Neoliberal demands in higher education (HE) amplified by the affordances of digitalisation have led to the emergence of various academic branding practices, one of which is the use of email signatures for identity work and self-promotion. Examining a corpus of 200 email signatures created by applied linguists between 2011 and 2020, this study identifies core and optional moves and how the moves orient to proximity (scholarly communities) and positioning (reputational work). The quantitative analysis of the dataset supported by semi-structured interviews with a group of academics shows that while core moves provide basic identity information, optional moves are used strategically for positioning. A comparison by career stage reveals that mid-career academics utilize more positioning than early-career and established academics. The positioning moves in the second half of the decade draw more on academic achievements, multimodality, and digital presence. The study contributes to an enhanced understanding of how a small and originally inconspicuous genre becomes a space for academic branding and evaluates this development against the increasingly competitive and precarious conditions of the neoliberal HE sector.

中文翻译：

---

在小类型中脱颖而出：应用语言学家电子邮件签名中的邻近性和定位

数字化的能力放大了高等教育（HE）中的新自由主义需求，导致了各种学术品牌实践的出现，其中之一就是使用电子邮件签名进行身份工作和自我推销。这项研究检查了应用语言学家在 2011 年至 2020 年间创建的 200 个电子邮件签名的语料库，确定了核心和可选动作，以及这些动作如何面向邻近性（学术社区）和定位（声誉工作）。对一组学者的半结构化访谈支持的数据集的定量分析表明，虽然核心动作提供了基本的身份信息，但可选动作被战略性地用于定位。按职业阶段进行的比较表明，职业生涯中期的学者比职业早期和成熟的学者利用更多的定位。本世纪后半叶的定位举措更多地依赖于学术成就、多模式和数字化。该研究有助于加深人们对一个原本不起眼的小流派如何成为学术品牌空间的理解，并根据新自由主义高等教育领域日益竞争和不稳定的条件评估这一发展。