Congratulations to Anica Waldendorf from the Department of Political and Social Sciences, for receiving her doctorate in November 2024, after unanimous decisions from the jury.
Anica Waldendorf has successfully defended her thesis entitled, The power of language. The use, effect, and spread of gender-inclusive language, on 8 November.
Anica's dissertation starts with the following story: "A father and his son are out driving and are involved in a terrible accident. The father is killed instantly, and the son is in critical condition. The son is rushed to the hospital and prepared for an operation that could save his life. The surgeon comes in, sees the patient, and exclaims, ‘I can’t operate, that boy is my son!’”
Her dissertation studies the phenomenon that many perceive to be a riddle or puzzle when really it should not be: the surgeon is the mother. Gender-inclusive language is meant to counteract these and related gender biases in language and communication. Anica documents the recent explosion of gender-inclusive language (GIL) in German newspapers, analysing a large database of articles. In qualitative interviews, she documents how those who use GIL in everyday conversation use it selectively, switching back and forth between GIL and the traditional generic masculine, depending on who they are talking to. In addition, in a field experiment she finds that use of GIL in job ads neither discourages nor encourages job applications.
Anica won the prestigious Postdoctoral Prize Fellowship in Sociology at Nuffield College, Oxford University, where she currently resides.
Read Anica’s thesis in Cadmus.