Award from the Provincial Council of Biscay in recognition of her work in support of the Basque language. Her international collaborative projects address new speakers, language ideologies, and usage-based approaches to the study of language contact. In recent years, Lantto has also conducted research on the linguistic landscapes of the city of Turku and currently leads the project Generation Z Language Ideologies: Language Construction as Textual Performance, funded by the Emil Aaltonen Foundation. The project examines the language ideologies and conceptions of language held by upper-secondary school students in their final year.

In her doctoral research, Sanna Pelttari examined emotional communication between Spanish-speaking YouTubers and their followers from, among other perspectives, a multimodal perspective and in relation to broader extralinguistic phenomena such as the attention economy, parasocial relationships, social and emotional capital, and emotional attachment. She has also participated in collaborative research projects focusing on technologies for language teaching and learning, including digital learning profiles, informal and hybrid learning, and the use of technology in teaching and learning, as well as digital literacy and information-seeking practices. Furthermore, she has conducted research on the interlanguage of Finnish university students of Spanish, with a particular focus on the use of prepositions. In her next research project, Pelttari will investigate the relationship between language proficiency, language ideologies and attitudes, on the one hand, and integration and occupational well-being, on the other, among Finnish expatriates working in Spanish-speaking countries.

Carmen Acosta Vicente specializes in translation and interpreting studies. Her research interests also include sociolinguistics, interactional linguistics, and gender studies. Her article-based doctoral dissertation, conducted at the University of Helsinki, examines the significance of the interpreter’s gender in public service interpreting, with a particular focus on healthcare interpreting. Her research seeks to identify how the interpreter’s gender becomes relevant in interpreter-mediated encounters as well as the impact it has on interaction.