Brandi Lawless (M.A. San Francisco State University, Ph.D. University of New Mexico) is an Associate Professor at the University of San Francisco. Her primary areas of research are Critical Intercultural Communication and Critical Communication Pedagogy. Her research explores the intersections of race, class, gender, and nationality in a variety of contexts in higher education and nonprofit contexts. Her work appears in Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Howard Journal of Communication, Critical StudiesCultural Methodologies, Women’s Studies in Communication and Communication Teacher as well as several edited collections. In 2015, she won the USF Innovation in Teaching with Technology Award. In 2016, she won the USF Distinguished Teaching Award. She has received 8 top paper awards (predominantly in Intercultural Communication), and in 2017 was awarded the Feminist Scholar Award from the Organization for Research on Women and Communication. Phone: 415-422-4133 Address: San Francisco, California, United States
ABSTRACT Courses: Intercultural Communication, Argumentation and Advocacy, Communication and Educ... more 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.
Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 2016
ABSTRACT This essay (re)examines the notion of intercultural alliances in one U.S. nonprofit orga... more 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.
Courses: Intercultural Communication, Culture and Conflict, International Conflict and Alliance B... more 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.
This article extends Fairclough's (1992) approach to critical discourse analysis (CDA) to inc... more This article extends Fairclough's (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.
Abstract This study challenges the separation of pedagogy and theory by researching intercultural... more Abstract This study challenges the separation of pedagogy and theory by researching intercultural communication pedagogies (ICP). We explore the strengths, weaknesses, and unrealized potentiality of ICP, through narratives from intercultural educators across the United States. Interviews with 20 intercultural communication teachers, from a variety of ranks, are utilized to detail how intersectional identities and narrative approaches to teaching strengthen the overarching field of intercultural communication, while intercultural pedagogs as a whole still struggle to create pedagogies of resistance across differential positionalities. Implications of these findings for ICP as a mode of scholarly inquiry are also discussed.
In this study, we explore the ways in which Intercultural Communication instructors uniquely expe... more In this study, we explore the ways in which Intercultural Communication instructors uniquely experience emotion with work and how this influences their pedagogical approaches to this course. We collected and analyzed interviews with 21 intercultural communication educators across U.S. colleges and universities. We present findings related to the types of resistance present and/or emerging in the intercultural communication classroom, emotional responses to resistance, and strategies for managing and negotiating emotion with work in the Intercultural Communication classroom. We end with discussing implications for teacher training programs designed for the Intercultural Communication classroom.
The International Journal of Diversity in Organizations, Communities, and Nations: Annual Review, 2015
The authors explore first-person stories, narratives, and discourses from self-identified immigra... more The authors explore first-person stories, narratives, and discourses from self-identified immigrant women faculty members across intersecting subject positions (e.g., race, class, immigration status, etc.) regarding how they negotiate their subjectivity within the U.S. academe. Data includes interviews from 21 female faculty members from several universities across the United States. Participants immigrated from a total of 13 different countries, spanning four continents, and representing multiple disciplines. The authors utilized critical discourse analysis (CDA) to link individual experiences with wider societal ideologies. This study reveals findings regarding the simultaneous navigation of the citizenship discourses/processes and multilevel experiences with micro-aggressions. We suggest several implications regarding the treatment of “difference” in global education systems and the challenges for international faculty who participate in such systems. Based on these findings, we offer participants’ recommendations for successfully navigating these challenges and affirming the value of diversity in educational contexts.
In light of limited attention to immigrant faculty (aka, international faculty) in the U.S. acade... more 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.
ABSTRACT Reflections about the use of critically reflexive praxis by academic/practitioners are o... more 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.
ABSTRACT In this study, the authors examine the interrelationship between culture, media, globali... more 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.
Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 2017
ABSTRACT Guided by De La Garza and Ono’s differential adaptation theory, we examine discourses fr... more 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.
ABSTRACT Courses: Intercultural Communication, Argumentation and Advocacy, Communication and Educ... more 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.
Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 2016
ABSTRACT This essay (re)examines the notion of intercultural alliances in one U.S. nonprofit orga... more 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.
Courses: Intercultural Communication, Culture and Conflict, International Conflict and Alliance B... more 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.
This article extends Fairclough's (1992) approach to critical discourse analysis (CDA) to inc... more This article extends Fairclough's (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.
Abstract This study challenges the separation of pedagogy and theory by researching intercultural... more Abstract This study challenges the separation of pedagogy and theory by researching intercultural communication pedagogies (ICP). We explore the strengths, weaknesses, and unrealized potentiality of ICP, through narratives from intercultural educators across the United States. Interviews with 20 intercultural communication teachers, from a variety of ranks, are utilized to detail how intersectional identities and narrative approaches to teaching strengthen the overarching field of intercultural communication, while intercultural pedagogs as a whole still struggle to create pedagogies of resistance across differential positionalities. Implications of these findings for ICP as a mode of scholarly inquiry are also discussed.
In this study, we explore the ways in which Intercultural Communication instructors uniquely expe... more In this study, we explore the ways in which Intercultural Communication instructors uniquely experience emotion with work and how this influences their pedagogical approaches to this course. We collected and analyzed interviews with 21 intercultural communication educators across U.S. colleges and universities. We present findings related to the types of resistance present and/or emerging in the intercultural communication classroom, emotional responses to resistance, and strategies for managing and negotiating emotion with work in the Intercultural Communication classroom. We end with discussing implications for teacher training programs designed for the Intercultural Communication classroom.
The International Journal of Diversity in Organizations, Communities, and Nations: Annual Review, 2015
The authors explore first-person stories, narratives, and discourses from self-identified immigra... more The authors explore first-person stories, narratives, and discourses from self-identified immigrant women faculty members across intersecting subject positions (e.g., race, class, immigration status, etc.) regarding how they negotiate their subjectivity within the U.S. academe. Data includes interviews from 21 female faculty members from several universities across the United States. Participants immigrated from a total of 13 different countries, spanning four continents, and representing multiple disciplines. The authors utilized critical discourse analysis (CDA) to link individual experiences with wider societal ideologies. This study reveals findings regarding the simultaneous navigation of the citizenship discourses/processes and multilevel experiences with micro-aggressions. We suggest several implications regarding the treatment of “difference” in global education systems and the challenges for international faculty who participate in such systems. Based on these findings, we offer participants’ recommendations for successfully navigating these challenges and affirming the value of diversity in educational contexts.
In light of limited attention to immigrant faculty (aka, international faculty) in the U.S. acade... more 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.
ABSTRACT Reflections about the use of critically reflexive praxis by academic/practitioners are o... more 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.
ABSTRACT In this study, the authors examine the interrelationship between culture, media, globali... more 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.
Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 2017
ABSTRACT Guided by De La Garza and Ono’s differential adaptation theory, we examine discourses fr... more 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.
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Papers by Brandi Lawless