Congratulations, Dr. Rachelle Vessey for receiving the Early Career Research Award. This award is designed to support the development of research programs by newer faculty members in FASS.
“Sexual misconduct has been identified as a problem in the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF). Social problems are maintained at least in part through “discourse” (i.e. language in use). What we say, how we say it, and what we do not say can help to support and sustain the status quo. This project investigates the role of discourse in the problem of sexual misconduct in the CAF by examining how members of the CAF discuss this misconduct – if at all – in a range of different secondary data. The data, which are being shared through a Collaborative Research Agreement with the Department of National Defense, are drawn from a variety of research instruments used in other projects and have been previously analyzed by other researchers. However, in the previous analyses, there has been little account of the discourse data, e.g. the free answers contributed to surveys. The FASS research award will contribute to this project by providing support for the complex data management and analysis required of this project. Such support will allow for the project to meet its aims of (1) determining the extent to which a discourse analytic perspective can contribute insights to our understanding of sexual misconduct, and (2) identifying (in)coherences in the discourse on sexual misconduct in order to contribute to change in workplace culture in the CAF.”
More information about Rachelle and her research can be found here.