Patrick HEINRICH

Position
Full Professor
Telephone
041 234 9586
E-mail
patrick.heinrich@unive.it
Scientific sector (SSD)
Lingua e letteratura del Giappone, lingua e letteratura della Corea [ASIA-01/G]
Website
www.unive.it/people/patrick.heinrich (personal record)
Office
Department of Asian and North African Studies
Website: https://www.unive.it/dep.dsaam
Where: San Sebastiano

I am a sociolinguist focused on the languages of Japan. My research extends beyond sociolinguistics to include the history of linguistics, language ideology, language endangerment, and urban communication. I have institutional experience in Germany, Japan, and Italy. I publish and teach mostly in English, but I also speak German, Japanese, French, and Italian. I have been fortunate to study with and owe a huge intellectual debt to my mentors, who include Florian Coulmas, Jiří Neustupný, Fumio Inoue, Shinsho Miyara, and Josef Kreiner, and I enjoy collaborating on research and writing with scholars worldwide. In teaching, I strive to share the joy of studying. For more information about me, please refer to the listing below. 

Academic training

1998: MA in Linguistics and Japanese Studies (Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf, Germany)

2002: Dr. phil. in Japanese Studies (Gerhard-Mercator-University Duisburg, Germany)

2005: Habilitation thesis in Japanese Studies (Duisburg-Essen University, Germany)

Employment and full-time scholarships

1998–1999: Research assistant, Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf

2000–2001: PhD scholarship by DAAD

2001–2006: Assistant professor, Duisburg-Essen University

2006–2008: Associate professor, Duisburg-Essen University

2008–2010: JSPS/Humboldt fellow, University of the Ryukyus

2010–2013: Associate Professor, Dokkyo University

2013–2014: Professor, Dokkyo University

2014–2021: Associate Professor, Ca‘ Foscari University of Venice

Since 2021: Professor, Ca‘ Foscari University of Venice

Editorial boards

Associate Editor: East Asian Pragmatics (University of Toronto Press)

Editorial Board: The Endangered Language Yearbook (Brill), Contemporary Japan (Taylor & Francis), Current Issues in Language Planning (Taylor & Francis), International Quarterly of Asian Studies (Heidelberg University Press), Kotoba to shakai (Sangensha),  Études japonaises (L’Université Toulouse – Jean Jaurès), Journal of Arabic Sociolinguistics (Edinburgh University Press)

Fellowships

Since 2016: University of Hokkaido: lecturer at the annual summer school

2026: Visiting professor University of Toulouse Jean-Jaurès

2025: Erasmus teacher exchange: University of Ljubljana

2019: Erasmus teacher exchange: University of Vienna

2016: Erasmus teacher exchange: University of Helsinki

2016: Visiting professor: Duisburg-Essen University

2015: Fellow: University of Lapland

2013: Visiting professor: University of Toulouse Jean-Jaurès

2010–2013: Fellow: Gakushuin University

2008–2010: Fellow: Okinawa International University

2006–2013: Fellow: Hosei University

2004: Visiting Fellow: Tokyo University of Foreign Studies

Research Impact

Google Scholar: Citations: 1600+ / h-index 21 / i10-index 43

Researchgate: 700+, 70,000+ reads

Awards

2020: Honorary President, Ryukyuan Heritage Language Society

2014: Honorary member, Foundation for Endangered Languages

2010: Tokugawa Award, Japanese Association for Sociolinguistic Sciences

2002: Annual Award of the Duisburg University Society: Best Dissertation of the Year