Event overview
Dr Steven Dixon-Smith takes a critical sociolinguistic approach to analyse how structural inequalities around race and class are reproduced and resisted in Higher Education
Recent shifts in policy discourse have used fixed and separate categorisations of race and class in education to deny institutional and structural racism (Tikly, 2021), presenting a ‘postracial’ myth (Warmington, 2024) in which the remedy for inequalities lies in individual choice-making and the exercise of agency. In this seminar, Steve will share findings and analysis from his recently completed doctoral research, which set out to disrupt the use of such categorisations in relation to racial and class-based inequalities in Higher Education.
Taking place in an undergraduate architecture studio, the study takes a critical sociolinguistic approach that documents the ways in which social structures are reproduced and resisted in the course of everyday interactions in institutional settings (Silverstein, 2003; Bucholtz & Hall, 2005). This approach is fused with Stuart Hall’s notion of articulation to treat the discursive construction of race and class as co-constituted articulations in material conditions of inequality produced by specific histories (Hall, 2021 [1980]) of race and class.
Engaging with recent accounts of these histories in England (Shilliam, 2018; Virdee, 2014; Kundnani, 2022), Steve will present analysis supporting the findings that the discursive and ideological conditions navigated in the architecture studio to be characterised by three interrelated centres of authority: racially hegemonic whiteness, self-responsible deservedness, and conviviality. While noting important resistance, these conditions are argued ultimately to reproduce whiteness as a position of dominance in a racialised order of class relations.
Steve completed his ESRC funded PhD in March 2024. He was supervised by Dr Vally Lytra, Professor Rosalyn George and Professor Farzana Shain. His study was a response to institutional framings of inequality encountered in his work supporting inclusive learning and teaching in Higher Education. His research interests include how issues of social justice are addressed in and through education. He takes a critical sociolinguistic approach to analyse how structural inequalities around race and class are reproduced and resisted in everyday institutional settings.
https://www.gold.ac.uk/clcl/events/
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 22 May 2024 | 5:30pm - 7:00pm |
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