Prof. Dr. Erez Levon

Director of the CSLS

E-Mail
erez.levon@unibe.ch
Office
D101
Postal Address
Center for the Study of Language and Society (CSLS)
University of Bern
Muesmattstrasse 45
CH-3012 Bern

Erez’s research uses quantitative, qualitative and experimental methods to investigate how people produce and perceive socially meaningful patterns of variation in language. He is particularly interested in how variation signals group membership and in the relationship between language and broader structures of social inequality, especially those related to gender, sexuality, social class and nation. Erez has conducted research on these and other topics in Israel/Palestine, the US, the UK, Brazil and South Africa. Since 2017, Erez has Principal Investigator of the Accent Bias in Britain project, leading an interdisciplinary team examining how accent attitudes may impede social mobility in the UK.

For more details about Erez’s research and a full list of his publications, see https://erezlevon.com/.

Publications

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2024

Milani, Tommaso M.; Levon, Erez (2024). Theorizing checkpoint of desire: Multilingualism, sexuality and (in)securitization in Israel/Palestine. International journal of bilingual education and bilingualism Routledge 10.1080/13670050.2024.2306390

Levon, Erez; Holmes-Elliott, Sophie (2024). Voices, bodies, and the cultural organization of meaning. Signs and society, 12(1), pp. 58-82. University of Chicago Press

Holmes-Elliott, Sophie; Levon, Erez (2024). Modern RP and the (re)creation of social distinction. Language Variation and Change Cambridge University Press 10.1017/S0954394524000097

2022

Passoni, Elisa; de Leeuw, Esther; Levon, Erez (2022). Bilinguals Produce Pitch Range Differently in Their Two Languages to Convey Social Meaning. Language and speech, 65(4), pp. 1071-1095. Sage 10.1177/00238309221105210

Armstrong, Meghan; Breen, Mara; Gooden, Shelome; Levon, Erez; Yu, Kristine M (2022). Sociolectal and Dialectal Variation in Prosody. Language and speech, 65(4), pp. 783-790. Sage 10.1177/00238309221122105

Sharma, Devyani; Levon, Erez; Ye, Yang (2022). 50 years of British accent bias: Stability and lifespan change in attitudes to accents. English World-Wide, 43(2), pp. 135-166. Benjamins 10.1075/eww.20010.sha

Levon, Erez; Sharma, Devyani; Ye, Yang (2022). Dynamic sociolinguistic processing: Real-time changes in judgments of speaker competence. Language, 98(4), pp. 749-774. Linguistic Society of America http://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2022.0020

Levon, E; Cardoso, A; Sharma, D; Watt, D; Ilbury, C; Ye, Y (2022). A multidimensional approach to investigating accent attitudes in Britain (Unpublished). In: Methods in Dialectology 17. Johannes Gutenberg Universität Mainz. August 2022.

Levon, Erez (2022). Language, identity and the interactional construction of self (Unpublished). In: Sociolinguistics Symposium 24. University of Ghent. July 2022.

Levon, Erez; Sharma, Devyani; Ilbury, Christian (2022). Speaking up: Accents and social mobility The Sutton Trust

2021

Levon, Erez; Sharma, Devyani; Watt, Dominic J. L.; Cardoso, Amanda; Ye, Yang (2021). Accent Bias and Perceptions of Professional Competence in England. Journal of English Linguistics, 49(4), pp. 355-388. Sage Publications 10.1177/00754242211046316

Levon, Erez; Sharma, Devyani; Watt, Dominic; Cardoso, Amanda; Ye, Yang (June 2021). Nested language ideologies: Does context affect accent bias? (Unpublished). In: Sociolinguistics Symposium 23. University of Hong Kong. June 2021.

Levon, Erez; Milani, Tommaso (June 2021). Checkpoints of desire: Language and intersectional double binds in Israel/Palestine. In: Sociolinguistics Symposium 23. University of Hong Kong. 7.-10. June 2021.

Levon, Erez (2021). Sexuality as non-binary: A variationist perspective. In: Angouri, Jo; Baxter, Judith (eds.) The Routledge handbook of language, gender and sexuality. Routledge Handbooks in Applied Linguistics (pp. 37-51). Routledge

Levon, Erez; Buchstaller, Isabelle; Mearns, Adam (2021). Towards an integrated model of perception: Linguistic architecture and the dynamics of sociolinguistic cognition. In: Beaman, Karen V.; Buchstaller, Isabelle; Fox, Susan; Walker, James A. (eds.) Advancing socio-grammatical variation and change: In honour of Jenny Cheshire (pp. 32-54). Routledge

Milani, Tommaso; Mortensen, Kristine Køhler; Levon, Erez (2021). At queere flersprogethed og migration. Språk och stil, 31(1), pp. 201-229. Uppsala University Library 10.33063/diva-434156

Levon, Erez (2021). Borders, norms and the dialogic construction of self (Unpublished). In: Challenging Borders Conference. University of Bern. November 2021.

2020

Levon, Erez (2020). Same difference: The phonetic shape of High Rising Terminals in London. English Language and Linguistics, 24(1), pp. 49-73. Cambridge University Press (CUP) 10.1017/S1360674318000205

Levon, Erez (2020). Language, (in)security, and sexuality. Journal of sociolinguistics, 24(1), pp. 111-118. Wiley 10.1111/josl.12402

Levon, Erez; Sharma, Devyani; Cardoso, Amanda; Ye, Yang; Watt, Dominic (2 January 2020). Attitudes to accents in Britain: Ideologies, phonetic detail and the reproduction of accent bias. In: Linguistics Society of America Annual Meeting. New Orleans. 2.-5. January 2020.

Bekker, Ian; Levon, Erez (2020). Parodies of whiteness: Die Antwoord and the politics of race, gender, and class in South Africa. Language in society, 49(1), pp. 115-147. Cambridge University Press 10.1017/s0047404519000630

Levon, Erez; Ye, Yang (2020). Language, Indexicality and Gender Ideologies: Contextual Effects on the Perceived Credibility of Women. Gender and Language, 14(2), pp. 123-151. Equinox 10.1558/genl.39235

Milani, Tommaso M.; Awayed-Bishara, Muzna; Gafter, Roey J.; Levon, Erez (2020). When the checkpoint becomes a counterpoint: Stasis as queer dissent. Trabalhos de Linguística Aplicada, 59(3), pp. 1659-1687. UNICAMP 10.1590/01031813836151620201114

2019

Sharma, Devyani; Levon, Erez; Watt, Dominic; Ye, Yang; Cardoso, Amanda (2019). Methods for the study of accent bias and access to elite professions. Journal of language and discrimination, 3(2), pp. 150-172. Equinox 10.1558/jld.39979

Levon, Erez; Ye, Yang; Sharma, Devyani; Cardoso, Amanda (12 October 2019). Real-time evaluations of British accents: The effect of social and psychological factors on judgements of professional competence. In: New Ways of Analyzing Variation (NWAV) 48. University of Oregon. 10.-12. October 2019.

Levon, Erez; Sharma, Devyani; Ye, Yang; Watt, Dominic (12 October 2019). Accent bias and judgments of professional competence: A comparison of laypeople and trained recruiters. In: New Ways of Analyzing Variation (NWAV) 48. University of Oregon. 10.-12. October 2019.

Levon, Erez; Sharma, Devyani; Ye, Yang; Cardoso, Amanda; Watt, Dominic (26 September 2019). Real-time evaluations of accent and professional competence. In: Experimental Approaches to Perception and Production (ExAPP). University of Münster. 26.-28. September 2019.

Hall, Kira; Levon, Erez; Milani, Tommaso M. (2019). Navigating normativities: Gender and sexuality in text and talk. Language in society, 48(4), pp. 481-489. Cambridge University Press 10.1017/S0047404519000447

Milani, Tommaso M.; Levon, Erez (2019). Israel as homotopia: Language, space, and vicious belonging. Language in society, 48(4), pp. 607-628. Cambridge University Press 10.1017/S0047404519000356

Levon, Erez; Sharma, Devyani; Ye, Yang; Cardoso, Amanda; Watt, Dominic (September 2019). The effect of accent on judgments of professional competence (Unpublished). In: UK Language Variation and Change (UKLVC) 12. Queen Mary University of London. September 2019.

Levon, Erez; Cardoso, Amanda; Sharma, Devyani; Watt, Dominic; Ye, Yang (9 August 2019). Inter-speaker variation and the evaluation of British English accents in employment contexts (Unpublished). In: International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS). Melbourne. 5. -9. August 2019.

Levon, Erez; Gafter, Roey (2019). "This is not Europe": Sexuality, ethnicity and the (re)enactment of Israeli authenticity. Discourse, context & media, 30(2019), p. 100287. Elsevier 10.1016/j.dcm.2018.12.003

Levon, Erez; Sharma, Devyani; Watt, Dominic; Cardoso, Amanda; Ye, Yang (26 June 2019). Accent bias and perceptions of professional competence in the UK. In: International Conference on Language and Variation in Europe (ICLaVE) 10. Fryske Akademy. 26.-28. June 2019.

Milani, Tommaso M.; Levon, Erez; Glocer, Ruth (2019). Crossing boundaries: Visceral landscapes of Israeli nationalism. Sociolinguistic Studies, 13(1), pp. 37-56. Equinox 10.1558/sols.36209

2018

Milani, Tommaso M.; Levon, Erez; Gafter, Roey J.; Or, Iair G. (2018). Tel Aviv as a space of affirmation versus transformation. Language, citizenship, and the politics of sexuality in Israel. Linguistic landscape, 4(3), pp. 278-297. Benjamins 10.1075/ll.18006.mil

Levon, Erez (2018). Language and Sexual Politics: Discursive Negotiations of Belonging. In: Hall, Kira; Barrett, Rusty (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Language and Sexuality. Oxford: Oxford University Press 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190212926.013.31

Levon, Erez; Milani, Tommaso (June 2018). Language, citizenship and the spatial politics of sexuality in Israel. In: International Gender and Language Association (IGALA) 10. University of Botswana. June 2018.

Kitis, E Dimitris; Milani, Tommaso M; Levon, Erez (2018). ‘Black diamonds’, ‘clever blacks’ and other metaphors: Constructing the black middle class in contemporary South African print media. Discourse and Communication, 12(2), pp. 149-170. SAGE Publications 10.1177/1750481317745750

2017

Levon, Erez; Maegaard, Marie; Pharao, Nicolai (2017). Introduction: Tracing the origin of /s/ variation. Linguistics, 55(5), pp. 979-992. De Gruyter 10.1515/ling-2017-0016

Levon, Erez; Milani, Tommaso M.; Kitis, E. Dimitris (2017). The topography of masculine normativities in South Africa. Critical Discourse Studies, 14(5), pp. 514-531. Taylor and Francis 10.1080/17405904.2017.1342678

Levon, Erez (2017). Situating sociolinguistics: Coupland – Theoretical Debates. Journal of sociolinguistics, 21(2), pp. 272-288. Wiley 10.1111/josl.12233

Holmes-Elliott, Sophie; Levon, Erez (2017). The substance of style: Gender, social class and interactional stance in /s/-fronting in southeast England. Linguistics, 55(5), pp. 1045-1072. De Gruyter 10.1515/ling-2017-0020

Bekker, Ian; Levon, Erez (2017). The embedded indexical value of /s/-fronting in Afrikaans and South African English. Linguistics, 55(5), pp. 1109-1139. De Gruyter 10.1515/ling-2017-0022

Milani, Tommaso M.; Levon, Erez (2017). Queering multilingualism and politics: Regimes of mobility, citizenship and (in)visibility. In: Wodak, Ruth; Forchtner, Bernhard (eds.) The Routledge handbook of language and politics. Routledge handbooks in linguistics (pp. 528-540). London: Routledge

2016

Milani, Tomaso; Levon, Erez (2016). Sexing diversity: Linguistic landscapes of homonationalism. Language & communication : an interdisciplinary journal, 51, pp. 69-86. Elsevier 10.1016/j.langcom.2016.07.002

Levon, Erez; Mendes, Ronald Beline (eds.) (2016). Language, Sexuality, and Power: Studies in Intersectional Sociolinguistics. Studies in language, gender, and sexuality. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Levon, Erez (2016). O que Soa “Gay”? Prosódia, Interpretação e Julgamentos da Fala Masculina. Todas as Letras - Revista de Língua e Literatura, 18(2), pp. 165-181. 10.15529/1980-6914/letras.v18n2p165-181

Levon, Erez (2016). Gender, interaction and intonational variation: The discourse functions of High Rising Terminals in London. Journal of sociolinguistics, 20(2), pp. 133-163. Wiley 10.1111/josl.12182

Levon, Erez; Mendes, Ronald Beline (2016). Introduction: Locating sexuality in language. In: Levon, Erez; Mendes, Ronald Beline (eds.) Language, sexuality and power: Studies in intersectional sociolinguistics. Oxford Studies in Language, Gender and Sexuality (pp. 1-18). Oxford: Oxford University Press

Levon, Erez (2016). Conflicted selves: Language, religion, and same-sex desire sexuality in Israel. In: Levon, Erez; Mendes, Ronald Beline (eds.) Language, sexuality, and power: Studies in intersectional sociolinguistics. Oxford Studies in Language, Gender, and Sexuality (pp. 215-239). Oxford: Oxford University Press

Baker, Paul; Levon, Erez (2016). ‘That’s what I call a man’: Representations of racialized and class masculinities in the UK print media. Gender and Language, 10(1), pp. 106-139. Equinox 10.1558/genl.v10i1.25401

Levon, Erez (2016). Qualitative analysis of stance. In: Baker, Paul; Egbert, Jesse (eds.) Triangulating methodological approaches in corpus-linguistic research. Routledge Advances in Corpus Linguistics: Vol. 17 (pp. 152-166). London: Routledge

2015

Levon, Erez (2015). "The ideal gay man": Narrating masculinity and national identity in Israel. In: Milano, Tommaso M. (ed.) Language and masculinities: Performances, intersections, dislocations. Routledge Critical Studies in Discourse (pp. 133-155). London: Routledge

Levon, Erez; Buchstaller, Isabelle (2015). Perception, cognition, and linguistic structure: The effect of linguistic modularity and cognitive style on sociolinguistic processing. Language Variation and Change, 27(3), pp. 319-348. Cambridge University Press 10.1017/s0954394515000149

Levon, Erez (2015). Integrating Intersectionality in Language, Gender, and Sexuality Research. Language and linguistics compass, 9(7), pp. 295-308. Wiley 10.1111/lnc3.12147

Baker, Paul; Levon, Erez (2015). Picking the right cherries? A comparison of corpus-based and qualitative analyses of news articles about masculinity. Discourse & communication, 9(2), pp. 221-236. Sage 10.1177/1750481314568542

Levon, Erez (2015). Language and the politics of gender. In: Whelehan, Patricia; Bolin, Anne (eds.) The international encyclopedia of human sexuality (pp. 649-719). Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell 10.1002/9781118896877.wbiehs259

2014

Levon, Erez (2014). Categories, stereotypes and the linguistic perception of sexuality. Language in society, 43(5), pp. 539-566. Cambridge University Press 10.1017/S0047404514000554

Levon, Erez; Fox, Sue (2014). Social Salience and the Sociolinguistic Monitor: a Case Study of ING and TH-fronting in Britain. Journal of English Linguistics, 42(3), pp. 185-217. Sage Publications 10.1177/0075424214531487

Levon, Erez (2014). Sexual Subjectivities and Lesbian and Gay Narratives of Belonging in Israel. In: Zimman, Lal; Davis, Jenny; Raclaw, Joshua (eds.) Queer Excursions: Retheorizing Binaries in Language, Gender and Sexuality. Studies in language and gender (pp. 101-128). Oxford: Oxford University Press 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199937295.003.0006

Levon, Erez (2014). Ethnography and recording interaction. In: Podesva, Robert J.; Sharma, Devyani (eds.) Research methods in linguistics (pp. 195-215). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

2013

Levon, Erez (2013). Ethnographic fieldwork. In: Mallinson, Christine; Childs, Becky; van Herk, Gerard (eds.) Data collection in sociolinguistics: Methods and applications (pp. 71-79). London: Routledge

2012

Levon, Erez (2012). The voice of others: Identity, alterity and gender normativity among gay men in Israel. Language in society, 41(2), pp. 187-211. Cambridge University Press 10.1017/S0047404512000048

Levon, Erez (2012). Gender, prescriptivism and language change: Morphological variation in Hebrew animate reference. Language Variation and Change, 24(1), pp. 33-58. Cambridge University Press 10.1017/S095439451200004X

2011

Levon, Erez (2011). Teasing apart to bring together: Gender and sexuality in variationist research. American speech, 86(1), pp. 69-84. Duke University Press 10.1215/00031283-1277519

2010

Levon, Erez (2010). Language and the politics of sexuality: Lesbians and gays in Israel. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan

Levon, Erez (2010). Organising and processing your data: The nuts and bolts of quantitative analysis. In: Litosseliti, Lia (ed.) Research Methods in Linguistics (pp. 68-92). London: Continuum

2009

Levon, Erez (2009). Dimensions of style: Context, politics and motivation in gay Israeli speech. Journal of sociolinguistics, 13(1), pp. 29-58. Blackwell Publishing 10.1111/j.1467-9841.2008.00396.x

2007

Levon, Erez (2007). Sexuality in context: Variation and the sociolinguistic perception of identity. Language in society, 36(4), pp. 533-554. Cambridge University Press 10.1017/S0047404507070431

2006

Levon, Erez (2006). Mosaic identity and style: Phonological variation among Reform American Jews. Journal of sociolinguistics, 10(2), pp. 181-204. Blackwell Publishing 10.1111/j.1360-6441.2006.00324.x

Levon, Erez (2006). Hearing 'gay': Prosody, interpretation and the affective judgment of men's speech. American speech, 81(1), pp. 56-78. Duke University Press 10.1215/00031283-2006-003