Conversation Analysis: An Introduction and Overview 12 June 2017

In the last thirty years, Conversation Analysis has become the preeminent method for the analysis of naturally occurring interaction. Despite its name, CA studies all forms of talk-in-interaction in institutional or work related settings as well as in ordinary conversation. It also studies embodied behaviours such as gaze, gesture, and movement. 

In this course, we introduce the history and principles of CA, sketch some of its main analytic procedures, and show how it offers a indepth view of how we use talk in social interaction, and how these analytic practices inform a radical methodology in sociology.

This course is recommended for people with no prior knowledge of CA who just want to get a basic understanding of its distinctive approach, and those who intend to go on to take the more technical CA skills training programmes offered in the Department.

Course Leaders: The course team will be Robin Wooffitt and Darren Reed
Location: University of York, Research Centre for Social Sciences (RCSS)
Fee: £75 (which includes tea/coffee and materials
Please contact Sarah Shrive-Morrison to reserve your place 
sarah.shrive-morrison@york.ac.uk 

Before I Die Festival 2016 Programme

For more information about the Before I Die Festival to be held in York follow the link to see the programme.

Conversation Analysis Workshop in London

Sue Wilkinson, Merran Toerien and Celia Kitzinger (University of York) will be running 'An Introduction to Conversation Analysis' on 24 May 2016 in London.

The one-day workshop is designed for those with little or no previous knowledge of conversation analysis, who would like to find out more about it, and/or are interested in assessing whether the approach may be useful in their own research or practice. The workshop will cover how conversation analytic research is done, some of its key empirical findings, and some of its key applications.

For further details and bookings, see: 

https://www.bps.org.uk/events/introduction-conversation-analysis

Before I Die: A festival for the living about dying

Doctoral Student Anais Duong-Pedica writes about the Before I Die festival:

'This year will mark the 7th national Dying Matters Awareness Week.  This week of events, initially founded by the National Council for Palliative Care, is an opportunity to initiate discussions about death, dying and bereavement at a local and national level. The events put in place aim to change public knowledge, attitudes and behaviours towards death and dying as well as making good deaths more accessible to people.

 

Dying Matter Awareness Week will take place May 9th-15th in England and Wales. For this occasion, the University of York will contribute to the conversation with its own weekend of events: The Before I Die Festival. The festival takes place on the weekend of May 7^th-8^th and gathers a dozen of events at York, which focus on death. A few members of the department will be contributing to these discussions. Our very own Ruth Penfold-Mounce will be talking about Celebrity Death and Public Grieving – a topic particularly relevant this year since the recent deaths of Alan Rickman, David Bowie, and more recently, Prince. Meanwhile Celia Kitzinger and Sue Wilkinson will be leading a session on the end of life planning tool - Advance Decisions and  I will be holding a discussion on Dying and Grieving in the Age of Social Media.

Anais Duong-Pedica

In this one-hour session, I wish to start a dialogue on what it means to die and grieve online today. This will be a space where personal experiences will be welcomed and encouraged. We will be exploring different aspects of death and grief, specifically on social media, from the perspective of the individual who is dying/dies, but also from the perspective of close friends, family and acquaintances. I hope to raise awareness of crucial discussions that people ought to have about their death or the death of loved ones and social media: What would I like my account(s) to become? What types of grieving am I comfortable with people doing online? How do social media accounts remind us of the dead and how does that impact our grieving? How do we navigate discomfort with the way other people grieve online? And even, how do we experience grieving for people we only know online?

Not only does the Before I Die Festival play a major role in creating conversations around issues related to death, dying and bereavement and normalising good deaths, it also locates itself within an environment of growing interest for death research. The University of York is home to the Centre for Modern’s Studies’ Death Network and Cemetery Research Group led by Julie Rugg (Department of Social Policy and Social Work). Ruth Penfold-Mounce, Jack Denham and myself (Department of Sociology) also organised a well-attended symposium on Marginal Death Research last October and Ruth Penfold-Mounce, Jack Denham and Julie Rugg will be holding the three-day Death and Culture conference in September this year.  

You can support Dying Matters Awareness Week by sharing the programme on Twitter, visiting the Dying Matters website, and by going along to some of the events.  We also encourage everyone to have “the Big Conversation” – talk with friends and family about your own death and the importance of preparing for it.'

Protecting Choice and Refusing life-extending Interventions

Professor Celia Kitzinger has co-authored a report on how to promote understanding and uptake of 'Advance Decisions'. An Advance Decision  is a tool for people who want to protect their own choices if they lose capacity to speak for themselves (e.g. because of brain injury from a stroke or a car crash). For example, some people want to refuse interventions to artificially extend their lives if they are in a permanent vegetative state.

The report, co-authored with Professor Jenny Kitzinger (Cardiff University) was commissioned by the Welsh Minster for Health and Social Services.  It recommends a series of steps including public awareness campaigns (to counteract the widespread myth that a relative can refuse treatment on your behalf) and training for health care professionals (who often don’t understand the law in this area). The report, published this month, has prompted media attention,  been endorsed by leading barristers and GPs, and prompted extensive debate.  You can read the full findings and recommendations here: goo.gl/qeQuin

Celia Kitzinger and Sue Wilkinson are co-teaching a training course on how to help people write Advance Decisions.  It will run in May and is approved by the British Psychological Society.  Book your place here https://www.bps.org.uk/events/advance-decisions-refuse-treatment-“living-wills”-choices-end-life-part-2. Celia and Sue also regularly run training days on Advance Decisions for GPs and other crucial health care professionals, as well as providing support for individuals to write Advance Decisions for themselves.

Professor Celia Kitzinger says: “People often think it is complicated to write an Advance Decision – or that you need a lawyer.  This just isn’t true”. She says “It’s possible to record your wishes in under an hour by using a simple website such as www.mydecisions.org.uk. Then all you have to do is print it out, sign it, have it witnessed, and give it to the people who need to know about it".  Professor Sue Wilkinson adds: "Like wills, Advance Decisions are not just for terminally ill or elderly people.  We are all at risk of losing capacity to make our own decisions - for example after a car crash or sporting accident.  Everyone  should consider doing one!"

10th Anniversary of Civil Partnerships

Sue Wilkinson has recorded an interview with WDR, Germany’s biggest public broadcaster, for a programme commemorating the 10^th anniversary of the introduction of civil partnerships for same-sex couples in the UK, under the Civil Partnership Act 2004.

In the interview, she talked about the ‘segregated system’ of marriage and civil partnership, and reflected on the legal case she and her wife, Celia Kitzinger, brought to the High Court in 2006, with the support of Liberty and Out!Rage (see http://www.equalmarriagerights.org).  Although the Court deemed Sue and Celia’s (legal Canadian) marriage a civil partnership in the UK, it was finally recognised as a marriage in England & Wales in March 2014, following the  passage of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013.

Sue and Celia have also published a series of academic articles in this area, including the relationship between marriage and civil partnership (Kitzinger and Wilkinson, 2004) and the rhetorics surrounding marriage equality (Kitzinger and Wilkinson, 2004).

Sue’s interview will provide the framework for the programme, which will be broadcast on WDR on 21 December 2015 – the 10^th anniversary of the day the first civil partnerships took place in England & Wales.

Conversation Analysis Short Courses: How long are they and how much do they cost?

The new series of short Continuing Professional Development courses in Conversation Analysis launching in 2016 are proving hugely popular. See below for outlines of the courses and the costs:

Conversation Analysis: An Introduction (1 day: £75)

Wed 20 January 2016; Sue Wilkinson and Celia Kitzinger

Find out more about conversation analysis (CA) and the kinds of issues it can be used to address.  No prior experience needed.

An Introduction to Conversation Analysis and its use in Medical Settings (1 day £75)

Fri 26 February 2016; Merran Toerien and Robin Wooffitt

For health services researchers, and others with an interest in communication in health care, who wish to find out more about conversation analysis (CA) as applied to medical interaction. No prior experience needed.

Developing Conversation Analytic Skills 1: Turn-taking (3 days £360)

Tues 26 – Thu 28 April 2016; Clare Jackson, Sue Wilkinson and Celia Kitzinger

Core foundational training in conversation analysis (CA).  Intensive course, limited to a maximum of 12 participants, offering a systematic grounding in the domain of turn-taking.  Intended for those with some prior familiarity with CA. 

Developing Conversation Analytic Skills 2: Sequence Organisation (3 days £360)

Tues 3 – Thurs 5 May 2016; Sue Wilkinson and Merran Toerien

Core foundational training in conversation analysis (CA).  Intensive course, limited to a maximum of 12 participants, offering a systematic grounding in the domain of sequence organisation.  Intended for those with some prior familiarity with CA.

For further info/registration please contact: sarah.shrive-morrison@york.ac.uk

New Short Courses in Conversation Analysis

The Department of Sociology is delighted to be launching a series of short Continuing Professional Development courses in Conversation Analysis in spring 2016.  Four courses are on offer:

Conversation Analysis: An Introduction (1 day £75)

Wed 20 January 2016; Sue Wilkinson and Celia Kitzinger

Find out more about conversation analysis (CA) and the kinds of issues it can be used to address.  No prior experience needed.

An Introduction to Conversation Analysis and its use in Medical Settings (1 day £75)

Fri 26 February 2016; Merran Toerien and Robin Wooffitt

For health services researchers, and others with an interest in communication in health care, who wish to find out more about conversation analysis (CA) as applied to medical interaction. No prior experience needed.

Developing Conversation Analytic Skills 1: Turn-taking (3 days £360)

Tues 26 – Thu 28 April 2016; Clare Jackson, Sue Wilkinson and Celia Kitzinger

Core foundational training in conversation analysis (CA).  Intensive course, limited to a maximum of 12 participants, offering a systematic grounding in the domain of turn-taking.  Intended for those with some prior familiarity with CA. 

Developing Conversation Analytic Skills 2: Sequence Organisation (3 days £360)

Tues 3 – Thurs 5 May 2016; Sue Wilkinson and Merran Toerien

Core foundational training in conversation analysis (CA).  Intensive course, limited to a maximum of 12 participants, offering a systematic grounding in the domain of sequence organisation.  Intended for those with some prior familiarity with CA.

For further info/registration, contact: sarah.shrive-morrison@york.ac.uk