Thinking Otherwise: An Interview with Alastair Pennycook

In this wide‐ranging interview conducted for the Journal of Sociolinguistics, Emi Otsuji speaks with Alastair Pennycook about the trajectory of his scholarship across more than four decades in applied linguistics and sociolinguistics. Pennycook reflects on his gradual, somewhat unexpected identification as a sociolinguist, tracing this back through his first academic publication on nonverbal communication and moves through his critique of disciplinary boundaries and the idea of epistemic assemblages, his engagement with critical theory and critical sociolinguistics. Particular attention is given to his recent turn toward water, embodiment, and posthumanist thought and to his concerns about recent trends in decolonial scholarship. Throughout, Pennycook returns to questions of language ontology, semiotics, and materiality, situating these within a broader concern with entanglement, power, and worldliness. The interview closes with reflections on where his ideas come from, connecting his intellectual practice to reading, travel, and everyday life.