I am excited to announce a Call for Papers for a forthcoming special issue in the Journal of Multilingual & Multicultural Development, which I will co-edit with Othman Barnawi and Rizwan Ahmad. The special issue theme is ‘A Sociolinguistics of Islam: Exploring Multilingualism & Meaning in Faith’ and builds on ideas introduced in our recent article, ‘Exploring a Sociolinguistics of Islam’, which I co-authored with Othman Barnawi and Rizwan Ahmad and published in the OUP journal Applied Linguistics. You can read that article here (author accepted manuscript; to update upon publication).

In that article, we argued that while religion has long been present in the disciplines of sociolinguistics, applied linguistics, literacy studies, and linguistic anthropology, it has often remained marginal, and absorbed under broader constructs such as identity, ideology, or cultural practice. Specifically, we highlighted how Islamic contexts, despite their global significance, have been under-explored in terms of their onto-epistemic contributions to the study of language and society.

This special issue aims to move the conversation forward by inviting new and innovative contributions that explore how the Islamic faith – as a worldview, tradition, and lived experience – shapes and is shaped by multilingual and multicultural phenomena. We particularly welcome submissions that engage with Islamic knowledge traditions, theology, historicity, alongside the sociolinguistic realities of Muslim communities around the world.

Read the full call for papers here (and also here).

Key Dates and Submission Information:

• Deadline for extended abstracts (700–800 words): 22nd August 2025. 
Submit via this form: https://forms.office.com/e/QPNYwfqWEp
• Notification of abstract acceptance and invitation to submit full manuscripts: 7th September 2025

We look forward to receiving your submissions and to collectively shaping a richer and more multi-perspectival sociolinguistics.