Dr Marion Chirwa Kajombo is a Sociolinguist who has worked as a lecturer since 2004 in both public and private sectors in the academics as well as in the social development sector in the following areas: Linguistics, Education, Translation and Gender Equality. Her passion for language use in society (Sociolinguistics), communication and language training are the driving forces behind her work and research interests. These activities have mostly concentrated on the sociolinguistic study of Chichewa as a language of communication in Malawi.

Her key interest areas include: language use in medicine especially women's health (falling within the developing field of medical and health humanities and Science Communication); Intercultural Communication; Training; Interactional Sociolinguistics; Situated Discourse Analysis; Curriculum Design and; English-Chichewa Translations. She is also interested in research and learning opportunities in the hospital and Malawian communities where the skills she has gained in the subject areas mentioned above add value to the understanding, development and execution of effective communication.

 As a sociolinguist, her approach to the study of language is based on the fact that language dynamics and variations are systematic and the role of the sociolinguist is to discover those systems.

 
Projects
1.      Co-PI: The British Academy’s ODA Challenge-Oriented Research Grants 2024 Programme. Knowing Risk: Embedding Warning Systems and Environmental Monitoring in Community Environmental Histories and Citizen Science- 2024-25

2.      Co-PI: European Vaccine Initiative (EVI), MUST, KuHes project on: Modelling Cost-Effectiveness, Acceptability and Feasibility of Vaccines Against Placental Malaria 2024-25.

 
Conference Papers
1.      de Kok, B., Odebunmi, A., Watermeyer, J., Chirwa Kajombo, M., and  Adjei, S.B. ‘Hybrid forms of interactional research in African settings: Practical necessity or deliberate choice?’  A panel presented the Digital Meeting for Conversation Analysis (DMCA) Conference. 31 Oct-4 November 2022- Virtual 

2.      Chirwa Kajombo, M. “Communicating linguistic taboo topics in gynaecological consultations in a culturally conservative Malawian hospital setting”. A paper presented at the Communication, Medicine and Ethics (COMET) Conference 13-15 July 2022-Virtual

3.      Chirwa Kajombo, M. “Acceptable” Chichewa taboo referring expressions used in gynaecological consultations in urban Malawi. A paper presented at Bantu9 Conference. 7-9 June 2022. Blantyre, Malawi

4.      Chirwa Kajombo, M. ‘Taboo language and women’s bodies: A Sociolinguistic study of speech codes used in gynaecological consultations in Blantyre, Malawi’. A paper presented at INTPART SUMMER School 9-13 Dec. 2019. Cape Town, RSA.

5.      Chirwa Kajombo, M. ‘The Impact of English and Chichewa in gynaecological consultations in Malawi’. A paper presented at The 2nd International Medical Humanities Conference “The Body; In parts or as whole” 31 July-1 August 2019. Blantyre, Malawi.

 

 

1.      de Kok B, Chirwa Kajombo M, Matinga P, Kaunda B. “(In)visibilising pregnancy loss in Southern Malawi”. Culture, Health and Sexuality. 2024 Mar 12:1-16. doi: 10.1080/13691058.2024.2324001. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38469825.

2.     Kajombo, M.C.  “Sociolinguistic functions of English and Chichewa in gynaecological consultations in a Chichewa speaking hospital setting in Malawi” in Falade, B. And Murire, M. (2021) Health Communication and Disease. Palgrave, Macmillan.