Perceived discrimination (PD) in the field of Discourse Analysis is the study of discourse that focuses on the perspectives of the victims of discrimination, exploring what they say and how they say it. This seminar will present the results of a PD study of twelve Spanish speaking immigrants to Brisbane, during semi-structured, co-constructed interviews. Data were classified into a typology of discrimination that identified verbal and non-verbal forms. The analysis of these forms shows that the verbal form ‘microagressions’ dominated the discourse and that most experiences had a connection with ‘accent’ as a triggering factor. In some cases, participants were ‘new’ to discrimination and they reported confusion regarding the nature of the experience and a deep emotional weight. Other participants reported discrimination as pervasive and covert, mainly occurring in the workplace. Participants resorted to several discursive strategies when conveying their experiences such as mitigation, hedging, repetition, and metaphorical expressions relating to illness to express the powerful effect of discrimination on people.

• Title: The discourse of perceived discrimination in Spanish speaking immigrants in Brisbane
• When: 14 May 2021 at 1:00pm–2:00pm
• Where: Zoom https://uqz.zoom.us/j/84115253261 – Password: 425533 and in-person venue: 03-320 – Steele Building (3). Please maintain physical distance.
• Speaker: Dr Sol Rojas-Lizana is a discourse analyst at the School of Languages and Cultures, UQ. Her areas of research are discrimination, memory, and trauma, and decolonial thought. Sol’s latest publications are the co-edited book, Places of Traumatic Memory: A Global Context (Palgrave Macmillan 2020) and the monograph, The Discourse of Perceived Discrimination (Routledge 2019). Her co-authored historical Graphic Memoir Historias Clandestinas (2014) is currently being made into a film.