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Alon Lischinsky's research

I do research at the intersection of corpus linguistics and discourse analysis. In terms of methods, I am interested in linguistic approaches to digital humanities; critical discourse analysis; and narratology. The fields I primarily work on are gender and sexuality studies, especially porn studies; branding, corporate and organisational communication; environmental communication and sustainability; and the language of the professions.

I am happy to supervise research students working on any of these topics. If you are interested in undertaking a Master's or Ph.D. project at Brookes, feel free to contact me.

Gender and sexuality

Together with Dr Kat Gupta (Roehampton), I have been working for some time on linguistic approaches to porn studies. Discussions about porn in politics, the media and even academic scholarship are very quick to claim that porn is violent, misogynistic and just plain depraved, but these claims are rarely backed up by systematic evidence of what porn films or stories actually say and show.

We are currently looking at a 1.4-billion-word corpus of online erotica to explore its depictions of various sexual practices (such as how the negotiation of consent happens in porn stories, or how different characters are shown as having agency over what happens during sex) and sexual identities (especially queer, trans and gender-nonconforming people). A key component of this research is problematising the relationship between porn text and the “real world” identities, activities and practices of authors and users.

Lischinsky, A. (2018). Overlooked text types: corpus-assisted studies of imaginative discourse. In: Taylor, C., & Marchi, A. (eds). Corpus approaches to discourse: a critical review. London: Routledge.

Lischinsky, A. (2018). Doing the naughty or having it done to you? Agent roles in erotic writing. Porn Studies, 5(2):156–174

Lischinsky, A., & Gupta, K. (2017) ‘No means no is not enough: representations of consent in erotic writing’. Paper presented to the Corpora and Discourse International Conference, Lancaster.

Lischinsky, A., & Gupta, K. (2017) ‘Distant reading intimate encounters: a big data approach to online erotica’. Paper presented to the Corpus Linguistics 2017 Conference, Birmingham.

Lischinsky, A. (2016) ‘Textual constructions of desire: the body in online erotica’. Paper presented to the CADAAD’16 Conference, Catania.

Lischinsky, A. (2015) ‘Doing the naughty or having it done to you: agent roles in erotic writing’. Paper presented to the Corpus Linguistics 2015 Conference, Lancaster.

Branding and organisational communication

My doctoral research focused on popular management books — the kind that infest the shelves at Heathrow — and especially how the authors of these books build up an authoritative image drawing on personal experience, cautionary tales and anecdotes. This interest in the persuasive aspect of corporate communications has extended since into how organisations construct an environmentally-friendly image for themselves, and more broadly into the language aspects of public relations and branding.

I have also worked as a consultant in this last field, advising charitable organisations on how to develop a tone of voice that matches their goals and identity, and how to implement it consistently across different media platforms and interactions with clients.

Lischinsky, A. (2017). Critical Discourse Studies and Branding. In: Flowerdew, J., & Richardson, J. (eds). Routledge handbook of Critical Discourse Analysis. London: Routledge.

Lischinsky, A. (2015). What is the environment doing in my report? Analyzing the environment-as-stakeholder thesis through corpus linguistics. Environmental Communication, 9(4):539–559.

Lischinsky, A., & Egan Sjölander, A. (2014). Talking green in the public sphere: Press releases, corporate voices and the environment. NORDICOM Review: Nordic Research on Media and Communication, 35:125–139.

Lischinsky, A. (2012). Wikipedia och kampen om sanningen [Wikipedia and the struggle over meaning]. In: Lindgren, S. (ed). Nya medier och kommunikation. Makt och meningsskapande i den digitala tidsåldern [New media and communication. Power and the making of meaning in the digital age] (pp. 168–179). Lund: Gleerups.

Lischinsky, A. (2011). In times of crisis: a corpus approach to the construction of the global financial crisis in annual reports. Critical Discourse Studies, 8(3):153–168.

Lischinsky, A. (2011). ‘We believe we are a constructive partner in society’: A corpus perspective on the discursive construction of a corporate self in annual reports. In: Egan Sjölander, A., & Gunnarsson Payne, J. (eds). Tracking discourses: politics, identity and social change (pp. 257–285). Lund: Nordic Academic Press.

Lischinsky, A. (2010). Writing the reader in: Titling practices in popular management. In: Lorés-Sanz, R., Mur-Dueñas, P., & Lafuente-Millán, E. (eds). Constructing Interpersonality: multiple perspectives and applications to written academic discourse (pp. 275–294). Cambridge: Cambridge Publishing Scholars.

Lischinsky, A. (2010). ‘At times of crisis, communication is vital’: A corpus perspective on the discursive construction of critical events in annual reports. In: Reed, C., Keenoy, T., Oswick, C., Sabelis, I., & Ybema, S. (eds). Organizational discourse: crises, corruption, character and change (pp. 127–129). London: KMCP.

Lischinsky, A. (2008). Examples as persuasive argument in popular management literature. Discourse & Communication, 2(3):243–269.

Lischinsky, A. (2017) ‘Discourses of sustainable development in annual reports: a corpus approach’. Keynote paper presented to the The Annual Report — Words, Images and Numbers symposium, Pufendorf Institute, Lund.

Lischinsky, A. and Egan Sjölander, A. (2013) ‘Corporate voices in the public sphere: PR and the environment’. Paper presented to the 2013 Conference on Communication and Environment, Uppsala.

Lischinsky, A. (2013) ‘What’s the environment doing in my report?’. Paper presented to the Corpus Linguistics 2013 Conference, Lancaster.

Lischinsky, A. (2012) ‘Misinformed participation: corporate greenwash and the exclusion of consumers from environmental decision-making’. Paper presented to the 2nd ISA Forum, Buenos Aires.

Lischinsky, A. (2011) ‘‘We believe we are a constructive partner in society’: A corpus perspective on the discursive construction of a corporate self in annual reports’. Paper presented to the Rhetoric in Society III Conference, Antwerp.

Lischinsky, A. (2010) ‘‘Our business acumen has proved to be invaluable in times of crisis’: A corpus perspective on the discursive construction of critical events in annual reports’. Paper presented to the 9th International Conference on Organizational Discourse, Amsterdam.

Lischinsky, A. (2010) ‘The struggle over sustainability: a corpus approach to managerial conceptions of sustainable development’. Paper presented to the CADAAD’10 Conference “Ideology, identity and interaction”, Łódź.

Lischinsky, A. (2010) ‘The business conception of sustainable development: a view from corpus linguistics’. Paper presented to the IAMCR 2010 Conference “Communication and citizenship”, Braga.

Lischinsky, A. (2009) ‘The narrative construction of managerial expertise. Storytelling in popular management books’. Paper presented to the International Conference on Narrative, Birmingham.

Lischinsky, A. (2009) ‘Talking like you mean business. Metadiscourse in popular books on management’. Paper presented to the XXVII AESLA International Conference, Ciudad Real, Spain.

Lischinsky, A. (2008) ‘Titling practices in popular management books’. Paper presented to the Interpersonality in Written Academic Discourse Conference: Perspective across Languages and Cultures, Jaca, Spain.

Lischinsky, A. (2008) ‘Lo que el dinero no puede comprar. Higiene verbal en la recepción de la jerga gerencial’ [What money can’t buy: verbal hygiene in the public understanding of managerial jargon]. Paper presented to the XII Jornadas Nacionales de Investigadores en Comunicación, Rosario, Argentina.

Lischinsky, A. (2008) ‘At the crossroads of language, class and culture: Responses to managerial jargon in Spanish’. Paper presented to the 4th International Conference of Hispanic Linguistics & 2nd Biennial Meeting of the International Association for the Study of Spanish in Society “Spanish at work”, Swansea.

Lischinsky, A. and Antonini, C. (2008) ‘Dollars are green too. A discourse-based approach to the analysis of corporate social responsibility reports’. Paper presented to the II European Communication Conference “Communication Policies and Culture in Europe”, Barcelona.

Lischinsky, A. (2007) ‘Examples as persuasive communication in popular management literature’. Paper presented to the XIV Susanne Hübner International Seminar, Zaragoza.

Other projects

Lischinsky, A. (2007). Un caso de doble discurso en política: contraargumentos del gobierno español al racismo discursivo de la oposición parlamentaria. Discurso & Sociedad, 1(1):3–65.

Lischinsky, A. (2015) ‘Modelling interpersonal dimensions in presidential discourse’. Paper presented to the iMean 4 Conference, Warwick.

Lischinsky, A. (2014) ‘Modelling Argentine presidential discourse (2007–2014): a computational approach’. Paper presented to the CADAAD’14 Conference, Budapest.

Lischinsky, A. (2012) ‘Framing analysis across the disciplines? (Critical) discourse studies in interdisciplinary research projects’. Paper presented to the CADAAD’12 Conference, Braga.

Coromines, D., Lischinsky, A. and Valls, M. (2009) ‘La redacció del Treball de Fi de Grau: Proposta didàctica per superar les mancances de la competència escrita acadèmica dels estudiants’ [Writing final year projects: a pedagogic proposal to improve the teaching of academic writing]. Paper presented to the Jornades de Docència 2009, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona.

Lischinsky, A. (2007) ‘“Show, don’t tell”. Racism in the visual depiction of the other in high school textbooks’. Paper presented to the II Language Ideologies and Media Discourse Conference, Leeds.