For further information on this project, and listings for upcoming events related to it, please visit this page.
Centre Co-director Jules Holroyd (University of Sheffield, they/them) with affiliate member Matthew Cull (University of Edinburgh, they/them) and Fiona Woollard (University of Southampton, she/her) have a funded knowledge exchange project on inclusive language in perinatal care. Their recent work has been responding to prominent critiques of inclusive language, arguing that some of the most common objections to inclusive language can be met by adopting a pluralistic linguistic approach.
In short, those sympathetic to inclusive language tend to promote ‘monistic’ approaches – such as gender neutral or gender additive language. But these approaches are sometimes inadequate, which can fuel objections to inclusive language. Rather, our pluralistic approach fares better by combining these approaches along with other linguistic devices in order to be sensitive to the moral and communicative goals of a context. This requires careful piecemeal reform of public-facing communications, to ensure that meaning and accuracy is preserved whilst messages also have appropriate reach and avoid exclusion and marginalisation. You can see a snapshot of our work in the conference poster on this page.
This work will be presented, by Fiona, to the UNICEF Baby Friendly Initiative conference in Harrogate, in November 2023.
The funded project will run from November 2023-November 2024, and will bring together a range of care providers to discuss how to advance inclusive language in their work.
If you’d like to find out more, read our paper on the topic, or participate in one of our project workshops, please contact us!
Centre for Engaged Philosophy 