Laurence De Backer

Laurence obtained her Master's in Spanish and English Linguistics and Literature at Ghent University, and is finishing a second Master's in Social and Cultural Anthropology at KU Leuven.
After being granted an FWO Fellowship in 2021, she joined the Linguistics department and started her PhD research under the joint supervision of Prof. Dr. R. Enghels and Prof. Dr. G. Jacobs. Her project tackles the persuasive function of metaphorical language in news media communication, with as case study the topic of Latin American migration in the US written press. Innovatively, Laurence adopts a holistic approach to pursue this subject, complementing a linguistic focus on media texts with careful attention to news production and reception.
Laurence’s areas of interest straddle Linguistics and Anthropology, and include metaphor theory, mediated communication, im/mobility, (de)colonization and futurities, with main research foci on the US and Latin-America as well as on contemporary artivism.


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