Professor Jennifer Sclafani and Ph.D. candidate Nasiba Norova presented at the 11th annual meeting of the Language and Social Interaction Working Group (LANSI) at Teacher’s College, Columbia University.

The two-day conference featured speakers from around the world who are applying a variety of discourse analytic approaches to the study of language use in institutions ranging from medicine and education and politics and legal settings. Their paper, “‘Signature habits’ and ‘strict rules’: Positioning candidates as mothers of color in a mayoral election,” examines the discourse of the 2021 Boston mayoral election and identifies how candidates navigate sexist, xenophobic, and other problematic questions posed during televised debates. Their joint research contributes to our understanding of the central role of language in transformation of political leadership in present-day Boston. 

The conference team shared a post on X/Twitter, capturing the moment of their presentation. To view the post, please click the link.