WHEN THE OBLIGATION TO BE NEUTRAL BECOMES THE RIGHT TO DISCRIMINATE: DISCURSIVE STRUGGLES OVER LGBT+ RIGHTS AT POLISH UNIVERSITIES

ABSTRACT In this article, we discuss the narratives of struggle, resistance, and counter-resistance over the rights of the LGBT+ community at several Polish universities, which remain unnamed in order to protect our informants. In particular, we look at the discourses of LGBT+ groups struggling to e...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Pakuła,Łukasz, Chojnicka,Joanna
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:Brasil
Institución:Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP)
Repositorio:Trabalhos em Lingüística Aplicada (Online)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:scielo:S0103-18132020000301758
Acceso en línea:http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0103-18132020000301758
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Polish universities
LGBT+ community
resistance strategies
Critical Discourse Analysis
narrative inquiry
heteronormativity
Descripción
Sumario:ABSTRACT In this article, we discuss the narratives of struggle, resistance, and counter-resistance over the rights of the LGBT+ community at several Polish universities, which remain unnamed in order to protect our informants. In particular, we look at the discourses of LGBT+ groups struggling to establish or maintain organizations of various forms (from students’ study circles to union-like institutions) within the context of internal university structure, Polish academic culture and current political developments in the country. This research draws on semi-structured in-depth interviews we conducted in the spring and summer of 2020. In our analyses of the interview material, we apply a multidisciplinary methodological framework combining CDA and narrative inquiry in order to examine linguistic phenomena participating in constructing a particular version of reality through text in talk. Such research design enables us to offer a case study of the difficulties and obstacles faced by LGBT+ activists in the Polish academia the way they understand them, and of the resistance strategies they employ in this particular context. Our research shows a wide range of resistance strategies employed by the LGBT+ community members that can be classified according to the scale of discriminatory practices they form a response to (systemic/individual discrimination) and the type of the response itself (group/individual response). On the basis of the discussed examples, our article offers an interagentive matrix of strategies of addressing LGBT+ issues emerging within the Polish academic context.