The CRCC Theme Leads

(Language and Social Interaction)

Jessica is fascinated by how moral troubles are implicated in ordinary social interactions. Her research has explored many topics in which morality surfaces, from little words such as “like,” to political arguments, family interactions, and responses to racism. She conducts qualitative research using discourse analysis and teaches qualitative methods courses in the Social Psychology programme.

Jessica's research involves discourse analysis of language and social interaction; she transcribes recorded ordinary interactions in a range of settings, from the interpersonal and relational (among friends, family) to the organisational and institutional (related to health, politics, education, business). Most of her work focuses on mundane conversations in which something moral arises, particularly when something goes awry. She is especially interested in practical problems, challenges, troubles, and dilemmas—those moments when interaction acquires a little “danger” or requires a bit of delicacy. Jessica's doctoral dissertation used a series of such situations to theorise that the relationship between communication and morality is centrally concerned with the social organization of difference. Her subsequent publications have further sought to understand how morality is entangled everyday distinctions, disalignments, and disagreements. Her book Everyday Talk: Building and Reflecting Identities (2nd edition, 2013), written with first author Karen Tracy, works through many of the concepts, theories and perspectives underlying my research, and is frequently used as an undergraduate textbook in courses on discourse, identity, and culture.

(Political Communication)

Anthony Kevins is a political scientist who studies the link between public opinion and the actions and decisions of policymakers. His research has examined how politicians shape public opinion with the language they use, the consultations they launch, and the reforms they support – in the process making certain policy solutions more or less difficult to enact in the future.

His studies have been awarded Best Article Prizes from Socio-Economic Review and Political Studies and discussed in media outlets such as The Globe and Mail, Maclean’s, and Le Monde. He has conducted outreach work with government, media outlets, and third-sector organisations in the UK and abroad, and attracted funding from prestigious sources such as the EU’s Horizon 2020 Programme and the British Academy.

He is currently a Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Studies, and previously worked at Aarhus University’s Department of Political Science and the Utrecht University School of Governance. He holds a PhD in Political Science from McGill University.