Lecture 'Meet the expert - Gender and language: Lessons from a decade of research on gender-inclusive pronouns'

For whom
Alumni , Press , Employees , Private individuals , Students
When
14-09-2026 from 10:30 to 12:00
Where
Lokaal A1.04, Campus Mercator A, Abdisstraat 1, 9000 Ghent
Language
English
Organizer
Department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication - Faculty of Arts and Philosophy
Contact
hanne.verhaegen@ugent.be

In this lecture, Prof Emma A. Renström will discuss empirical research into gender-inclusive and non-binary pronouns.

Prof Emma A. Renström, Professor of Psychology at Kristianstad University, Sweden, will deliver an interactive lecture on empirical research into gender-inclusive and non-binary pronouns.

Drawing on extensive research on the Swedish gender-inclusive pronoun hen, and English they, the lecture will examine how such pronouns are perceived, which social and cognitive associations they activate, and how they influence mental gender representations.

A central focus of the lecture will be methodological approaches used to study language attitudes and social perception, including experimental designs and survey-based research. These methods are directly transferable to research on other languages and to broader questions in language, cognition, and social inequality.

By combining empirical findings with methodological reflection, the lecture will provide participants with concrete tools for studying language and gender, while situating gender-inclusive pronouns within wider societal debates

Register online