Dr Linda Sauer Bredvik

• BA, Evangel University, Springfield, MO - Communications/Journalism
• MA, Creighton University, Omaha, NE – International Relations
• PhD, University of Heidelberg, Germany - Sociolinguistics

My interest in asking questions and then seeking to understand how the answers can contribute to discussions in the public square has taken me on an interdisciplinary academic journey that began with a BA in journalism and work as a political reporter. I continued by investigating cross-cultural approaches to communication and their effects on U.S. bilateral negotiations for my MA and, eventually, my curiosity about the ways language and society interact led me to a PhD in sociolinguistics. 

The role of faith in increasingly diverse communities is expanding, as are the spaces where we talk about it. Sadly, many of the ways we talk about what we believe are becoming more strident and divisive. My interdisciplinary background enables me to both ask questions about our linguistic behaviours in interreligious encounters and then synthesize the answers in ways that are applicable in both small conversations and in a wider public setting.

I want to understand how people (most often laity) talk about their faith practices and how those practices inform other aspects of their lives. As a sociolinguist, I use recorded data, ethnographic observation, and semi-structured interviews to investigate interreligious encounters in order to determine what makes them communicatively effective or ineffective.

My research focuses on speakers’ (largely) subconscious use of semiotic signs or contextualization cues that lie outside the lexical meaning 

of their spoken utterances but which convey a host of meaning (sometimes unintended) to the hearer(s). The framework I developed to identify these cues and how they function in a conversation can be used by faith communities and institutions to facilitate dialogues within and between their traditions. 

I look forward to the opportunities the Cadbury Centre provides to bring this applied research of multicultural interreligious encounters into the wider public square in ways that can enhance and encourage discourse about religion and its role in society.

Participatory scholar 

• Society for Intercultural Pastoral Care and Counselling

Member

• British Association for Applied Linguistics
• American Academy of Religion
• European Academy of Religion
• European Society for Intercultural Theology and Interreligious Studies