Alexa Hepburn
Encyclopedia
Alexa Hepburn is Reader in Conversation Analysis
in the Social Sciences Department at Loughborough University
.
. Because her father was a telecoms engineer involved in modernising exchanges she moved between 12 different schools in the North of England and Scotland. She did an undergraduate degree in Philosophy and Psychology at the University of Dundee
. She did her PhD at Glasgow Caledonian University
supervised by Gerda Siann. This focused on school bullying
, with a particular interest in the way that traditional research had isolated pupils rather than seeing that as part of a broader system including teachers and parents. This was combined with a poststructuralist approach to psychological methods, to power, and to the nature of persons.
She was awarded her PhD in 1995 and she held teaching positions at Napier University
, Staffordshire University
and then Nottingham Trent University
. After being a Leverhulme Fellow in 2002 she was appointed to a lectureship and then senior lectureship at Loughborough University
. In 2009 she was promoted to Reader in Conversation Analysis.
.
Her critical concerns were brought together in her Introduction to Critical Social Psychology published in 2003. This integrated and evaluated critical work inspired by marxism, poststructuralism, feminism and discourse analysis.
In the years after this she was heavily involved in editing two collections jointly with Sally Wiggins, one a special issue of the journal Discourse and Society and the other a volume for Cambridge University Press, Discursive Research in Practice.
From 2005 she has undergone extensive training in conversation analysis, attending workshops taught by Emanuel Schegloff
, John Heritage
and Gene Lerner in UCLA and masters level modules in conversation analysis at the University of York
taught by Celia Kitzinger
.
Since 2000 she has been working with a large corpus of phone calls to the UK National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children child protection helpline, originally collected as part of her Leverhulme Fellowshop. Her work focused on the way the calls are opened, the way emotion is expressed and receipted, and the way shared understandings are developed and contested in the course of sequences of advice. This programme of work has resulted in a series of articles. Much of this work is collaborative with Jonathan Potter
.
She has become expert in transcription and has developed Gail Jefferson
's basic system for transcribing talk to encompass phenomena associated with crying and upset (sobbing, sniffing, tremulous delivery). This is part of a broader concern with the way emotion becomes something live in interaction.
and how it can be specified more precisely using particular sequences of interaction.
In addition to these topics she has been involved in a series of studies of the role of tag questions in interaction. Her focus has been on the way tag questions can be used to both build and contest intersubjectivity
.
She has also been working on technical features of indexical repair - conversational moments where speakers 'fix' their own talk before another speaker can take their turn. Although highly technical, these phenomena have implications for the way basic issues in language and cognition are understood.
Conversation analysis
Conversation analysis is the study of talk in interaction . CA generally attempts to describe the orderliness, structure and sequential patterns of interaction, whether institutional or in casual conversation.Inspired by ethnomethodology Conversation analysis (commonly abbreviated as CA) is the...
in the Social Sciences Department at Loughborough University
Loughborough University
Loughborough University is a research based campus university located in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, in the East Midlands of England...
.
Life
She was born in LeicesterLeicester
Leicester is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England, and the county town of Leicestershire. The city lies on the River Soar and at the edge of the National Forest...
. Because her father was a telecoms engineer involved in modernising exchanges she moved between 12 different schools in the North of England and Scotland. She did an undergraduate degree in Philosophy and Psychology at the University of Dundee
University of Dundee
The University of Dundee is a university based in the city and Royal burgh of Dundee on eastern coast of the central Lowlands of Scotland and with a small number of institutions elsewhere....
. She did her PhD at Glasgow Caledonian University
Glasgow Caledonian University
Glasgow Caledonian University is a public university in Glasgow, Scotland.The university was constituted by an Act of Parliament on 1 April 1993 as a result of a merger between Glasgow Polytechnic and The Queen's College, Glasgow....
supervised by Gerda Siann. This focused on school bullying
School bullying
School bullying is a type of bullying that occurs in connection with education, either inside or outside of school. Bullying can be physical, verbal, or emotional and is usually repeated over a period of time.In schools, bullying occurs in all areas...
, with a particular interest in the way that traditional research had isolated pupils rather than seeing that as part of a broader system including teachers and parents. This was combined with a poststructuralist approach to psychological methods, to power, and to the nature of persons.
She was awarded her PhD in 1995 and she held teaching positions at Napier University
Napier University
Edinburgh Napier is one of the largest higher education institutions in Scotland with over 17,000 students, including nearly 5,000 international students, from more than 100 nations worldwide.-History:...
, Staffordshire University
Staffordshire University
Staffordshire University is a university with its main campus based in the city of Stoke-on-Trent, and with other campuses in Stafford, Lichfield and Shrewsbury.- History :...
and then Nottingham Trent University
Nottingham Trent University
Nottingham Trent University is a public teaching and research university in Nottingham, United Kingdom. It was founded as a new university in 1992 from the existing Trent Polytechnic , however it can trace its roots back to 1843 with the establishment of the Nottingham Government School of Design...
. After being a Leverhulme Fellow in 2002 she was appointed to a lectureship and then senior lectureship at Loughborough University
Loughborough University
Loughborough University is a research based campus university located in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, in the East Midlands of England...
. In 2009 she was promoted to Reader in Conversation Analysis.
Work
Her early research combined her interests in critical psychology and theory with an empirical examination of school bullying. She explored the relationship of Derrida's deconstruction and the nature of psychology and considered the implications of relativism for feminism. Her work was influenced by, and influenced, the approach known as discursive psychologyDiscursive psychology
For other uses of the word, see discursive.Discursive psychology is a form of discourse analysis that focuses on psychological themes....
.
Her critical concerns were brought together in her Introduction to Critical Social Psychology published in 2003. This integrated and evaluated critical work inspired by marxism, poststructuralism, feminism and discourse analysis.
In the years after this she was heavily involved in editing two collections jointly with Sally Wiggins, one a special issue of the journal Discourse and Society and the other a volume for Cambridge University Press, Discursive Research in Practice.
From 2005 she has undergone extensive training in conversation analysis, attending workshops taught by Emanuel Schegloff
Emanuel Schegloff
Emanuel Abraham Schegloff is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of California at Los Angeles. He was born in 1937 in New York. With Harvey Sacks and Gail Jefferson, Schegloff was one of the principal creators of the field of Conversation Analysis...
, John Heritage
John Heritage
John Heritage is Professor of Sociology at University of California at Los Angeles. He is one of the key figures in the approach known as conversation analysis....
and Gene Lerner in UCLA and masters level modules in conversation analysis at the University of York
University of York
The University of York , is an academic institution located in the city of York, England. Established in 1963, the campus university has expanded to more than thirty departments and centres, covering a wide range of subjects...
taught by Celia Kitzinger
Celia Kitzinger
Celia Kitzinger and Sue Wilkinson are a British lesbian couple who are lobbying to have their relationship recognised as a marriage in England.-Celia Kitzinger:...
.
Since 2000 she has been working with a large corpus of phone calls to the UK National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children child protection helpline, originally collected as part of her Leverhulme Fellowshop. Her work focused on the way the calls are opened, the way emotion is expressed and receipted, and the way shared understandings are developed and contested in the course of sequences of advice. This programme of work has resulted in a series of articles. Much of this work is collaborative with Jonathan Potter
Jonathan Potter
Jonathan Potter is Professor of Discourse Analysis and, from February 2010, Head of the Department of Social Sciences, at Loughborough University and one of the originators of discursive psychology.-Life:...
.
She has become expert in transcription and has developed Gail Jefferson
Gail Jefferson
Gail Jefferson was, along with Harvey Sacks and Emanuel Schegloff, one of the founders of the area of research known as Conversation Analysis . She is particularly remembered today for the methods and notational conventions she developed for transcribing talk...
's basic system for transcribing talk to encompass phenomena associated with crying and upset (sobbing, sniffing, tremulous delivery). This is part of a broader concern with the way emotion becomes something live in interaction.
Recent developments
Her recent work has been focused on interaction in family mealtimes involving young children. This has involved working with video recordings of meals and studying basic actions such as requests, directives, admonishments and threats. Like the rest of her work this is designed to have an applied focus yet also provide a critique of mainstream individualist positions in psychology. This has developed into a broader concern with the concept of socializationSocialization
Socialization is a term used by sociologists, social psychologists, anthropologists, political scientists and educationalists to refer to the process of inheriting and disseminating norms, customs and ideologies...
and how it can be specified more precisely using particular sequences of interaction.
In addition to these topics she has been involved in a series of studies of the role of tag questions in interaction. Her focus has been on the way tag questions can be used to both build and contest intersubjectivity
Intersubjectivity
Intersubjectivity is a term used in philosophy, psychology, sociology and anthropology to describe a condition somewhere between subjectivity and objectivity, one in which a phenomenon is personally experienced but by more than one subject....
.
She has also been working on technical features of indexical repair - conversational moments where speakers 'fix' their own talk before another speaker can take their turn. Although highly technical, these phenomena have implications for the way basic issues in language and cognition are understood.