Lorenza Mondada (born in Locarno, 1963) is Professor of general and French Linguistics at the University of Basel.

After studying at the University of Fribourg (1982-1986), she worked as a teaching and research assistant at the universities of Lausanne, Fribourg and Neuchâtel. She completed her PhD in 1994 (Univ. of Lausanne). After a sabbatical at the University of California Berkeley, she was appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Basel (1996-2001), where she obtained her Habilitation in 2000. While there, she directed a research project (funded by the SNF) on the interactional production of knowledge in plurilingual research teams, based on ethnographic fieldwork and data collection in various scientific and medical departments. During this time, she begun to extensively study talk at work and in workplace practices, as well as the ways in which grammar is both a resource for interaction and emerges within its sequential organization – thereby contributing to both general topics in conversation analysis and interactional linguistics, as well as to ethnomethodological and workplace studies. In 2001 she received the National Latsis Prize – awarded annually in Switzerland to the top researcher under 40.

She moved to France in 2001 as a full Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Lyon 2 (2001-2011) and then as Director of the ICAR Research Lab (a CNRS unit) (2007-2010). While in Lyon, she developed her approach of multimodality within conversation analysis, continuing to work on the interplay between language and body, on specific video-recorded empirical settings, as well as on big corpora of data. Over the years, she spent fruitful research periods as invited professor at the universities of Campinas (1996, 2001, 2006), Bielefeld (1999-2000), Mexico (2003), King's College London (2004), Barcelona (2004, 2006), MPI Nijmegen (2005), Helsinki (2006, 2013, 2015-2017), Northwestern (2008), Puebla (2008), the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (2009-2010), Linköping (2010-2013), Tokyo (2013-2017). In 2012, she was hired as full Professor in general linguistics and French linguistics at the University of Basel. From 2015 to 2017 she has also been appointed Distinguished Finland Professor at the University of Helsinki, after having been awarded an important research project on Multimodality in social interaction, generously founded by the Academy of Finland.  She was awarded a doctorate honoris causa from the Southern University of Danemark in 2013 and another one from the University of Linköping in 2018.

Her research deals with social interaction in ordinary, professional and institutional settings, within an ethnomethodological and conversation analytic perspective. Her work on multimodality in interaction studies how linguistic and embodied resources are not only used but also configured and transformed in interaction, as well as how the situated and endogenous organization of social interaction draws on multimodal resources such as, beside language, gesture, gaze, body posture, body movements and objects manipulations. Her work has also explored a diversity of settings (surgical theatres, architectural practices, meetings, family meals, encounters in public spaces, call centers, shops, etc.) on the basis of video recordings of naturally occurring activities.

She has extensively published in Journal of Pragmatics, Discourse Studies, Language in Society, ROLSI and co-edited various collective books for CUP, Routledge, Benjamins, De Gruyter  (among others Knowledge in Interaction, with T. Stivers & J. Steensig, CUP, 2011; Mobility in Interaction, with P. Haddington & M. Nevile, De Gruyter, 2012 ; Beyond multitasking : multiactivity in social interaction, with P. Haddington, T. Keisanen, & M. Neville, Benjamins 2014 ; Video at Work, with M. Broth & E. Laurier, Routledge, 2014) and special issues (among others Assessments in Social Interaction, ROLSI, 2009, with A. Lindström, Writing in interaction. Language and Dialogue, 2016, The micro-politics of sequential organization, with S. Keel, Journal of Language and Politics).

Research Topics

• The organization of social interaction
• Grammar in interaction
• Multimodality and multisensoriality
• Workplace and institutional settings
• Video recordings and multimodal transcripts
• Conventions for transcribing multimodality

Recent Projects

Projects PDF

Mondada, L. (2024) “The semantics of taste in interaction”, Interactional Linguistics [Preprint]. Available at: 10.1075/il.22011.mon.

Lorenza, M., Burak, S.T. and David, M. (2024) “Instructing Hugs for the Photograph: The Local Achievement of Haptic Compositions and Their Public Visibility”. Available at: 10.1080/0163853X.2023.2293445.

D’Antoni, F. et al. (2023) “Encounters in public places: The establishment of interactional space in face-to-face openings”, in A.H. Jucker and H. & Hausendorf (eds.) Pragmatics of Space. Berlin: De Gruyter Mouton, pp. 277–299.

Mondada, L. (2023) “Chapter 11. From the sensing body to language, and back”, in Tasting and expressing taste. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 250–280. Available at: 10.1075/pbns.337.11mon.

Mondada, L., Peräkylä, A. (2023) “Body, participation, self: New perspectives on Goffman and social interaction”, in. Taylor and Francis, pp. 1–26. Available at: 10.4324/9781003094111-1.

Mondada, L. (2023) “Mobile body arrangements in public space: Revisiting ‘withs’ as local accomplishments”, in. Taylor and Francis, pp. 241–275. Available at: 10.4324/9781003094111-13.

Mondada, L., Peräkylä, A. (2023) New Perspectives on Goffman in Language and Interaction: Body, Participation and the Self. Taylor and Francis. Available at: 10.4324/9781003094111.

Lefebvre, A., Mondada, L. (2023) “Interactional Contingencies in Rehearsing a Theater Scene: The Consequentiality of Body Arrangements as Action Unfolds”, Human Studies, 46(2), pp. 303–335. Available at: 10.1007/s10746-023-09669-3.

Mondada, L. (2023) “Demonstrating and guiding how to smell in tasting sessions: .nhHHHhh and the audible-visible production of sensorial intersubjectivity”, Language and Communication, 88, pp. 111–128. Available at: 10.1016/j.langcom.2022.11.006.

Mondada, L. (2023) “Tasting vs. Eating: The Methodic and Situated Differentiation of Embodied Multisensorial Activities in Social Interaction”, in. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, pp. 29–64. Available at: 10.1007/978-3-031-30727-0_2.

Mondada, L. (2023) “The limits of vision”, in. Taylor and Francis, pp. 199–226. Available at: 10.4324/9781003156819-10.

Mondada, L. (2023) “The normative order of sensing: enacting the tasting sheet in tasting training sessions”, Text & Talk [Preprint]. Available at: 10.1515/text-2022-0195.

Mondada, L., Meguerditchian, A. (2022) “Sequence organization and embodied mutual orientations: openings of social interactions between baboons”., Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 377, p. 20210101. Available at: 10.1098/rstb.2021.0101.

Mondada, L., Meguerditchian, A. (2022) “Ouvertures et salutations entre babouins : organisation de la séquence et orientation incarnée vers l’autre”, Langage et Société, 176, pp. 127–160.

Mondada, L. (2022) “Adjusting step-by-step trajectories in public space: the micro-sequentiality of approaching and refusing to be approached”, Gesprächsforschung, 23, pp. 36–65.

Mondada, L. (2022) “Appealing to the senses: approaching, sensing and interacting at the market’s stall”, Discourse & Communication, 16(2), pp. 160–199.

Mondada, L., Monteiro, D., Tekin, B. (2022) “Collaboratively videoing mobile activities”, Visual Studies, p. 1. Available at: 10.1080/1472586x.2022.2086614.

Merlino, S., Mondada, L., Söderström, O. (2022) “Walking through the city soundscape : an audio-visual analysis of sensory experience for people with psychosis”., Visual Communications, p. 1. Available at: 10.1177/14703572211052638.

Mondada, L. (2022) “The Situated and Methodic Production of Accountable Action”, in J. Heritage and D. Maynard (eds.) The Ethnomethodology Program: Legacies and Prospects. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 289–321.

Mondada, L. (2022) “Attributing the decision to buy: Action ascription, local ecology, and multimodality in shop encounters”., in A. Deppermann and M. Haugh (eds.) Action Ascription in Social Interaction. Cambridge: CUP, pp. 105–134.

Mondada, L. (2022) “Working with Video Data”, in U. et al. Flick. (ed.) Sage Handbook on Methods in Qualitative Research. London: Sage, p. 1.

Mondada, L. (2021) “Orchestrating Multi-sensoriality in Tasting Sessions: Sensing Bodies, Normativity, and Language”, Symbolic Interaction, 44(1), pp. 63–86. Available at: 10.1002/symb.472. edoc

Camus, L., Mondada, L. (2021) “L’anaphore à distance : enjeux multimodaux, épistémiques et normatifs en interaction”, Langue française, 210(2), pp. p. 77–100. Available at: 10.3917/lf.210.0077.

Mondada, L. (2021) Sensing in Social Interaction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Betz, E. et al. (2021) OKAY across languages. Towards a comparative approach of its use in talk-in-interaction. Amsterdam: Benjamins.

Deppermann, A., Mondada, L., Pekarek Doehler, S. (2021) Early Responses in Human Communication. Online: Discourse Processes (4). Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/hdsp20/58/4.

Mondada, L. (2021) “Language and the sensing body. How sensoriality permeates syntax in interaction”., Frontiers Communication, p. 5 :664430. Available at: 10.3389/fcomm.2021.664430.

Mondada, L. et al. (2021) “The local and filmed accountability of sensorial practices. The intersubjectivity of touch as an interactional accomplishment. Social Interaction”., Social Interaction, 4(3), p. 30.

Greco, L., Mondada, L. (2021) “Charles Goodwin, le langagier, le corporel et la socialité en interaction. Introduction au numéro spécial sur Charles Goodwin”, Langage et Société, 173, pp. 9–23.

Mondada, L. (2021) “Organisation multimodale de la participation au sein du couple : corporéité, matérialité et sensorialité dans l’interaction sociale”., Langage et Société, 173, pp. 25–55.

Mondada, L. (2021) “How early can embodied responses be? Issues in time and sequentiality”, Discourse Processes, 58(4), pp. 397–418. Available at: 10.1080/0163853x.2020.1871561.

Mondada, L. (2021) “Te:mos o serra cura::do, temos o ni:sa, temos o serpa do:p. Suggesting products to buy, shaping materiality and multisensoriality in shop encounters”, Calidoscopio, 19(2), pp. 278–301. Available at: http://revistas.unisinos.br/index.php/calidoscopio/article/view/23626/60748710.

Mondada, L., Fele, G. (2021) “Descrittori visivi per l’assaggio professionale: lessico, sensorialità e standardizzazione”., Rivista Italiana di Linguistica Applicata, XLIX (3), pp. 651–681.

De Stefani, E., Mondada, L. (2021) “A resource for action transition. OKAY and its embodied and material habitat”., in E. Betz et al. (eds.) OKAY across languages. Towards a comparative approach of its use in talk-in-interaction. Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 295–330.

Deppermann, A., Mondada, L. (2021) “Data and methods used in the study of OKAY across languages”., in E. Betz et al. (eds.) OKAY across languages. Towards a comparative approach of its use in talk-in-interaction. Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 29–51.

Mondada, L., Sorjonen, M. et al. (2021) “OKAY in closings and transitions”., in E. Betz et al. (eds.) OKAY across languages. Towards a comparative approach of its use in talk-in-interaction. Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 93–127.

Mondada, L. (2021) “Membership categories and the sequential multimodal organization of action: walking, perceiving, and talking in material-spatial ecologies”, in R.F. R.J. Smith (ed.) On Sacks. Methodology, Materials, and Inspirations. London: Routledge, pp. 101–117.

Mondada, L. (2021) “The accomplishment of gender in interaction”., in J. Angouri, J. Baxter (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Language, Gender and Sexuality. London: Routledge, pp. 243–257.

Mondada, L. (2021) “The Natural History of an Interview and the emergence of video-based multimodal studies of social interaction”., in J. McElvenny, A. Ploder (eds.) Holisms of communication: the early history of audio-visual sequence analysis. Berlin: Language Science Press, pp. 205–229.

Mondada, L. (2021) “Achieving the intersubjectivity of sensorial practices. Body, language, and the senses in tasting activities”., in J. Lindström et al. (eds.) Intersubjectivity in Action. Studies in language and social interaction. Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 279–302.

Mondada, L. et al. (2021) “The local and filmed accountability of sensorial practices: The intersubjectivity of touch as an interactional achievement”, Social Interaction. Video-Based Studies of Human Sociality, 4(3), p. 30. Available at: 10.7146/si.v4i3.128160. edoc | Open Access

De Stefani, E., Mondada, L. (2021) “A resource for action transition. OKAY and its embodied and material habitat”., in E. Betz et al. (eds.) OKAY across languages. Towards a comparative approach of its use in talk-in-interaction. Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 295–330.

Deppermann, A., Mondada, L. (2021) “Data and methods used in the study of OKAY across languages”., in E. Betz et al. (eds.) OKAY across languages. Towards a comparative approach of its use in talk-in-interaction. Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 29–51.

Mondada, L., Sorjonen, M. et al (2021) “OKAY in closings and transitions”, in E. Betz et al. (eds.) OKAY across languages. Towards a comparative approach of its use in mond21talk-in-interaction. Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 93–127.

Mondada, L. (2021) “Membership categories and the sequential multimodal organization of action: walking, perceiving, and talking in material-spatial ecologies”, in R. Smith, R. Fitzgerald, W. Housley (eds.) On Sacks. Methodology, Materials, and Inspirations. London: Routledge, pp. 101–117.

Mondada, L. (2021) “The accomplishment of gender in interaction,. Ethnomethodological and conversartion analytic approaches to gender”, in J. Angouri, J. Baxter (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Language, Gender and Sexuality. London: Routledge, pp. 243–257.

Mondada, L. (2021) “The Natural History of an Interview and the emergence of video-based multimodal studies of social interaction”., in J. McElvenny, A. Ploder (eds.) Holisms of communication: the early history of audio-visual sequence analysis. Berlin: Language Science Press, pp. 205–229.

Mondada, L. (2021) “Achieving the intersubjectivity of sensorial practices. Body, language, and the senses in tasting activities”., in J. Lindström et al. (eds.) Intersubjectivity in Action. Studies in language and social interaction. Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 279–302.

Mondada, L. (2021) “Achieving the intersubjectivity of sensorial practices: Body, language, and the senses in tasting activities”, Pragmatics and Beyond New Series, 326, pp. 279–302. Available at: 10.1075/pbns.326.13mon.

Mondada, L. (2021) Sensing in Social Interaction. 1st ed. Cambridge University Press (The Taste for Cheese in Gourmet Shops). Available at: 10.1017/9781108650090.

Mondada, L. (2021) “Te:mos o serra cura::do, temos o ni:sa, temos o serpa do:p. Suggesting products to buy, shaping materiality and multisensoriality in shop encounters”, Calidoscopio, 19(2), pp. 278–301. Available at: 10.4013/CLD.2021.192.08.

Greco, L., Mondada, L. (2021) “Charles Goodwin, le langagier, le corporel et la socialité en interaction”, Langage et société, N° 173(2), pp. 9–23. Available at: 10.3917/ls.173.0011.

Mondada, L. (2021) “Organisation multimodale de la participation au sein du couple : corporéité, matérialité et sensorialité dans l’interaction sociale”, Langage et société, N° 173(2), pp. 25–55. Available at: 10.3917/ls.173.0027.

Deppermann, A., Mondada, L., Doehler, S.P. (2021) “Early Responses: An Introduction”, Discourse Processes, 58(4), pp. 293–307. Available at: 10.1080/0163853X.2021.1877516.

Stefani, E.D., Mondada, L. (2021) “A resource for action transition; OKAY and its embodied and material habitat”, in. John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 301–336. Available at: 10.1075/slsi.34.10des.

Deppermann, A., Mondada, L. (2021) “Data and methods used in the study of OKAY across languages”, in. John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 29–54. Available at: 10.1075/slsi.34.02mon.

Mondada, L., Sorjonen, M.-L. (2021) “OKAY in closings and transitions”, in. John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 93–127. Available at: 10.1075/slsi.34.04mon.

Mondada, L., Tekin, B. (2020) “Arranging bodies for photographs: Professional touch in the photography studio”, Video-Based Studies of Human Sociality, 3(1), pp. 1–32. Available at: 10.7146/si.v3i1.120254. edoc

Mondada, L. (2020) “Audible Sniffs: Smelling-in-Interaction”, Research on Language and Social Interaction, 53(1), pp. 140–163. Available at: 10.1080/08351813.2020.1716592. edoc

Mondada, L. et al. (2020) “Changing social practices. Covid-19 and new forms of sociality”, Etnografia e ricerca qualitativa, (2), pp. 217–232. Available at: 10.3240/97807. edoc

Mondada, L. et al. (2020) “Human sociality in the times of the Covid-19 pandemic: A systematic examination of change in greetings”, Journal of Sociolinguistics, 24(4), pp. 441–468. Available at: 10.1111/josl.12433. edoc

Mondada, L. et al. (2020) “Doing paying during the Covid-19 pandemic”, Discourse Studies, 22(6), pp. 720–752. Available at: 10.1177/1461445620950860. edoc

Cekaite, A., Mondada, L. (2020) Touch in Social Interaction. Touch, Language, and Body. London: Routledge. Available at: 10.4324/9781003026631. edoc

Harjunpää, K., Mondada, L., Svinhufvud, K. (2020) “Multimodaalinen litterointi keskusteluanalyysissä”, Puhe ja kieli, (3), pp. 195–220. Available at: 10.23997/pk.77350.

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