Alexa Hepburn is professor of communication at
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and wa ...
, and honorary professor in
conversation analysis
Conversation analysis (CA) is an approach to the study of social interaction, embracing both verbal and non-verbal conduct, in situations of everyday life. CA originated as a sociological method, but has since spread to other fields. CA began wit ...
in the Social Sciences Department at
Loughborough University
Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for post-nominals) is a public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university since 1966, but it dates back to 1909, whe ...
.
Life
Alexa Hepburn was born in
Leicester. 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
, mottoeng = "My soul doth magnify the Lord"
, established = 1967 – gained independent university status by Royal Charter1897 – Constituent college of the University of St Andrews1881 – University College
, ...
. She did her PhD at
Glasgow Caledonian University
Glasgow Caledonian University ( gd, Oilthigh Chailleannach Ghlaschu, ), informally GCU, Caledonian or Caley, is a public university in Glasgow, Scotland. It was formed in 1993 by the merger of The Queen's College, Glasgow (founded in 1875) and G ...
supervised by Gerda Siann. This focused on
school bullying
School bullying, like bullying outside the school context, refers to one or more perpetrators who have greater physical strength or more social power than their victim repeatedly by acting aggressively toward their victim. Bullying can be verb ...
, with a particular interest in the way that traditional research had isolated pupils and their problematic personalities, rather than seeing them as part of a broader system of relationships, including teachers and parents. This was combined with a
poststructuralist
Post-structuralism is a term for philosophical and literary forms of theory that both build upon and reject ideas established by structuralism, the intellectual project that preceded it. Though post-structuralists all present different critiques ...
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
, mottoeng = Without knowledge, everything is in vain
, established = 1992 – granted University status 1964 – Napier Technical College
, type = Public
, academic_staff = 802
, administrative_staff = 562
, chancellor = Will Whitehorn
, ...
,
Staffordshire University
, mottoeng = Dare to know
, type = Public
, endowment = £70 million (2015)
, administrative_staff = 1,375
, chancellor = Francis Fitzherbert, 15th Baron Stafford
, vice_chancellor = Professor Martin Jones
, ...
and then
Nottingham Trent University
Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is a public research university in Nottingham, England. It was founded as a new universities, new university in 1992, although its roots go back to 1843 with the establishment of the Nottingham School of Desi ...
. After being a
Leverhulme Fellow in 2002 she was appointed to a lectureship and then senior lectureship at
Loughborough University
Loughborough University (abbreviated as ''Lough'' or ''Lboro'' for post-nominals) is a public research university in the market town of Loughborough, Leicestershire, England. It has been a university since 1966, but it dates back to 1909, whe ...
. In 2009 she was promoted to Reader in Conversation Analysis, and in 2015 to Professor of Conversation Analysis. In September 2015 she took up a position of Research Professor in the Communication Department at
Rutgers University
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and wa ...
, New Jersey, USA.
Work
Her early research combined her interests in
critical psychology
Critical psychology is a perspective on psychology that draws extensively on critical theory. Critical psychology challenges the assumptions, theories and methods of mainstream psychology and attempts to apply psychological understandings in diff ...
and theory with an empirical examination of school bullying. She explored the relationship between
Derrida
Derrida is a surname shared by notable people listed below.
* Bernard Derrida (born 1952), French theoretical physicist
* Jacques Derrida (1930–2004), French philosopher
** ''Derrida'' (film), a 2002 American documentary film
* Marguerite Der ...
's
deconstruction
The term deconstruction refers to approaches to understanding the relationship between text and meaning. It was introduced by the philosopher Jacques Derrida, who defined it as a turn away from Platonism's ideas of "true" forms and essence ...
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 psychology
Discursive psychology (DP) is a form of discourse analysis that focuses on psychological themes in talk, text, and images.
As a counter to mainstream psychology's treatment of discourse as a "mirror" for people's expressions of thoughts, intentio ...
.
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 Abraham Schegloff (born 1937 in New York) is a Distinguished Professor of Sociology at the University of California at Los Angeles. Along with his collaborators Harvey Sacks and Gail Jefferson, Schegloff is regarded as the creator of ...
,
John Heritage
John Heritage (born July 10, 1946) 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.
He came to prominence in 1984 with the publication of his book ...
and
Gene Lerner
In biology, the word gene (from , ; "... Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ...
in
UCLA
The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a Normal school, teachers colle ...
and masters level modules in conversation analysis at the
University of York
, mottoeng = On the threshold of wisdom
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £8.0 million
, budget = £403.6 million
, chancellor = Heather Melville
, vice_chancellor = Charlie Jeffery
, students ...
taught by
Celia Kitzinger
Celia Kitzinger and Sue Wilkinson are a British lesbian couple who lobbied to have their relationship recognised as a marriage in England.
Celia Kitzinger
Kitzinger is Professor of Conversation Analysis, Gender and Sexuality in the Department ...
.
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
The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) is a British child protection charity.
History
Victorian era
On a trip to New York in 1881, Liverpudlian businessman Thomas Agnew was inspired by a visit to the New Y ...
child protection helpline, originally collected as part of her Leverhulme Fellowship. Her work focused on the way the calls are opened, the way emotion is expressed and responded to, 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 (born 8 June 1956) is Dean of the School of Communication and Information at Rutgers University and one of the originators of discursive psychology.
Life
Jonathan Potter was born in Ashford, Kent, and spent most of his childhoo ...
.
She has become expert in transcription and has developed
Gail Jefferson
Gail Jefferson (22 April 1938 – 21 February 2008) was an American sociologist with an emphasis in sociolinguistics. She was, along with Harvey Sacks and Emanuel Schegloff, one of the founders of the area of research known as conversation analysi ...
'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
socialization
In sociology, socialization or socialisation (see spelling differences) is the process of internalizing the norms and ideologies of society. Socialization encompasses both learning and teaching and is thus "the means by which social and cult ...
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
In philosophy, psychology, sociology, and anthropology, intersubjectivity is the relation or intersection between people's cognitive perspectives.
Definition
is a term coined by social scientists to refer to a variety of types of human inter ...
.
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.
Over the years, her applied work has resulted in the development of workshops for helpline practitioners. She is currently developing this line of applied interaction work at Rutgers, and extending it into the study of medical communication.
References
* Hepburn, A. (1999). Derrida and Psychology: Deconstruction and its ab/uses in critical and discursive psychologies, ''Theory and Psychology'', 9 (5), 641-667.
* Hepburn, A. (2003). ''An Introduction to Critical Social Psychology''. London: Sage.
* Hepburn, A. (2004). Crying: Notes on description, transcription and interaction, ''Research on Language and Social Interaction'', 37, 251-90.,
* Hepburn, A. and Wiggins, S. (Eds.)(2005). Developments in discursive psychology, ''Discourse & Society (special issue)'' 16(5).
* Hepburn, A. and Wiggins, S. (Eds.) (2007). ''Discursive research in practice: New approaches to psychology and interaction''. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
* Hepburn, A. and Potter, J. (2010). Interrogating tears: Some uses of ‘tag questions’ in a child protection helpline. In A.F. Freed & S. Ehrlich (Eds). ''“Why Do You Ask?”: The Function of Questions in Institutional Discourse (pp. 69–86)''. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hepburn, Alexa
Alumni of the University of Dundee
Alumni of Glasgow Caledonian University
Academics of Loughborough University
Living people
Year of birth missing (living people)