Keynote Speakers
Dr J Calder
University of Colorado Boulder, USA
J Calder is an Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Colorado Boulder. Their work straddles the fields of sociolinguistic variation and linguistic anthropology. Using sociophonetic and ethnographic methods, they explore the role of phonetic variation in the construction of marginalized identity in communities of queer/trans individuals and people of color. Their forthcoming monograph, ‘Handsome Women’, explores the constraining pressures of the cisgender perceiving subject— a normative vantage point that expects language and visual presentation to conform to standards of gender appropriateness— and how a group of radical San Francisco drag queens challenges and responds to these normative pressures.
Dr Sylvia Shaw
University of Westminster, UK
Sylvia Shaw is a Reader in English Language and Linguistics at the University of Westminster, London. She started her career as a lexicographer working on the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English before moving into sociolinguistics, specialising in analyses of language and gender in political contexts. This includes in-depth ethnographic research on gender and participation in the UK parliamentary institutions (the House of Commons and the devolved parliamentary institutions of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). Her work tackles the underrepresentation of women in politics by examining exclusionary ideologies and linguistic practices in these parliamentary and mediatised contexts. Publications include her 2020 monograph, ‘Women, Language and Politics’ (2020) and ‘Gender, Power and Political Speech’ (2015, with Deborah Cameron). She is currently working on immigration discourse in parliament (with Geri Popova) and continues to investigate gender, participation, and leadership in the House of Commons. She was a specialist advisor to parliament for their complaints and grievance policy on sexual harassment and works across disciplinary boundaries into politics and social policy research to increase women’s status and representation in public life. Sylvia teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses in sociolinguistics and has a leadership role in PhD recruitment and development at the University of Westminster.
Dr Jaspal Singh
Open University, UK
Jaspal Singh is a sociolinguist working on voice, gender and decoloniality in global hip hop. His research explores how artists perform and contest gender and sexuality through embodied practices, performances and narratives. His earlier work on Delhi’s emerging hip hop scene (Transcultural Voices, 2022) traces the dominance of heteronormative masculinity; his current research turns to alternative gendered and sexual subjectivities in Indian hip hop. He co-edits the Journal of Sociolinguistics and the Multilingual Matters Encounters series. Jaspal identifies as a cis-straight polyamorous man and as an ally of feminist and trans struggles.
