Profile

Sebastian Müller is a research associate and doctoral candidate working with Prof. Dr. Eva Martha Eckkrammer and Prof. Dr. Andre Klump in Romance Linguistics and Media Studies at Trier University. His PhD project, "Digitale Mehrsprachigkeit und stilisierte Performanz auf Social Media. Funktionen, kommunikative Praktiken und Vitalität der Kreolsprache Papiamentu im postkolonialen virtuellen Kontext" ("Digital Multilingualism and Stylised Performance on Social Media: Functions, Communicative Practices, and Vitality of the Creole Language Papiamentu in the Postcolonial Virtual Context"), examines how speakers of a creole language use digital spaces for multilingual practices and language vitality. His research focuses on sociolinguistics, multimodal media linguistics, language policy, and Romance minority and creole languages.

Since October 2025, he has been coordinating the Trier Center for Language and Communication (Patterns). Within the EU-funded COST Action PLURILINGMEDIA (CA23105), he is a member of Working Group 1, "Audience and Content-Creator Habits", and has served as Assistant Science Communication Coordinator since April 2026. Research stays and conference presentations have taken him to Bogotá, Curaçao, Barcelona and Warsaw, among other places.

Sebastian Müller studied Romance Languages, Literatures and Media (B.A., University of Mannheim, 2018-2023), including a DAAD-funded academic year abroad at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá, as well as Romance Studies: Language, Literature, Culture (M.A., Trier University, 2023-2024). Before moving to Trier, he worked as a research associate and adjunct lecturer at the University of Mannheim. He teaches Spanish and Italian linguistics; his field-trip seminar on the linguistic area of the Pyrenees, carried out jointly with Dr. Hanna Merk, was longlisted for Trier University's Teaching Award in 2025.

Academic activities

Vita

  • 09/2025
    Participation in COST Action PLURILINGMEDIA Training School ‘Journalism in Minority Languages’ in Aberystwyth, Wales
  • 10/2023-09/2024
    Master of Arts in Romance Studies: Language, Literature, Culture (Spanish & Italian) at the Trier University
  • 03/2024
    Research stay on Curaçao
  • 02/2024-05/2024
    Lecturer for Italian Linguistics and Media Studies at the University of Mannheim
  • 08/2023-01/2024
    Research associate in the Department of Romance Linguistics and Media Studies at the University of Mannheim
  • 09/2022-07/2023
    Student assistant and tutor in the Department of Romance Linguistics and Media Studies at the University of Mannheim
  • 08/2022
    Basque Summer Tutorial in Language Documentation in Larrau, France
  • 10/2021-07/2022
    Year abroad at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia in Bogotá, Colombia
  • 09/2020-07/2021
    Student assistant and tutor in the Department of Romance Linguistics and Media Studies at the University of Mannheim
  • 09/2018-07/2023
    Bachelor of Arts Romance Languages, Literatures and Media (Spanish, Italian and French) at the University of Mannheim

Publications

ORCiD: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-0388-5633 

Articles

  • Müller, Sebastian (2025): "Memes como promotores del euskera en redes sociales. Un estudio de actitudes lingüísticas hacia los memes vascos", in: Revista internacional de los estudios vascos 70,1. doi.org/10.61879/riev701zkia202507.

  • Chagas, Andrea/Hilß, Hannah/Müller, Sebastian (2025): "Neural machine translation and a queer perspective on gender bias. A qualitative study of how different strategies of écriture inclusive are translated into German by DeepL and Google Translate", in: The Mouth Journal 12, 45-78. https://journals.ub.uni-koeln.de/index.php/the_mouth/article/view/11977/12047 (Out of the Norm?! Producing, Evaluating, and Perpetuating Gender Difference through Language Practice).

In preparation/publication process:

  • Müller, Sebastian (2026): “Internet Memes in Minderheitensprachen – Spracheinstellungen gegenüber dem Ladinischen in den Sozialen Medien”
  • Müller, Sebastian (2026): “#papiamentu on TikTok: Reclaiming Space through Hashtags”, in: Cajka, Stefanie/Vetter, Eva (Eds.): Empowering Minoritised Languages: Strategies, Methods, and Innovations in Language Revitalisation (Sprache im Kontext/Language in Contact). Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter.

Teaching

Summer semester 2026

  • Seminar “Sociolinguistics and variety linguistics of contemporary Italian” (It, Trier University)

Winter semester 2025/2026

  • Seminar “Structures and processes of Spanish word formation and inflection” (Sp, Trier University)
  • Proseminar “Introduction to Spanish and Hispanoamerican Linguistics” (Sp, Trier University)
  • Guest lecture "Linguistic minorities and Social Media : Breathing Spaces or Endangerment?” (Master in European Cultural Governance, Centre international de formation européenne (CIFE))

Summer semester 2025

  • Seminar "Hashtags, memes and chats: Hispanic media linguistics" (Sp, Trier University)

Winter semester 2024/2025

  • Seminar "Between mountains and borders: The linguistic area of the Pyrenees" (Sp, Trier University; Seminar in form of a field trip to the Pyrenees), nominated on the long list for the teaching award 2025.

Summer semester 2024

  • Proseminar/seminar "Italian linguistic landscapes worldwide: migration, language contact and culture" (It, Trier University)
  • Proseminar "Italian outside Italy: Migration, Variation, Media and Identity" (It, University of Mannheim)

Winter semester 2023/2024

  • Compulsory tutorial "Introduction to Spanish Linguistics and Media Studies" (Sp, University of Mannheim)
  • Proseminar "European Language Policy" (Fr-It-Sp, University of Mannheim)
  • Proseminar/seminar "Language policy and multilingualism in Italy - yesterday and today" (It, Trier University)

Summer semester 2023

  •  Compulsory tutorial "Introduction to Spanish Linguistics and Media Studies" (Sp, University of Mannheim)

Winter semester 2022/2023

  • Compulsory tutorial "Introduction to Spanish Linguistics and Media Studies" (Sp, University of Mannheim)

Summer semester 2021

  • Compulsory tutorial "Introduction to Spanish Linguistics and Media Studies" (Sp, University of Mannheim)

Winter semester 2020/2021

  • Compulsory tutorial "Introduction to Spanish Linguistics and Media Studies" (Sp, University of Mannheim)

Talks

Research interests

  • Sociolinguistics
  • Multimodal media linguistics
  • Language policies
  • Language use on social media
  • (Romance) regional and minority languages
  • Language contact
  • Creole languages

Memberships