Language in mediation

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This online training session introduces concepts originating in Linguistics which will raise awareness of some of the more subtle language habits of people in disputes and their mediators. This is not a quick fix or a checklist of things to look out for. Rather, it is an introduction to those aspects of language and interaction which we may not notice in everyday life, but which can be the trigger for both worsening and improving relations between people.

The team (from Huddersfield University Linguistics):

Professor Lesley Jeffries is a researcher into the meaning of textual choices, whether these be in spoken or written, public or private language. Her publications include:

Jeffries, L., (2010a) Opposition in Discourse. London: Bloomsbury.

Jeffries, L., (2010b) Critical Stylistics: The Power of English. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Jeffries, L. and Walker, B. (2017) Keywords in the Press: The New Labour Years. London: Bloomsbury.

Dr Jim O’Driscoll teaches and researches sociolinguistics and pragmatics, specialising in the study of language-in-situated-use. He is editor of the international Journal of Politeness Research (which includes the study of impoliteness!) and author of Offensive Language: Taboo, Offence and Social Control (Bloomsbury 2020).  

Dr Matt Evans teaches stylistics and syntax at the University of Huddersfield, where he is assistant editor of Babel magazine. His research focuses on critical stylistic investigations into the meanings of contested words like ‘feminism’, ‘terror’ and ‘austerity’.

Together, the team has produced two publications specific to Language in Conflict:

Evans, M., Jeffries, L. and O’Driscoll, J. (2018) ‘Language in Conflict: Linguistics in Mediation’, in McIntyre, D. and Price, H. (editors) Applying Linguistics: Language and the Impact Agenda London: Routledge, pp.124-136

Evans, M., Jeffries, L. and O’Driscoll, J. (2019) The Routledge Handbook of Language in Conflict. London: Routledge.