Oppressive Discourses Research Articles

Creating spaces for immigrant-origin, linguistically diverse educators: healing through duoethnographic testimonios

In this paper, the authors showcase how they created a sensemaking space for themselves to think and talk through the dissonance they often feel when their roles in education come into conflict with their layered immigrant identities. Through dialectic inquiry, the authors merged duoethnography and testimonios to develop duoethnographic testimonios as a way to collaborate and witness each other’s stories and foster transformation. The authors analyzed their duoethnographic testimonios through Gloria Anzaldúa’s theorization of nepantla, which lead to the following themes: 1) sensemaking dissonances about meritocracy 2) sensemaking dissonances about language 3) healing through collective sensemaking. The authors conclude by highlighting how a collaborative dialogue centered on linguistic and immigrant identities, experiences, and ways of knowing could offer a path to dismantle external/internal oppressive discourses and ideologies and uncover transformative pedagogical stances.

Transnational Funds of Identity of Korean American and Migrant Youth

ABSTRACT Situated in the scholarship of funds of identity, I focus on three Korean American and migrant youth who were involved in a Korean Student Organization (pseudonym) at a largely white institution in the suburban Midwest of the United States. Specifically, the study investigates how Korean American and migrant youth who served as leaders and members of the organization have developed and expressed their funds of identity, which assist them in navigating and resisting white-centric and monolingual schooling experiences and in creating a variety of organization events and activities centering their home languages, ethnic traditions, and cultural practices. By pairing funds of identity with the notion of transnationalism, I also build on and extend the current discussion on funds of identity into what I term “transnational funds of identity” to shed light on Korean American and migrant youth’s border-crossing and transnational connections that foreground their identity formation as well as their engagement in the organization. The current study will provide more multifaceted and complex perspectives on Asian and Asian American students moving beyond the discourses of assimilation, stereotypification, and oppression, by centralizing Korean American and migrant students’ strengths, assets, and resistance through the lens of transnational funds of identity.

Politics and Violence in Representation of Acid Attack Victims in the Media: A Feminist Discursive Perspective

Abstract In recent times, narratives of acid attack survivors have become common in the media (newspapers and magazines), showcasing them simultaneously as fashion models and victims of a heinous crime. In a similar vein, the Hindi film Chhapaak underscores the barbarity of an acid attack and the subsequent struggles for justice by the protagonist. Drawing on feminist critical discourse analysis and insights from Nancy Fraser on cannibal capitalism, this article analyzes the discursive construction of acid assault victims through select extracts from media articles and the film to highlight the politics of representation of the survivors and their ordeals against patriarchal and androcentric arrangements in society. Linguistic analysis (through speech acts, vocabulary, and presupposition) reveals contradictory discourses of celebration and discrimination in the media in relation to fashion, where the acid survivors are used not only to increase awareness about the offense but also to promote sales of garments. The discourses of rampant unemployment, gender-based oppression, and racial violence, despite laws regulating the sale of acid, underscore the cannibalizing tendencies of a capitalist society that seeks to devour and shun women after incapacitating them. Furthermore, the complicity of public agencies (legal, medical, and governmental) hints at apathy, callousness, and the systemic violence symptomatic of a profit-driven capitalist society.

Postapartheid Anti-blackness in Kopano Matlwa's Coconut

ABSTRACT: This paper reads Kopano Matlwa's debut novel, Coconut , as a critical reflection on the incomplete work of social, economic, and juridical inclusion. It outlines inconclusive episodes in the lives of two young black women: Ofilwe, a member of a rarified upper middle class, and Fikile, ensnared in grinding poverty. Drawing on Denise Ferreira Da Silva and Calvin Warren, the paper shows how Matlwa addresses the uncritical embrace of this racist and historically oppressive discourse among nominally free blacks, both among enduringly destitute slum dwellers and the emergent nouveau riche. In the novel, social death comes in the form of internalized anti-blackness as the two young black women featured in the novel doggedly pursue white identities as a means for successful existence in postapartheid South Africa.

Investigating the Linguistics Features, Impacts, and Corresponding Strategies of Translation in Feminist Literature

With the growing interest in feminism, feminist translation has become an important field of study. This review provides a comprehensive analysis of feminist translation, focusing on its impact, linguistic characteristics, translation strategies, and applications. It explores how feminist translation critically engages with language to address gender biases and patriarchal norms. The analysis underscores the significance of feminist translation in promoting gender equality and empowering marginalized voices. The discussion on linguistic characteristics highlights how feminist translation scrutinizes gendered language, stereotypes, and linguistic bias. It emphasizes the need to challenge the use of gender-specific terms and advocates for more inclusive language practices. Alternative strategies, such as gender-inclusive language and cultural adaptation, are examined as effective means to challenge linguistic biases and promote equality. Furthermore, the examination of translation strategies delves into the interventions employed by feminist translators. These strategies aim to disrupt patriarchal narratives, expose gender biases, and foster critical dialogue. They include amplifying women's visibility and agency, introducing alternative readings, and incorporating cultural adaptations. The applications of feminist translation in various domains are explored, revealing its impact and transformative potential. Specifically, in literature and arts, feminist translation amplifies marginalized voices, challenges traditional gendered narratives, and facilitates cross-cultural exchange. In legal and political discourse, it addresses gender biases in laws and policy documents. Additionally, feminist translation plays a role in media and activism, disrupting harmful representations and promoting social justice. Feminist translation emerges as a dynamic and transformative practice that confronts gender biases, challenges oppressive discourses, and advocates for gender equality. It recognizes the power of language to shape societal norms and actively employs strategies to subvert gender biases within translation.

Language, gender and sexuality in 2022

This article focuses on research from 2022 that critically analyses the ways in which oppressive discourses continue to circulate, and which examines the role of language in protesting and resisting these discourses. It considers studies that remind us of the feminist and queer principles underpinning the field: to question and critique how hegemonic ideologies of gender and sexuality are reproduced and maintained. The review explores two key areas: research that reveals the continuing problem of mainstream transphobia and studies that consider how feminist discourses of resistance operate linguistically. It concludes with a call for more of this research to be applied to real-world contexts in order to create tangible change. In bringing this work together, the review aims to reaffirm the vital and emancipatory role that language, gender and sexuality scholarship has in both documenting and resisting regressive ideology.

Awakening a Nation: A Rhetorical Analysis of Derek Walcott’s “The Sea Is History”

This paper analyses Derek Walcott’s (1930 – 2017) poem “The Sea Is History” (1979) from a rhetorical perspective. The rhetorical analysis of the poem enables us to uncover the implicit cultural values of Caribbean people and the oppressive discourses of colonialism. Based on the rhetorical reading of the poem, this study questions the traditional notion of history in the postcolonial framework. “The Sea Is History” is from Walcott’s collection The Star-Apple Kingdom, originally published in 1979. In the poem, the author communicates with the reader by triggering an inner reaction through rhetorical questions. “The Sea Is History” is also notable for the use of metaphor and imagery. Walcott’s preoccupation with his nation’s notions of the past, culture, and language is expressed in the poet’s use of metaphors to call on the Caribbean to awaken from a deep sleep and hold history to account. The author’s inclusion of elements of the narrative is underpinned by a strong postcolonial feeling, transforming this narrative poem into the biography of an oppressed nation kept as slaves for centuries. By using allusions to the Bible, Walcott juxtaposes biblical stories with the past and the memory of his nation, hence his rhetorical question: “Where are your monuments, your battles, martyrs? Where is your tribal memory?”. Moreover, by placing biblical markers on certain passages of the voyage to the Caribbean – Genesis, Exodus, the Ark of the Covenant, and the Song of Solomon – the poet highlights it as a significant event that amounts to a religious text, at the same time pointing out that the events in the Bible are not universally accepted as actual events, whereas the past of his people is a true experience that reflects the colonial history of the Caribbean.

“The Work I Do Matters”: Cultivating a STEM Counterspace for Black Girls through Social-Emotional Development and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogies

Central to culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) is the notion that we sustain what we love by decentering the white gaze. Elevating CSP and the five core social-emotional learning competencies, we honed in on how Black and Brown girls developed knowledge and skills to manage their emotions, achieve goals, show empathy, and maintain healthy relationships within the context of a single-gender summer STEM program. These opportunities to engage in critical conversations to learn, unlearn, and relearn, while showing up as their full and authentic selves, are not often afforded in traditional STEM classes. This paper focuses on dialogue and interactions amongst four program participants—Samira, Rita, Brandy, and Joy. Critical discourse analysis was employed to challenge the dominance and reproduction of discourses by examining social contexts and systemic structures that they addressed in conversation. Findings revealed the importance of cultivating trusting and intentional learning spaces for Black and Brown girls to engage in open dialogue and critique oppressive discourses. It also displayed the significance of leaning into difficult conversations and pluralism to help adolescent girls realize the complexities of culture while also promoting joy and social-emotional development. Creating spaces that affirm Black and Brown girls matter; their contributions and work that they do matter.

Narratives and Discourses of Epistemic Justice, Power, and Oppression in Community-Based Participatory Research Collaborations

Previous articleNext article No AccessNarratives and Discourses of Epistemic Justice, Power, and Oppression in Community-Based Participatory Research CollaborationsCatalina Tang YanCatalina Tang Yan Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research Just Accepted Published for the Society for Social Work and Research Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/725433 HistoryAccepted March 29, 2023 © 2023 Society for Social Work and Research. All Rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Media Sosial dan Aktivisme Digital Perempuan: Analisis Wacana #Ibutunggalmelawan di Instagram

Digital activism, commonly referred to as online activism, is the practice of using electronic communication tools as a type of activism aimed at fostering the development of community movements. Digital activism is connected to online discourse through various mechanisms, including social media platforms, connectivity actions and the discursive construction of digital technology. The purpose of this study is to examine the discourse that is growing in the comments section of the online petition content for the #MotherSingleMelawan on the Instagram account @changeorg_id, as well as the signs of female digital activism that are emerging. Marie-Anne Paveau pioneered the qualitative discourse analysis research methodology, which is particularly relevant when applied to online communication. The results of the research show that women's digital activism in the comments column of the #SingleMotherMelawan online petition consists of four main discourse themes, namely; 1) the discourse of belief-based gender oppression, 2) the discourse of gender relations in parental relations, 3) the discourse of justice for victims of gender-based violence, 4) the discourse of discrimination against single mothers.

“I’m Sorry You Feel That Way but That Wasn’t My Intention:” How to Apologize with Cultural Humility

When conversing about social justice issues, it is not a matter of if you make a mistake but when. This is because not only have we been socialized to adopt oppressive discourses and practices but also because social justice conversations continue to evolve to bring justice to those at society’s margins. The purpose of this paper is to provide practical guidelines for apologizing with cultural humility using transformative justice and research on effective apology components as guiding frameworks. Given that missteps are inevitable, it is important to engage in practices that support genuine efforts for continued reflection, learning, and reconciliation.

Intensifying resistance through complexification: a positive discourse analysis of the portrayal of Amazighs in a selected Moroccan EFL textbook

ABSTRACT Although critical discourse analysis (CDA) sets out to investigate both oppressive and progressive discourses, the vast bulk of published studies seem to prioritize the former. This paper is a response to scholarly calls to engage with (non)oppressive discourses by integrating positive impulses in critical discourse analysis, and thus contribute to the growth of positive discourse analysis (PDA), a complement to CDA, which attends to the emancipatory mechanisms of resistance. Using a combination of theoretical tools, this paper takes a case study approach to explore the potentials of ‘complexification’ [Macgilchrist, F. (2007). Positive discourse analysis: Contesting dominant discourses by reframing the issues. Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines, 1(1), 74–94], a counter-discursive strategy for propelling marginal discourses into the dominant official school discourse. Specifically, the paper discusses three layers of complexification found in a selected Moroccan EFL textbook which has been developed, approved and distributed by the Moroccan Ministry of Education, and has been required to be used in every school, public or private. The analysis highlights the role this textbook plays in promoting emancipatory and progressive discourses about Amazigh social actors, and hence, signals a new shift in analytic focus by illuminating a concrete application of PDA in education curricula.

Ghosts and Punks: The Aesthetics of Copyright Law in Graphic Novels and Comics

Graphic justice and the law of aesthetics have in very recent years successfully brought law, aesthetics and comics scholarship into the same space. The culture of copyright infringement within comics (including in the Marvel, DC, and Disney universes) has been extensively in the literature by scholars including Saval. How copyright law is portrayed within the graphic novels and comics themselves is the focus (and contribution of) this article. This article will explore several comics and graphic novels, as well as included this author’s reflections of portraying copyright visually within zines for public dissemination. Throughout this article, the discourses of ghosts and spectres that are interwoven with copyright law and haunt the texts will be seen, as will the discourses of oppression and warfare that are involved for anyone seeking to make use of copyright works. As Gómez Romero and Dahlman note, comics offer “an alternative legal discourse” and we can see these alternative legal discourses through their aesthetic graphic form. This article will consider: the aesthetic portrayal of copyright law in A Gift for a Ghost and Josie and the Pussycats No. 6; as well as Bound by Law, Theft! A History of Music, and Pictures within Pictures. These comics and graphic novels have been chosen as they aesthetically portray copyright law and copyright infringement (referred to in some of the comics as “plagiarism”), and others aesthetically portray the public domain and fair use. In viewing these aesthetic manifestation of copyright law, the reader understands the limiting nature of copyright on creative freedoms, and that copyright law’s power is absolute. This article will explore the following: (i) copyright’s aesthetic portrayals and the impact of this; (ii) comics haunted by copyright law, considering A Gift for A Ghost and Josie and the Pussycats; (iii) comics about the necessity of the public domain and fair use, considering Bound by Law, Theft! A History of Music, and Pictures within Pictures; and (iv) self-reflections on portraying copyright aesthetically in publicly disseminated research zines. This article has not set out to determine that certain visual aesthetic portrayals are “correct” or “better”, but rather to explore how legal discourses and narratives about copyright law are circulated through the comics medium. These visual depictions hold considerable weight, and it is striking to see similar narratives used across a range of comics works, with different intended audiences. What is clear is that the visual depiction of copyright law enables a greater ability to convey the multiple copyright law discourses that can be felt at once, and also to highlight that some of these discourses are contradictory to one another.

Prophetic Pasts, Presents, and Futures

In this creative nonfiction essay, I take account of my transcendental memories from childhood and track its effects on my past, present, and future selves. I engage my personal experiences using Black feminist theory to make visible the weightiness of the intangible inheritances that continue to affect my present life. Despite my trying to relinquish this inheritance, I bear the burden and mark of an insistent past adamant on determining a constrained future. The work of Black feminist theorists and queer thinkers walked so I could run; throughout this essay I locate where and when their work appeared and loosened the reigns of religious, gendered, and other oppressive discourses.

Menopausal rage, erotic power and gaga feminist possibilities

This study focusses on discourses on menopause through a critical reading of a selection of nine self-help books on the topic in the context of Dutch-speaking Belgium and the Netherlands. The aim is to explore whether self-help books constrain or facilitate the development of emancipatory discourses on menopause. We combine feminist critiques that identify the experience of menopause as a site of potential for revolt with insights from queer and critical new-materialist theorisation to probe the books’ emancipatory capacity. Our analysis identifies three prominent discursive repertoires: a medical, psycho-therapeutic and spiritual repertoire. Anger and erotic power emerge as important themes, albeit differently framed dependent on the discursive repertoires that the books employ. We conclude that none of the books succeed in disrupting prevailing oppressive discourses that devalue ageing women. There are two important constraints, notably (1) the books’ individualistic and depoliticised stance and (2) their reductionist view on the biological body. As a way out, we propose a gaga feminist reading of menopause that looks at anger and erotic power as sites of ‘biopossibilities’ that may open space for overthrowing oppressive models of gender, sexuality and desire.

Dark practices of writing: Disuniting intuition from the unknown as “free-range possibility”

Intuition occupies a privileged position in the practices of western creative writers that often conceals and perpetuates hegemonic power relations. We argue that these relations are the product of a powerful rhetoric linking intuition to an external and transcendental origin. While the language used to describe intuition is historically and culturally contingent, it is frequently associated with terms like unknown, mysterious, divine and darkness. To set the scene for our focus on the emergence of Practice-Led Research (PLR), we briefly survey earlier theories of intuition. Reviving the connection between intuition and transcendentalism, Graeme Sullivan (2009) proposes that PLR creates new knowledge through writing that moves from the unknown – configured as “an open landscape of free-range possibility” (p. 48) – into the known. Alongside other PLR scholars, Sullivan merges intuition with the project of connecting the creative arts to the knowledge-production imperatives of academia. This article focuses on how the introduction of a largely uninterrogated version of intuition into PLR threatens its social justice value. Countering this, Hélène Cixous’ reading of the writer’s relationship with darkness inspires an alternative approach to intuition, which actively disrupts the hegemonic power relations and associated oppressive discourses sustained by transcendentalism.

Discursive trajectories in the making of Amhara identity in Ethiopia

AbstractIn Ethiopia after 1991, ethnic identities are the fundamental governing principles of politics. Not only has the process provided the institutional basis, but it has also created ethnic groups in a variety of ways. The discursive construction of Amhara identity in Ethiopia is the topic of this research. For a long time, the Amhara have identified as Ethiopians. The Amhara have been portrayed as the opponent of Ethiopia's Nations, Nationalities and Peoples (NNPs) since the second part of the 20th century, according to the hegemonic discourse of national oppression. Anti‐Amhara sentiment, on the other hand, may be traced back to the Italian colonial period (1936–1941). Until recently, being and becoming Amhara was constructed from the outside and challenged from within. As a result, the characteristics of an ethnic political system that ushered in the post‐1991 era, continued demonisation and societal fears all play a role in the formation of Amhara identity. As a ‘cultural security policy’, embracing Amharaness has become a route out of these predicaments. Amharaness emerges from a counter‐narrative that resurrects historical and symbolic myths.

DEBATE EPISTEMOLÓGICO PARA O ENTENDIMENTO DA PESQUISA FEMINISTA CONSTRUCIONISTA SOCIAL

Abstract: In this article, we aim to establish a dialogue between social constructionist and feminist research, highlighting similarities and possible tensions. Our discussion is based on the suggestion of dividing feminist research into three moments: empiricist, standpoint and postmodern. We suggest that the interface between social constructionist and postmodern feminist research proposes the problematization of universal truths, based on the notion of the social construction of realities. The epistemological proposition of this interface is political and relational, it potentiates practices by expanding possible themes and research methods, with a special interest in the effects of oppressive discourses on everyday life. The main contribution of this article is to invite the scientific community to approach feminist social movements, recognizing their latent and urgent demands for the transformation of society.

"Uncivilized children" or "victims of dementia": Interpretations of aggression in older assisted living tenants.

This study explores interpretations of interpersonal aggression involving older adults, through an analysis of semi-structured interview data from 13 assisted living (AL) tenants and 19 AL service and/or care workers. Differing relations (tenant-tenant and tenant-worker) shape the kinds of tenant actions experienced as problematic and/or aggressive. Tenants and workers invoke communal living, aging, and dementia as explanatory frames, in part to mitigate victimization experiences through normalization and neutralization. This was more prominent among workers, who are less able to enact empowering responses as they sought to keep working in difficult circumstances. Structural constraints, and the power and social hierarchies that contribute to victimization, generate interpretive responses that obscure fulsome and contextualized understandings of the problem while further reinforcing oppressive discourses including a sense of the inevitability of aggression in older adults-especially those living with dementia.

Teachers’ Transnational Identities as Activity: Constructing Mobility Systems at the Intersections of Gender and Language Difference

AbstractWhile studies following a translingual orientation have demonstrated the potential for decolonial pedagogical practices (Cushman, 2016), including teachers’ self‐decolonization by drawing on their translinguistic identities (Motha, Jain, & Tecle, 2012), a translingual paradigm and pedagogy also has the potential to address “the intersection of several structuring nodes in the colonial matrix of power” (Cushman, 2016, p. 238). Some studies have put forth women’s narratives and lived experiences as teachers (Motha, Jain, & Tecle, 2012; Park, 2017); however, few studies have investigated identity construction at the intersections of language and gender when teachers are asked to explicitly engage in translingual and transnational labor. Drawing on mobility systems (Fraiberg, 2018), Individual Networks of Practice (INoPs) (Zappa‐Hollman & Duff, 2015), and translingualism (Canagarajah, 2012), this qualitative study offers a detailed account of how four emergent teacher scholars construct their teaching identities when they were encouraged to scrutinize transnational spaces and identities. In particular, the study has two purposes: 1) to investigate the decolonial potential of translingual and transnational paradigms as emergent teacher scholars reflect on their identities at the intersections of language and gender and 2), to document identity reconstruction in relation to the environments and sociocultural contexts of their transnational experiences. Besides the affordances of narrative and/or autobiographical writing through translingual and transnational perspectives, the study demonstrates the benefits of identity reconstruction through mobile systems (Fraiberg, 2018) in creating opportunities for agency within oppressive discourses of language and gender in the TESOL field.