Judith Baxter

Judith Baxter

Judith Baxter is a British sociolinguist and Professor of Applied Linguistics at Aston University where she specialises in Gender and Language, and Leadership Language.[1] She has served in editorial positions with several academic journals.

Education

Baxter graduated from the University of East Anglia in 1976 with a BA honours degree in English Literature. She then gained a Postgraduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) at the University of Cambridge. While working as a teacher, she studied for a part-time MSc degree in Educational Studies at Surrey University. She conducted three years of PhD research at University of Reading under the supervision of the sociolinguist, Professor Viv Edwards[2] while lecturing there in English in Education. Her thesis, entitled ‘Teaching Girls to Speak Out’ was a study of the extent to which gender is a pertinent discourse for understanding girls’ and boys’ spoken interactions in classroom contexts.

Career

Following an initial career as an English teacher in a UK comprehensive school and then a sixth form college, Baxter joined the Department of Education at Reading University in 1993. During this time, she was also a freelance editor for Cambridge University Press, editing two series of literature for schools: Cambridge Literature for Schools and the Wildfire series of Women’s Literature. After gaining her PhD in 2000, she wrote a monograph Positioning gender in discourse: A feminist methodology.[3] In 2005, she was appointed Lecturer of English Language in the Applied Linguistics department at Reading University, and in 2009 moved to a senior lecturer post at Aston University. She was promoted to Reader in 2012, and in the same year, was awarded a Chair in Applied Linguistics.

Baxter’s research specialism is the relationship between language, gender and leadership[4] in educational, business and professional contexts. From 2010 to 2012, she directed a UK Research Council project entitled ‘Leadership Talk and Gender in Senior Management Business Meetings in the UK[5] She pioneered the method feminist post-structuralist discourse analysis (FPDA), now used by scholars around the world. FPDA is a method of discourse analysis of spoken interactions principally, based on Chris Weedon’s[6] theories of feminism and poststructuralism.

Baxter works extensively with chief executives, MPs, the police and business women’s networks presenting her research and delivering workshops on the significance of effective language use to women’s career progression. Her research has regularly featured in the press[7] and the media including the BBC2 series, Women at the Top[8] and BBC Radio programmes such as Woman’s Hour and Business Daily.

Baxter spoke about gender and leadership talk at the TEDxAston University on 17 May 2013.

Selected bibliography

Baxter's academic publications include:

Books

Book chapters

Journal articles

References

  1. ↑ Judith Baxter –publications.
  2. ↑ Professor Viv Edwards – staff profile
  3. ↑ Positioning gender in discourse: A feminist methodology. Judith Baxter (2010) The Language of Female Leadership. Basingstoke: Palgrave;
  4. ↑ Judith Baxter (2010) The Language of Female Leadership. Basingstoke: Palgrave;
  5. ↑ Leadership talk and gender in senior management business meetings in the UK
  6. ↑ Professor Chris Weedon – publications:
  7. ↑ Boffey, D. (2011) ‘Women told to speak their minds.’ The Observer, 19 June 2011;
  8. ↑ Women at the top: overturning gender stereotypes.’ Judith Baxter. TEDxAston University.
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