Staff profiles

Strategy in Communication (SinC)

• Language and sexual identity
• Homophobic discourse
• Queer theory and linguistics
• Language and gender

Language and Sexual Identity:
Liz Morrish, in collaboration with Dr Helen Sauntson from University of Birmingham, has recently published a book New Perspectives on Language and Sexual Identity (Palgrave, 2007). This has drawn on linguistic evidence from lesbian and gay conversations and narratives, representations of lesbians in film and erotic fiction and representations of prominent gay men in newspaper reports. Our aim was to exemplify how lesbians and gay men construct identity from among the symbolic resources available within the lesbian and gay communities, and those which are also used about them. Using the analytical tools and theoretical principles of discourse analysis, and with insights from feminist and queer theories, and relevant aspects of contemporary linguistic theory, we argue that lesbian and gay discourse is situated discourse, and that meaning is created in context (collaborative project with Helen Sauntson, University of Birmingham).

Questions of language and sexual identity are discussed annually at a key conference – Lavender Language and Linguistics – at American University, Washington DC each February.  Liz Morrish is a conference committee member and regular participant.

Liz Morrish is investigation discursive properties of homophobic texts with reference to Leap’s notion of a homophobic formation. She argues that although there are no formal properties which identify a homophobic text, there are several key properties which they share. They conform to many of the characteristics of hate speech in their appropriation of the naming process and imputation of metaphors of deviancy, there is an intention to defame and shame, and there is a clear tension with the discourse of civil rights. She argues that the purpose of the homophobic speech act can be derailed by discursive intervention, and (following Habermas), exposure of the non-validity of its claims.

• Fulbright Scholarship 1989-1991
• Visiting Scholar, SUNY-Oneonta, 1991
• Visiting Research Scholar, Cornell University, New York 1993
• Member of Strategy in Communication (SinC)
• Member of British Association of Applied Linguistics
• Registered Practitioner Member of Higher Education Academy
  
• Plenary Paper presented with Helen Sauntson at 14^th Lavender Languages and Linguistics Conference, American University, Washington, DC,  10-13 February 2007 "New Perspectives on Language and Sexual identity: The Legacy of Fourteen Years of Lavender Languages".

Opportunities for post graduate study exist in the areas of Language and Sexual Identity; Queer Theory and Linguistics; Language and Gender.