Prestigious postdoctoral fellowship for PhD graduate

A PhD graduate from the School of Welsh has recently secured a postdoctoral fellowship with the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

Dr Kaisa Pankakoski secured the ESRC postdoctoral fellowship, a competitive funding opportunity for recent PhD graduates to continue developing networks, research and professional skills, in September 2024 after completing her PhD a year earlier.

Dr Pankakoski said: “This fellowship was the natural next step in my career plan. I had been building up to it; it was always my plan A. Having secured funding for full 2 years is fantastic. I'm super excited to start my new role! Getting a postdoctoral fellowship is largely thanks to the most wonderful mentors and supervisors. I just want to thank everyone who has supported me on this journey.”

During her time at the School of Welsh, Dr Pankakoski received support from 2 supervisors, namely Dr Jonathan Morris and Professor Diarmait Mac Giolla Chríost. Speaking of Dr Pankakoski’s achievements, Professor Mac Giolla Chríost said: “We're delighted that one of our PhD graduates has gained this very prestigious award. The scheme is enormously competitive, it receives many exceptional applications, and few awards are made. It's a wonderful opportunity for Kaisa to bring her fascinating research to a wider audience.”

The funding Dr Pankakoski will receive from the postdoctoral fellowship will allow her to continue her sociolinguistic research work on transnational families. This will include writing a book, entitled Multilingual Family Language Policy and Wellbeing: Language Ideologies, Strategies and Experiences, which builds on the research she conducted during her time at the School of Welsh.

One of the themes covered in the book is wellbeing in multilingual family settings. Dr Pankakoski said: “When children do not achieve certain parental expectations regarding language development, this can negatively impact family wellbeing and lead to a change in language use. The book discusses these challenging insights into the multilingual families' experiences in managing many languages and explores solutions that can ease the transmission process.”

The book will be published in the Bilingual Education and Bilingualism series by Multilingual Matters in 2026.

Securing the postdoctoral fellowship marks the end of Dr Pankakoski’s time with the School of Welsh. Dr Pankakoski started her PhD at the School in October 2015 and her thesis, entitled ‘A Study of Multilingual Families in Helsinki and Cardiff: Parental Language Ideologies, Family Language Policy, Intergenerational Language Transmission Experiences, and Children's Perspectives’, saw her conduct a multiple case study of 14 multilingual families living in her 2 home cities: Cardiff and Helsinki.

Dr Pankakoski will continue to develop this research by embarking on a new role as a research associate with Cardiff University’s School of English, Communication and Philosophy. She will begin this role in October 2024.