Negotiating hegemonic femininity in Trump's world - the positioning of "Woman" as a political tool in media discourse
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Liverpool
Department Name: English (OLD)
Abstract
The proposed research expands this researcher's MRes by focusing on the adaptability of hegemonic femininity - an area little explored in Language and Gender research. The concept of hegemonic masculinity was introduced by Connell (1987, p. 300) as: 'the maintenance of practices that institutionalise men's dominance over women'. However, Connell was criticised for neglecting the theorisation of femininity (Budgeon, 2014). The concept of hegemonic femininity was later defined by Schippers (2007, p. 94) as: 'the possession of characteristics defined as womanly that establish and legitimate a hierarchical and complementary relationship to hegemonic masculinity'. By this definition, those people who identify as woman(ly), and yet enact practices which challenge the patriarchal system, will be subordinated to those women who comply with the ideal of a complementary, heteronormative gender binary. However, how hegemonic femininity may adapt to the current socio-political climate has been neglected in both theory and research. This project will fill this gap by investigating the dialogic relationship between global political debate and local gender practices, which is increasingly played out through both mainstream and social media. The research will be practical, accessible and understandable by focusing on representations of femininity across the media, which is a powerful influencer of day-to-day gender practices. The research will fulfil a moral obligation of researchers to provide insights which have the potential to improve society.
| Description | Fieldwork and conference fund |
| Amount | £1,239 (GBP) |
| Organisation | North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership (NWCDTP) |
| Sector | Multiple |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 04/2020 |
| End | 04/2020 |
| Description | NWCDTP Fieldwork and Conference Fund |
| Amount | £109 (GBP) |
| Organisation | North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership (NWCDTP) |
| Sector | Multiple |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2021 |
| End | 06/2021 |
| Description | Negotiating hegemonic femininity in Trump's world - the positioning of "Woman" as a political tool in media discourse |
| Amount | £57,807 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | 2265934 |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2019 |
| End | 09/2022 |
| Description | Postgraduate Student Development Fund |
| Amount | £104 (GBP) |
| Organisation | University of Liverpool |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2021 |
| End | 07/2021 |
| Description | Ice-5 x Small Steps: Eco-language in action |
| Organisation | North West Consortium Doctoral Training Partnership (NWCDTP) |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Multiple |
| PI Contribution | I was on the conference organising committee for ICE-5, the 5th International Conference of Ecolinguistics, which was hosted by the University of Liverpool in 2021 (online, due to Covid). Working in a team of four, I put myself forward to help with this conference that was outside of, but related to, my field because I felt I could bring to it innovative and collaborative opportunities to improve engagement beyond academia. My main role was in organising and gaining funding for the events in collaboration with local, arts-based community interest company, Small Steps, and Greens of Colour (the Green Party's BAME caucus) to encourage engagement from the public. I applied for funding from the NWCDTP and we were awarded £1,350 to organise public engagement events with Small Steps and Greens of Colour. I chaired two creative workshops as part of the main ICE-5 conference program and worked to develop and then facilitate two online creative workshops with Small Steps the weekend before the conference, which were open to the public free of charge. These workshops were making seed bombs and maxing eco-friendly wax wraps. They were designed to show people creative ways to create less waste and to make their local community a more eco-friendly environment, as well as being a space where people of all ages could come together to talk about ecology. I also chaired the Zoom panel discussion with academic and Chair of the Ecolinguistics Association, Prof. Stibbe, independent scholar and editor, Mariana Roccia, and fellow University of Liverpool PhD student, Jessica Iubini-Hampton. This panel discussion also included the Chair of Greens of Colour, Azzees Minnott, and Niamh Mitchell, the founder of Small Steps. The panel discussed the topic of 'eco-language in action' and aimed to scrutines the often exclusionary and elitist language and practice of both academia and eco-activism. The aim was to create an open dialogue with the public and local community-based organisations to open up academia to public engagement and encourage genuine collaboration. This panel was also open to the public, as well as conference delegates, free of charge to make it as accessible as possible. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The University of Liverpool hosted ICE-5, which is an annual conference put on by the International Ecolinguistics Association. The NWCDTP provided funding for the public engagement activities (the workshops and panel mentioned above) through their Cohort Development Fund, which is open for NWCDTP-funded students to apply for during their studentship. The funding paid for the time of Niamh Mitchell to run workshops and speak on the panel, workshop material, and postage, as well as to pay the speaker fee for Azzees Minnott. Small Steps were our collaborators for the workshops mentioned above, designing them and ordering materials as well as sending out these materials for the public, facilitating the workshops and then speaking on the panel. Greens of Colour was represented by Azzees Minnott, their Chair, who spoke on the panel. Niamh and Azzees were brought on board to make the events and the topic of 'eco-language' itself more inclusive of people from different class, racial and ethnic backgrounds and ensured that we had different perspectives. |
| Impact | This was a multidisciplinary collaboration, with linguists (myself and another organiser) from University of Liverpool's School of the Arts and School of Modern Languages and Culture. It also crossed the disciplines of linguistics and art, with creative and wellbeing workshops embedded into the conference program, and arts and crafts workshops ran by Small Steps. In addition, there was also a crossover with climate science, as the field of ecolinguistics itself examines the language used about ecology and the climate. We had presentations that ranged from analyses of 'greenwashing' by large-polluting corporations, analyses of climate researchers in the news, news representations of climate cjange and presentations focused more on ecology - both local and global. Furthermore, this was a collaboration that crossed the boundaries of academia and community through the inclusion of Small Steps and Greens of Colour, as well as events that were open to the general public. This was because the organising committee wanted to embody the theme of the conference - 'ecolinguistics in action' - by moving beyond the ivory tower of academia and encouraging the public to engage with and be motivated to act on the climate emergency. A paper on the impact of this conference for the digital humanities, that makes use of post-event surveys, is in progress. For now, however, I believe that this collaboration has had a positive impact in terms of challenging the traditional conference structure, engaging the public in key issues of the climate emergency and encouraging collaboration between universities, local organisations and the public. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Ice-5 x Small Steps: Eco-language in action |
| Organisation | University of Liverpool |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | I was on the conference organising committee for ICE-5, the 5th International Conference of Ecolinguistics, which was hosted by the University of Liverpool in 2021 (online, due to Covid). Working in a team of four, I put myself forward to help with this conference that was outside of, but related to, my field because I felt I could bring to it innovative and collaborative opportunities to improve engagement beyond academia. My main role was in organising and gaining funding for the events in collaboration with local, arts-based community interest company, Small Steps, and Greens of Colour (the Green Party's BAME caucus) to encourage engagement from the public. I applied for funding from the NWCDTP and we were awarded £1,350 to organise public engagement events with Small Steps and Greens of Colour. I chaired two creative workshops as part of the main ICE-5 conference program and worked to develop and then facilitate two online creative workshops with Small Steps the weekend before the conference, which were open to the public free of charge. These workshops were making seed bombs and maxing eco-friendly wax wraps. They were designed to show people creative ways to create less waste and to make their local community a more eco-friendly environment, as well as being a space where people of all ages could come together to talk about ecology. I also chaired the Zoom panel discussion with academic and Chair of the Ecolinguistics Association, Prof. Stibbe, independent scholar and editor, Mariana Roccia, and fellow University of Liverpool PhD student, Jessica Iubini-Hampton. This panel discussion also included the Chair of Greens of Colour, Azzees Minnott, and Niamh Mitchell, the founder of Small Steps. The panel discussed the topic of 'eco-language in action' and aimed to scrutines the often exclusionary and elitist language and practice of both academia and eco-activism. The aim was to create an open dialogue with the public and local community-based organisations to open up academia to public engagement and encourage genuine collaboration. This panel was also open to the public, as well as conference delegates, free of charge to make it as accessible as possible. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The University of Liverpool hosted ICE-5, which is an annual conference put on by the International Ecolinguistics Association. The NWCDTP provided funding for the public engagement activities (the workshops and panel mentioned above) through their Cohort Development Fund, which is open for NWCDTP-funded students to apply for during their studentship. The funding paid for the time of Niamh Mitchell to run workshops and speak on the panel, workshop material, and postage, as well as to pay the speaker fee for Azzees Minnott. Small Steps were our collaborators for the workshops mentioned above, designing them and ordering materials as well as sending out these materials for the public, facilitating the workshops and then speaking on the panel. Greens of Colour was represented by Azzees Minnott, their Chair, who spoke on the panel. Niamh and Azzees were brought on board to make the events and the topic of 'eco-language' itself more inclusive of people from different class, racial and ethnic backgrounds and ensured that we had different perspectives. |
| Impact | This was a multidisciplinary collaboration, with linguists (myself and another organiser) from University of Liverpool's School of the Arts and School of Modern Languages and Culture. It also crossed the disciplines of linguistics and art, with creative and wellbeing workshops embedded into the conference program, and arts and crafts workshops ran by Small Steps. In addition, there was also a crossover with climate science, as the field of ecolinguistics itself examines the language used about ecology and the climate. We had presentations that ranged from analyses of 'greenwashing' by large-polluting corporations, analyses of climate researchers in the news, news representations of climate cjange and presentations focused more on ecology - both local and global. Furthermore, this was a collaboration that crossed the boundaries of academia and community through the inclusion of Small Steps and Greens of Colour, as well as events that were open to the general public. This was because the organising committee wanted to embody the theme of the conference - 'ecolinguistics in action' - by moving beyond the ivory tower of academia and encouraging the public to engage with and be motivated to act on the climate emergency. A paper on the impact of this conference for the digital humanities, that makes use of post-event surveys, is in progress. For now, however, I believe that this collaboration has had a positive impact in terms of challenging the traditional conference structure, engaging the public in key issues of the climate emergency and encouraging collaboration between universities, local organisations and the public. |
| Start Year | 2021 |
| Description | Decolonising the curriculum PGR group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | After the resurgence of the BLM movement globally and renewed calls to decolonize academia, the University of Liverpool Postgraduate EDI group decided to establish our own decolonizing the curriculum group - working closely with the English department staff group. We have established peer to peer workshops for both new and established GTAs to splinter off according to their module and discuss ways to decolonize reading lists and research, how to facilitate discussion with undergraduates, as well as being transparent with students. We also meet to decide on motions that we can take to decolonize English as a discipline, this we feedback to the staff group. From this, we have adjusted the reading lists on both literature and linguistics modules, encouraged staff to take a more intersectional approach to their syllabus, and encouraged students to be more inquisitive in their learning environments. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021,2022 |
| Description | Gender and Sexuality reading group, Reading University |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I presented online for the University of Reading's gender and sexuality reading group. I presented during the first wave of the pandemic as a way to ensure that I was still receiving feedback from and engaging with my peers at a time when I had lost out on conference presentations. I presented my theory and literature review chapter so far, bringing in my earlier Master's research as an example of how my own work had developed. I received very positive feedback from the attendees who found my work on hegemonic femininity and intersectional feminism interesting and interdisciplinary. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | Language, gender and sexuality reading group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Since the beginning of my funded PhD (October 2019), I have co-chaired the University of Liverpool's Language, Gender, and Sexuality (LGS) reading group, along with one of my supervisors, Dr Ursula Kania, and a fellow PhD student. We meet every two weeks to discuss a set text that is about language and gender and/or sexuality. Though conceived of as a linguistics-based group, we have also had attendees from literature and have expanded to include many theoretical, feminist, and even historical texts that are relevant to the theme. We aim to have an intersectional approach - examining the many facets of gendered experience and encouraging attendees to suggest texts that can expand our understanding, particularly of more marginalised identities. Since Covid, the sessions have been hosted online via Teams. This has enabled us to include members from universities around the country, which has helped us to build connections and learn about ongoing research at other institutions. In my role as co-chair, I do the administrative work for the group. The text is decided collectively, and we encourage all attendees to bring suggestions either of a specific text or of an area they would like to learn more about. I email out to the group the set text and set up the meetings on Teams, as well as ensuring we have enough texts 'banked' to ensure we can keep a good level of organisation. The group is mostly attended by postgraduate students, but senior lecturers also regularly attend and, recently, we have seen increased attendance from undergraduate students from both linguistics and literature degrees. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019,2020,2021,2022 |
| Description | Meet the Researcher presentations |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Since the completion of my MRes in Linguistics, I have given presentations to third and second-year undergraduate students studying sociolinguistics. The presentations I have given for second-year are for the 'Language in Society' module, a first-semester module, during the 'Language and Gender' week. For third-years, I have presented on the 'Language and Gender' second-semester module every year since 2018, usually in several weeks. I have presented my MRes research in the past but, most recently, I present on my current doctoral research, in the weeks where students study critical discourse analysis; gender and politics; gender and the media. Each presentation is tailored to the week's topic, using my ongoing research to show student's how to apply methodology in real research, teaching intersectional theory, exposing student's to up-to-date newspaper data, and including an interactive activity in each session so that the students can actively engage in the topic at hand through practice. I have consistently received positive feedback from students after each presentation and enjoy the experience of presenting my work to budding academics and researchers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019,2020,2021,2022 |
| Description | NWCDTP student representative |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | I have become a student representative for my funding body, the NWCDTP, as it works on revamping its student representative process. New student reps from all seven institutions have been chosen and this will help to create a more cohesive student experience within the DTP and its various institutions. My role will be to work with the other NWCDTP rep at the University of Liverpool and arrange meetings and communication with the students that are part of the DTP at UoL. We will then feedback to the other reps and take forward suggestions and problems from the student body to the Director of the DTP as well as the Academic Management Panel and TEKE Panel. This role also involves speaking at events such as sustainability events and workshops for potential applicants to the DTP. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2022 |
| Description | NWCDTP workshop: writing a paper with impact |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | This workshop focused on the process of planning, writing and editing an academic paper with the aim of publication in a relevant journal, as well as on how to ask for and receive feedback. The workshop was very helpful in terms of familiarizing us with the REF and how to plan and conduct research that can be written in a paper with originality, significance, and rigor. It was also very enlightening on how to match the nature of your article to a specific journal and audience. From this workshop, I developed and refined the planning, writing and editing skills necessary to prepare my paper for publication - it was published in the Journal of Language and Gender in 2021. I have two more papers in development, and one collaborative paper in the early planning stages. I have used the skills learned in this workshop to aid the writing of all of these papers. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | The Emotionally Intelligent Researcher: half-day workshop |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | The focus of this workshop was on developing our emotional intelligence (EQ) to build better relationships with colleagues and in our personal lives. It gave us tools to talk about ways to relieve stress and gain emotional control - such as naming our emotions to others. We looked at different assertiveness and resilience skills that we can put into practice in our work and personal lives that will enable us to communicate effectively, diffuse conflict, understand different perspectives, and increase our self-awareness. This is especially crucial as employers are increasingly demanding high EQs when recruiting, particularly in having resilience and adaptability to work environments that are changing more and more. These are also skills that are shown to be conducive to leadership roles. Through this workshop, I have developed the confidence to work on my assertiveness in asking for feedback, asking for help, and in maintaining my purpose, as well as having a presence. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | University of Lancaster Language, Ideology and Power reading group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I presented at Lancaster's 'Language, ideology and power' reading group via MS Teams early on in the pandemic, to ensure that I was continuing to develop presentation skills and receive feedback on my work. I presented data from my pilot studies, presented as a way to discuss the various linguistic and discursive strategies deployed by the political and populist right in order to present their movement as anti-Establishment. I felt that I presented well, and the Q&A at the end was constructive and interesting. I will take away a lot about how to represent "the other side" in my research and how to be more specific about where my theories apply. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| Description | University of Liverpool PGR EDI working group |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | From August 2020, the English department postgraduates at the University of Liverpool established our own Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (EDI) group, which feeds back directly to the staff EDI group from our unique perspective as both students and staff (working as GTAs within the department). I am very passionate about being involved in this group throughout my Ph.D. as I am committed to being inclusive in both my teaching and research (which is heavily focused on the marginalisation of women and nonbinary folk due to ableism, homophobia, transphobia, racism, and classism). I am active in the group and contribute to every discussion, and I am eager to learn and improve as well. I am passionate about EDI, firstly, because I believe that education is a human right that should not be reserved for the privileged few. My late father was a Chilean refugee who was granted asylum in the UK that allowed him to complete his undergraduate degree, meaning that he was able to undertake and complete a Ph.D. at King's College London. I have been pushing for both my University and my funding body to lay out plans for assisting refugees in pursuing higher education. Moreover, the PGR EDI group successfully petitioned the School of the Arts at the University of Liverpool to establish a Ph.D. scholarship for 'BAME' researchers. The JIC Davies BAME Doctoral Studentship in English is designed to provide assistance with fees and maintenance for a PGR student from a Black, Asian or minority ethnic background who will be based full time in the Department of English in the field of English language, English literature, or creative writing, for up to 36 months. We have also petitioned the School to offer better support for students in terms of counseling and making their complaints process less bureaucratic and intimidating. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021,2022 |