A comprehensive review of online, official, and scientific literature was carried out in 2012-13 to develop a framework of disaster social media. This framework can be used to facilitate the creation of disaster social media tools, the formulation of disaster social media implementation processes, and the scientific study of disaster social media effects. Disaster social media users in the framework include communities, government, individuals, organisations, and media outlets. Fifteen distinct disaster social media uses were identified, ranging from preparing and receiving disaster preparedness information and warnings and signalling and detecting disasters prior to an event to (re)connecting community members following a disaster. The framework illustrates that a variety of entities may utilise and produce disaster social media content. Consequently, disaster social media use can be conceptualised as occurring at a number of levels, even within the same disaster. Suggestions are provided on how the proposed framework can inform future disaster social media development and research.

Legal decisions about affirmative action in higher education do more than impact how admissions policies are structured. The discourse produced in these decisions structures how race is talked about, understood, and enacted in the context of higher education and beyond. However, critique of affirmative action rhetoric in the legal realm tends to focus on the anti-affirmative action constructions of race, underanalyzing rhetoric favoring affirmative action. The current project uses critical discourse analysis to explore how dominant interests are challenged, produced, and sustained by proaffirmative action rhetoric. Specifically, this project engaged Whiteness as a theoretical and analytical lens through which to critique the amicus briefs submitted in support of race-conscious admissions policies in the recent U.S. Supreme Court case, Fisher v. University of Texas (2013). Our analysis revealed that pro-affirmative action arguments engaged the concepts of diversity and race in ways that reproduced the structural power of Whiteness, drawing upon individualism and market-driven rationales as discursive resources. The analysis suggests that even arguments supporting race-conscious admissions may inadvertently contribute to the reproduction of problematic racial hierarchies. The findings also note the potential transformative value of alternative rationales present in a small subset of amicus briefs submitted by African American organizations. Practical applications for pro-affirmative action advocates and policymakers are offered.

Although workplace policies are written in neutral terms that give the appearance of rationality, research shows that policy meanings are in fact constructed and negotiated through discursive practices. Sexual harassment policies illustrate this phenomenon. Sexual harassment is a highly complex and fluid phenomenon that is dependent on context and culture for its meaning. Although sexual harassment policies tend to use language that appears to lie outside of the interpretive stream, these policies are in fact always subject to discursive interpretation. One particularly powerful form of discursive interpretation lies in the interplay between binary logics and binary language. This study explored the interplay between macro-level binary logics, mezzo-level sexual harassment policy and micro-level binary language during organizational members' discussions about their organization's sexual harassment policy. Our analysis of focus group and interview data revealed that participants discursively produced what we have termed a complex binary web that reshaped the meaning of the policy, such that usage of the policy contradicted organizational norms and values. Understanding sexual harassment policy discourse as constructed in a binary web reveals that rational assumptions underlying sexual harassment policy may be inconsistent with the lived experiences in organizational cultures.

No abstract

Given that racial and ethnic minorities will comprise the majority of the U.S. demographic population by the 2050s, it is imperative that faculty and staff develop a level of cultural competence to effectively provide all students with a well-rounded classroom learning experience suitable for an increasingly diverse workforce. Previous research has suggested online learning as one effective way to engage university faculty and staff in their development of cultural competence in spite of time and resources constraints. However, little is known about the types of communicative processes in computer-mediated learning spaces that allow for transformative learning. In this qualitative research study, we draw on Mezirow’s transformative learning theory to explore how cultural competence is developed as faculty and staff interact and share stories about their experiences, perspectives, and beliefs in relation to other racial and ethnic groups. A key finding in our study is that faculty and staff reported having a better understanding of unconscious bias, microaggressions, and privilege, as well as a desire to take action to help ensure a more inclusive environment in their professional and personal spheres of influence. This study yields valuable insights for academics, diversity and inclusion educators, and practitioners alike.