Doctoral Intensive Seminar: The Power of Words. Construction of Gender and Sexuality in Language
Language plays a crucial role in shaping identities, communicating societal norms, and expressing individuality. It is also central to the construction of gender, but this topic has received relatively little attention in the Estonian context. The focus will be on how language constructs and reinforces values and norms related to gender and sexuality across different contexts, how these norms are reproduced and challenged, and how gender and sexuality intersect with other aspects of identity such as nationality and ethnicity.
Through lectures, seminars, group discussions, and hands-on workshops, we will explore topics including:
- The social construction of gender and sexual identities through language
- Overt and covert sexist language practices
- Methodological and ethical considerations in researching language, gender, and sexuality
Date: April 10–12, 2025
Location: University of Tartu, Jakobi 2 (April 10 and 12 Jakobi 2-114, April 11 Jakobi 2-130)
The seminar will be held in English only.
Registration is open until March 7, 2025. Acceptance notifications will be sent on March 10.
Participants can earn 2 ECTS credits. All attendees will give a 10–15-minute flash presentation on their research topic or related questions, which will be discussed in a friendly and supportive atmosphere.
Who should attend?
This intensive seminar aims to support doctoral students’ research in the intersections of language, gender, and sexuality. It also welcomes those who are new to language and sexuality studies, as well as anyone seeking an open and inclusive space to explore these topics in depth. Prior knowledge of linguistics is not required.
Format
Each day begins with a lecture, a seminar or workshop led by the invited speakers. The afternoons feature short presentations by participating doctoral students, which will be integrated into broader discussions linking the seminar content to their own research. April 12th will be a half-day session, ending around noon.
Invited speakers
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
Dr. Frazer Heritage
Dr Frazer Heritage is a Senior Lecturer in Linguistics at Manchester Metropolitan University, specializing in Corpus Linguistics, (Critical) Discourse Studies, Language, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, New Media Studies, and Videogame Discourse (Ludolinguistics). Their work also covers Critical Metaphor and Metonymy Analysis, Forensic Linguistics, Persuasion, Healthcare Discourse, and Identity Construction. Their work in Corpus Assisted Discourse Studies (CADS) has been the basis of two monographs: one examining gender construction in videogames (Palgrave 2021), and the other exploring how members of online incel communities construct gender and race (Palgrave 2023). They also co-edited Analysing Representation: A Corpus and Discourse Textbook (Routledge, 2024) with Professor Charlotte Taylor.
Taught lecture “To corpus or to not corpus? Why we can't always just trust the text machine”
This session will introduce key issues in corpus-assisted discourse studies. It will discuss the use of corpus-assisted discourse studies, as well as both benefits and limitations of corpus assisted methodologies. Dr Heritage will draw on her own research with online misogynistic communities and gaming.
Workshop “Using a corpus to analyse gender and sexuality”
This workshop will involve participants in learning basic corpus linguistic methodologies and combining them with systematic qualitative frameworks. The workshop will be a space where students will be able to explore the language in their own corpora, but trial corpora will also be provided.
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
University of Bucharest (main affiliation)
Andrei Nae (zie/zir) is Lecturer at the University of Bucharest, Associate Lecturer at the IL Caragiale National University of Theatre and Film, and Postdoctoral Researcher at the Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu. Zie teaches courses in game studies and seminars in twentieth-century and contemporary English literature. Zir main research interest lies at the intersection of game studies, cultural studies, and narratology. So far zie has been involved in several research projects, the most important being “Colonial Discourse in Video Games,” where zie held the position of principal investigator.
Zir most relevant publications include the monograph Immersion, Narrative, and Gender Crisis in Survival Horror Video Games published by Routledge in 2021, the article “From Saviour to Colonial Perpetrator: Manipulating Player Empathy in Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill Origins” featured in the 2022 special issue “Gaming and Affect” hosted by Parallax, as well as the upcoming collective volume Video Games between Postcolonialism and Postcommunism that will be published by De Gruyter in 2025.
Zie is currently involved in the research project "Ideological Functions of Popular Fiction in Postcommunist Romania."
Taught lecture “The Role of Language in Disciplining Sex and Gender in Video Game”
The lecture investigates gameplay from an intersectional feminist perspective highlighting the manner in which gameplay, buttressed by game mechanics, rules, play norms, and conditions of winning, procedurally reinforces the gender binary and heteronormativity. The discussion includes a consideration of sex and gender within the modern/colonial system in order to highlight the superimposition of norms pertaining to the Global North onto peripheries and semi-peripheries. The lecture will focus on the manifestation of these global power dynamics in the video game Resident Evil Village, which is exemplary for the cultural status of post-socialist Eastern Europe in relation to the core of the modern/colonial system. In the analysis of the game, increased attention will be given to the spoken and written language and its function of ideologically regulating gameplay to ensure its adherence to the gender binary and heteronormativity.
Organisers
Aet Kuusik, Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics, University of Tartu, aet.kuusik@ut.ee
Elisabeth Kaukonen, Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics, University of Tartu, elisabeth.kaukonen @ut.ee
Prof. Liina Lindström, Institute of Estonian and General Linguistics, University of Tartu, liina.lindstrom@ut.ee
Prof. Raili Marling, Institute of Foreign Languages and Cultures, University of Tartu, raili.marling@ut.ee
Partners
Prof. Linda Kaljundi, Institute of Art History and Visual Culture, Estonian Academy of Arts
Prof. Anna Verschik, School of Humanities, Tallinn University
The event is organised from the project "Cooperation between universities to promote doctoral studies" (2021-2027.4.04.24-0003), which is co-funded by the European Union.
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