Some societal ills seem to lie beyond the reach of interactional analysis – but in this topical and thoughtful guest blog, Jessica Robles gives us an insight into how an interaction analyst might tackle the complex issue of racism as a research topic.
Jessica Robles, University of Washington
I never thought I’d write on racism. My research interests do revolve around morality, but generally of a much more mundane, less contentious sort—for example, using vagueness in doing disagreement, and the demands of praising gifts.
I stumbled into looking at racism by accident. Over the years I’ve collected “favorite” bits of interactional data that I repeatedly inflict on data session attendees and students. In one such snippet, a participant makes a categorical reference to Mexicans that she (mid-utterance) attempts to “take back,” apparently because the recipient has a Mexican boyfriend.
Research on Language and Social Interaction - Blog 