Cassie Smith-Christmas
Author & Researcher
Cassie Smith-Christmas
I’m an author and researcher, originally from Virginia in the USA, but now living in Galway, Ireland. I hold a PhD in Celtic and Gàidhlig Studies from the University of Glasgow, and have published widely on the interface between language and society, in particular child language socialisation. I have also published a variety of works of fiction and poetry, and have won a number of accolades for my creative writing. My recently-completed historical fiction novel was a runner-up in the Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair 2022, of which one of the judges wrote:
“It’s always a sign that I like a piece of writing when I find myself scrambling to the internet to read up on some piece of arcana referred to therein, and such was the case with the story of Indian Key.”
I am a grateful recipient of the Basic Income for the Arts Pilot Scheme in Ireland.
I would love to hear from you- please contact me using the ‘Contact’ page should you have any questions about my writing and/or consultancy services.
Publications
Creative Writing
Recent Fiction and Poetry
2022 ‘No Boundaries’ in Crannog 57
2022 ‘Virginia Place’ in Causeway/Cabhsair 12.1
2021 ‘Naked’ in Tangled Locks Journal 3
2021 ‘Half-clouded Sky’ in The Milkhouse: A Rural Writing Collective
2021 ‘Blackrock Swimming’ published in The Wild Word
2017 ‘Burkini’ in Gutter 16
2016 ‘Am Breabadair’ in Poets’ Republic
2015 ‘Half-clouded Sky’ in the Skye Reading Room’s Anthology A Stillness of Mind
Print and Online Magazines/Blogs
2020 Bella Caledonia, ‘A Child’s Eye View of Language Revitalisation: Hope and Opportunity for the future of Gaelic in Scotland’
2019 The New Ethnographer, “‘Friendnography’ and the ethical questions it raises”
2018 Smithsonian Folklife Magazine ‘Language as a Story : Learning Irish in Corca Dhuibhne’
2016 Belonging, Identity, and Diversity Research Group Blog ‘I am a white linguist’
2015 Earthlines Magazine (print only) ‘Language and Place: Insights from World War II Evacuees to Gaelic-Speaking Areas’
Academic Publications
Books
Smith-Christmas, C. (2016). Family Language Policy: Maintaining an Endangered Language in the Home. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
Smith-Christmas, C., Ó Murchadha, N.P., Hornsby, M., Moriarty, M (Eds). (2018). New Speakers of Minority Languages: Linguistic Ideologies and Practices. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
McLeod, Marsaili, and Smith-Christmas, C. (2018). Gaelic in Contemporary Scotland: The Revitalisation of an Endangered Language. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles
Smith-Christmas, C. (2022). ‘Right an turn agadsa’: The reflexivity between language socialisation and child agency in exploring ‘success’ in FLP. Language and Communication 86, 119- 128.
Smith-Christmas, C. (2021). ‘Our cat has the power’: the polysemy of a third language in maintaining the power/solidarity equilibrium in family interactions, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, DOI: 10.1080/01434632.2021.1877720
Smith-Christmas, C. (2021). Using a ‘Family Language Policy’ lens to explore the dynamic and relational nature of child agency. Children & Society, https://doi.org/10.1111/chso.12461
Smith-Christmas, C. (2020). Double-voicing and rubber ducks: the dominance of English in the imaginative play of two bilingual sisters. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism. doi:10.1080/13670050.2020.1758026
Smith-Christmas, C., NicLeòid, S.L. (2020). How to turn the tide: the policy implications emergent from comparing a ‘post-vernacular FLP’ to a ‘pro-Gaelic FLP’. Language Policy 19, 575–593
Smith-Christmas, C., Bergroth, M., & Bezcioğlu-Göktolga, I. (2019). A Kind of Success Story: Family Language Policy in Three Different Sociopolitical Contexts. International Multilingual Research Journal, 13(2), 88–101.
Smith-Christmas, C. (2019). When X doesn’t mark the spot: the intersection of language shift, identity and family language policy, International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2019 (255), 133-158.
Smith-Christmas, C. (2017). “’One Cas, Two Cas:’ Exploring the affective dimensions of family language policy.” Multilingua. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1515/multi-2017-0018
Smith-Christmas, C. (2017) ‘‘Is it really for talking?’: the implications of associating a minority language with the school’. Language Culture and Curriculum, 31 (1):32-47.
Smith-Christmas, C. (2016). Regression on the Fused Lect Continuum?: Discourse Markers in Scottish Gaelic-English Speech. Journal of Pragmatics, 94, 64-75.
Smith-Christmas, C. (2014). Being socialised into language shift: the impact of extended family members on family language policy. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 5(35), 511–526.
Smith-Christmas, C., & Armstrong, T. C. (2014). Complementary Reversing Language Shift strategies in education: The importance of adult heritage learners of threatened minority languages. Current Issues in Language Planning, 15(3), 312–326. doi:10.1080/14664208.2014.915460
Smith-Christmas, C., & Smakman, D. (2009). Gaelic on the Isle of Skye: older speakers’ identity in a language-shift situation. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 200 (2009), 27-47. doi:10.1515/IJSL.2009.043
Chapters in Books
Smith-Christmas, C. and Ruiséal, O. (2022). Conceptualising successful intergenerational language transmission in terms of saibhreas: Family language support in the Corca Dhuibhne Gaeltacht. In W. McLeod and M. Hornsby Transmitting Minority Languages (eds). Switzerland: Springer.
Smith-Christmas, C. (2020). Child agency and home language maintenance. In A.C. Schalley and S. A. Eisenchlas (eds.), Handbook of Home Language Maintenance and Development: Social and Affective Factors, 218- 235. Berlin: de Gruyter Mouton.
Smith-Christmas, C. (2020) Thuirt e, thuirt i: Code-switching and constructed dialogue in the speech of older bilinguals. In S.M. Kidd, T.O. Clancy and R. Ó Maolalaigh (eds), Litreachas, Eachdraidh & Cànan: Rannsachadh na Gàidhlig 7. Glasgow: Roinn na Ceiltis & na Gàidhlig, Oilthigh Ghlaschu, pp. 382-397.
Smith-Christmas, C. (2018). Land, language and migration: The paradox of World War II evacuees as new speakers of Scottish Gaelic. In Smith-Christmas, C., Ó Murchadha, N.P.,Hornsby, M., Moriarty, M.,. (Eds). New Speakers of Minority Languages: Linguistic Ideologies and Practices. Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan.
Smith-Christmas, C. (In Press). ‘Idé-eolaíochtaí teanga i gcaidream teaghlaigh in Albainn.’ In T. Ó hIfearnain and J. Walsh (Eds.) An Meon Folaithe. Baile Átha Cliath: Cois Life.
Smith-Christmas, C. (2017) ‘Family Language Policy: New Directions’ In: Macalister, John; Mirvahedi, Seyed Hadi (eds). Family Language Policies in a Multilingual World Opportunities, Challenges, and Consequences. London: Routledge
Smith-Christmas, C., & Ó hIfearnain, T. (2015). Gaelic Scotland and Ireland: Issues of Class and Diglossia in an Evolving Social Landscape. In D. Smakman & P. Heinrich (Eds.), Globalising Sociolinguistics (pp. 256–269). London: Routledge.
Dunmore, S., & Smith-Christmas, C. (2015). Voicing the “Other” Code-switching in discourses of Gaelic language ideologies. In E. Torgersen, S. Hårstad, B. Mæhlum, & U. Røyneland (Eds.), Language Variation- European Perspectives V (pp. 87–98). Amsterdam: Johns Benjamins.
Smith-Christmas, C. (2014). Code-Switching in “Flannan Isles:” A Microinteractional Approach to a Bilingual Narrative. In R. Lawson (Ed.), Sociolinguistics in Scotland (pp. 277-295). Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Smith-Christmas, C. (2013). Stance and Code-Switching: Gaelic-English Bilinguals on the Isles of Skye and Harris, Scotland. In P. Auer, J. C. Reina, & G. Kaufmann (Eds.), Language Variation – European Perspectives IV (pp. 229-245). Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
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Cassie Smith-Christmas 