Language, Gender, and Sexuality (LGS)

One of the strongholds of language, gender, and sexuality studies has been their radical commitment to intervening in unequal social relations. This strand aims to foreground the applied nature of feminist, queer, trans and nonbinary linguistic scholarship with a view to enlivening the broader field of applied linguistics. While earlier studies on language, gender, and sexuality investigated linguistic differences between female and male speakers or non-heterosexual and heterosexual speakers, current research goes beyond binary approaches/ideas, questioning essentialist ideologies that eclipse the multiple ways people live gendered and sexual lives through embodied language use. Instead of focusing on stereotypical differences such as ‘women’s language’ or ‘gay men’s language’, this strand showcases critical scholarship that treats language as a tool individuals resort to in order to perform various gender and sexual identities both in institutional and everyday life. The strand is particularly interested in research about the effects of gender and/or sexuality on the use of language in education, healthcare, translation, online communication, media, and other areas of applied linguistic interest.