5th BAAL Gender and Language Special Interest Group Event (GaLSig): Gender and Language in the Public Space

This very successful event was held on Tuesday 20th September 2011 at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research into Language & Diversity, Aston University, Birmingham, UK.

The focus of this event was on theoretical and empirical research that examines gender in relation to public and institutional discourse in domains such as Parliament, government, business, leadership, the media, law, education, academia, medicine and religion. The principal issue discussed was what the discipline of Gender and Language can contribute to an understanding of gendered discourses in public settings. Invited speakers included Professor Deborah Cameron (Oxford); Dr Louise Mullany (Nottingham); Dr Lia Litosseliti (City University London); Dr Jo Angouri (University of West England), Dr Sylvia Shaw (Middlesex) and Dr Judith Baxter (Aston).

The following questions were addressed and discussed during the course of the day: " Are women disadvantaged in certain public settings, or is this now the wrong question to ask? " How do gendered discourses continue to disadvantage women, and sometimes men? " To what extent should scholars aim to make their research available to users and practitioners and what compromises and challenges does this involve? " With Research Councils currently prioritising projects with social and economic impact, what kind of impact can gender and language researchers make? For the power point presentations, please click here. The final session followed by a plenary discussion was devoted to Research Council funded projects on this topic, and more broadly, to what constituted a successful grant application in our field.

Abstracts of the talks.

Deborah Cameron's paper Great divides: sex/gender, power and public language

Judith Baxter's presentation Opportunities and constraints in conducting ESRC research on gender and language in the public space.

Sylvia Shaw's presentation Opportunities and constraints in conducting ESRC research on gender and language in the public space

Louise Mullany's presentation Gender, language and leadership: Exploring research dissemination

Lia Litosselti's presentation ‘Caring’, ‘Helping’ and ‘Relating’: Gendered Discourses in Speech and Language Therapy.

Jo Angouri's presentation "I wish I had the guts to put my foot down". Constructing and negotiating expertise and gender identities in the workplace.