Brandi Lawless

Critically reflexive dialogue and praxis: Academic/practitioner reflections throughout a formative evaluation of Circles® USA

ABSTRACT Reflections about the use of critically reflexive praxis by academic/practitioners are offered based on a case study of a formative evaluation of Circles® USA, a nonprofit organization coordinating initiatives across the U.S. working to move families out of poverty. Critically reflexive praxis is theorized as featuring several themes including acknowledging different levels of context, critical dialogue with collaborators, engaging cultural difference and intersectionalities, problematizing power relations and relationships among researchers and collaborators, and occurring throughout the research project. Examples of critical dialogic reflexivity and navigating common tensions that emerge throughout such community engagement projects are detailed during three phases: planning and design; fieldwork and interviews; and outcomes, applications, and implications.

Multicultural Neoliberalism and Academic Labor: Experiences of Female Immigrant Faculty in the U.S. Academy

In light of limited attention to immigrant faculty (aka, international faculty) in the U.S. academy, we analyze interview discourses with 26 female immigrant faculty members from multiple disciplines working across U.S. colleges and universities. Collectively, the women’s voices converge around three primary themes pertaining to neoliberal restructuring of higher education: commodification of education, multicultural neoliberalism, and universal meritocracy. Furthermore, we explore the various ways in which cultural identities are (re)positioned by dominant ideologies of neoliberalism in the U.S. academy. Our findings develop an understanding of how neoliberal ideologies construct and reinforce marginalized identities and subjectivities at the intersection of gender, race, and immigration.

Ally, friend, or mentor? Creating and maintaining effective cross-class alliances

ABSTRACT This essay (re)examines the notion of intercultural alliances in one U.S. nonprofit organization trying to end poverty. The nonprofit, referred to as Transforming Poverty Partnerships, has built their program around building relationships between people in poverty and middle-class “Allies.” This analysis reveals a number of problematic themes that emerge from previous conceptions of cross-class alliances and implications for improving such alliances within various contexts.

Performing Identity in “Transforming Poverty Partnerships”: An Extension of Critical Discourse Analysis

This article extends Faircloughs (1992) approach to critical discourse analysis (CDA) to include analysis of intercultural relationships. In doing so, the author theorizes subject realization and subject actualization as ways to explore ethnographic data. These concepts aid in a critical analysis of class and related performances by participants of 1 U.S. nonprofit organization. This organization, referred to as Transforming Poverty Partnerships (TPP), pairs leaders with middle-class “allies” in attempt to pull them above the poverty line. This analysis reveals the reinforcement of several dominant U.S. ideologies through individual and group performances within the everyday activities of TPP. Moreover, the analysis provides implications for scholars who seek to use a tangible, critical method of analysis for their observations of everyday performances.

“Oh my god! You have become so Americanized”: Paradoxes of adaptation and strategic ambiguity among female immigrant faculty

ABSTRACT Guided by De La Garza and Ono’s differential adaptation theory, we examine discourses from immigrant women faculty in the U.S. academy. We utilize thematic analysis to analyze interviews with 26 self-identified immigrant faculty members. Our analysis reveals three interrelating themes: negotiating foreign-female body politics, navigating paradoxes of adaptation, and deploying strategic ambiguity. We theorize the notion of “micro/macro-adaptation” describing mundane and cumulative adaptations that cultural “strangers” make, negotiate, and/or are expected to enact, which paradoxically can function to further disorient, alienate, or marginalize them.

Where can your passport take you? Teaching citizenship, mobility, and identity

Courses: Intercultural Communication, Culture and Conflict, International Conflict and Alliance Building Objectives: After completing this single-class activity, students should be able to (1) describe the concepts of identity, citizenship, and mobility; (2) empathize with the everyday struggles of students who hold citizenship outside of their “homeland”; and (3) explain how intersectionality influences an individual’s ability to traverse national borders.

Relating across Difference for Social Change: Calling Attention to Inter/Cultural Partnerships in Nonprofit Contexts

This special issue has its origin in an unexpected conversation. At the reception of the International and Intercultural Communication Division at the 2012 National Communication Association Convention, the co-editors of this issue began discussing their participation and affiliation with a variety of nonprofit organizations (NPOs). As we described our involvements, we noticed a few themes. First, the work and success of the NPOs relied critically upon inter/cultural partnerships and alliances. Second, as scholars, our work was completely different from anything we did on our campuses. Third, we came to the realization that engagement with NPOs—while gaining scholarly attention—needed greater attention in intercultural communication studies

Making the “minority” voice heard: Critical communication pedagogy and dissent

ABSTRACT Courses: Intercultural Communication, Argumentation and Advocacy, Communication and Education Objectives: This activity is designed to help students to problem-pose and think critically about policies/laws that influence education. Students will be exposed to U.S. policy and will be able to articulate a critical dissent of such documents.

“Reclaiming Their Historical Agency”: A Critical Analysis of International News Discourses on Occupy and Arab Spring

ABSTRACT In this study, the authors examine the interrelationship between culture, media, globalization, and social movements through a critical discourse analysis of international news discourses on the Arab Spring and the U.S.-based Occupy movement(s). Following several calls to pay closer attention to democratic discourses and/or practices within globalized social movements, they explore the ways in which news discourses about the Arab Spring and Occupy reinforce dominant ideologies related to global capitalism, cultural imperialism, and Eurocentric democracy. The authors further delineate differences between the ideology of democracy and the practices of democratization. This analysis reveals important implications for conceptions of agency and democracy in a globalized world.

Documenting a labor of love: emotional labor as academic labor

ABSTRACT Neoliberal practices embedded in academia have transformed the university into a service industry. Through this lens, this review documents the current exploration of emotional labor in academia, specifically in communication studies. While a paucity of literature on this topic exists, I explore how a neoliberal agenda creates an expectation for communication faculty to perform emotional labor (and how this expectation is greater compared with other fields), the ways in which emotional labor is differentially experienced for women, and how communication studies as a gendered field exacerbates expectations to perform such labor. Moreover, I highlight the shifting perception of the field and the related moves to expand emotional labor. Finally, I discuss ways to move forward in a neoliberal academia.