Jaffer Sheyholislami was born in 1960 in the city of Mahabad in Mukriyan Province. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the School of Linguistics and Language Studies at Carleton University، Ottawa، Canada. He teaches courses in the areas of applied linguistics and discourse analysis on a variety of topics such as language and power/ideology، sociology of language، research and practice in academic writing، and language and media.

He earned his PhD in Communication at Carleton in 2008. His main research interests lie with a critical understanding of language and other semiosis in social life. Currently، with Co-editors Dr. Amir Hassanpour and Dr. Tove Skutnabb-Kangas، he is preparing an edited volume on the Kurdish language with a focus on the social، political and legal aspects of the language and how these are intertwined with education and identity in Kurdistan. His other areas of research have included: critical discourse analysis of the representation of Kurds in the US and Canada، Iranian ethnic media and citizenship in Canada، the semiotic construction of Canadian national identity، the dialogic nature of blogging in educational settings، and the place of blogging in the construction of Kurdish imagined communities.