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Associate Professor in Sociolinguistics, University of Nottingham

Dr Lucy Jones is Associate Professor in Sociolinguistics at the University of Nottingham. She is a discourse analyst and linguistic ethnographer working on a range of topics relevant to language, gender and sexuality. Her published research includes normativity and identity construction amongst LGBTQ+ youth, homophobic discourse in relation to same-sex marriage and HIV prevention, critical discourse analysis of how trans athletes in elite sport are represented within the news media, and lesbian identity construction. Her monograph Language and LGBTQ+ Youth: Analysing Marginalised Identities through an Intersectional Lens investigates the role of intersectionality in the identity construction of queer British youth, and is in press with Bloomsbury. Dr. Lucy Jones will give a taught lecture on intersectionality and a workshop on ethics in LGS research.

Taught lecture “Intersectionality in language, gender and sexuality research”

This session will introduce the feminist theory of intersectionality and identify, key issues that have been explored in contemporary language, gender and sexuality scholarship. Dr Jones will draw on her own research with LGBTQ+ youth to demonstrate how marginalised identities can be explored robustly via an intersectional framework.

Workshop “Ethics in language, gender and sexuality”

This workshop will involve participants in thinking about the various ethical implications of linguistic research in both online and offline contexts. Using authentic examples from published work, it will consider both the institutional ethics review process and the practicalities of “doing research ethically”, highlighting the key issues researchers must consider at each stage.

Reading material for the workshop (available for download at the link below):

Atkins, Sarah, Mackenzie, Jai and Jones, Lucy. “Ethical practice in participant-centred linguistic research” Linguistics, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1515/ling-2023-0130

Senior Lecturer in Linguistics, Manchester Metropolitan University. More info TBA

Research Fellow in Ethnology, University of Tartu

Rebeka Põldsam is a cultural historian and researcher in ethnology. In 2023, she defended her doctoral dissertation, “Why are we still abnormal?!” History of Discourses on Non-Normative Sex-Gender Subjects in Estonia. Her current research focuses on LGBTQ+ futures and aging in Estonia as part of the project Imagining Queer Ageing Futures in Estonia, Poland, and Sweden. Põldsam is also a freelance art curator, editor of the gender studies journal Ariadne Lõng, and a visiting lecturer at the Estonian Academy of Arts. She has co-directed the LGBTQ+ community history short film The Night of Purple Horrors (2024) and curated the exhibition From “Such People” to LGBT Activism at the Vabamu Museum of Occupations and Freedom.

Lecture-Seminar: Un/learning Non-Normative Sex-Gender Vocabularies

In her research on homosexuality and gender non-conformity in early 20th-century and Soviet-era Estonia, Rebeka Põldsam has encountered challenges in learning and unlearning the meanings of words related to non-normative sexualities. LGBTQ+ vocabularies are fluid and rapidly evolving, necessitating constant updates. This lecture-seminar will present the complexities of working with historical terminology and include a discussion of Brian James Baer’s chapter Making a Spectacle of Homosexuality: The Problem of Gay (In)Visibility in Soviet Russia.

Reading material for the workshop (downloadable files here):

Baer, B. J. (2009). Making a Spectacle of Homosexuality: The Problem of Gay (In)Visibility. In Other Russias: Homosexuality and the Crisis of Post-Soviet Identity (pp. 43–69). Palgrave Macmillan.

Additional (voluntary) reading:
Stryker, S. (2017). Transgender History: The Roots of Today’s Revolution (Revised ed.). Seal Press. – Chapter 1. Contexts, Concepts, and Terms