Dr Diana Camps joined the School of Law as Interdisciplinary Research Fellow and member of the Justice, Insecurity and Fair Decision-Making IRT leadership team in April 2022. Her research is situated at the intersection of language, law and human rights, with a focus on the discursive and semiotic processes that (re)produce and embed injustice and inequality.

Diana recently completed collaborating on an interdisciplinary human rights project funded by the Nuffield Foundation at the University of Stirling, School of Law (PI Dr Katie Boyle), examining access to justice and appropriate remedies for social rights violations across the four UK jurisdictions.

She was awarded a PhD in sociolinguistics in 2019 from the Center for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan (MultiLing) at the University of Oslo, where she conducted a multi-scalar analysis of pivotal policy documents related to minority language protection across different levels of social structure (local, region, State) over a 20-year time span. The analysis shed light on the power dimensions of language policy and emphasised the value of examining the wider environment in which a policy is produced, as well as the multi-layered connections between texts, discourse and practice.

Earlier experience includes working with a large NGO in Chicago, Illinois in refugee resettlement, which brought to light failures to protect vulnerable members of society and challenges of unequal access. Her research directed attention to better understanding the mechanisms that govern refugee resettlement in the US. Her research illustrated how the framing in US policies of refugees and the role of language in integration (i.e. learning the dominant language) directly impacted and constrained the provision of English language education for refugee adults, and consequently their social mobility.

Diana’s main research interests lie at the intersection of language, law and human rights, using critical discourse analysis and various interdisciplinary perspectives to examine the semiotic processes and mechanisms involved in the (re)production of inequality to better facilitate justice and uphold human rights. Diana’s focus on the interrelationships between language and inequality inevitably places her work at the crossroads of various fields of scholarly inquiry that extend across disciplines with differences in theoretical underpinnings and methodological tools.

Cultural and linguistic practices are key factors in the (re)production of social differentiation and inequality and intersect in several other domains. Struggles for social and economic equality are thus often played out on the terrain of language – Diana’s interest is in better understanding the mechanisms and practices that continue to (re)produce inequality and marginalisation to find mitigating solutions.

Diana’s research has directed attention to different marginalised groups and various social challenges including access to justice for social rights, protection/legitimation of minoritised languages and migration/access to second language education. Throughout her work, she has maintained a central focus on how discourses are transformed through social action and their role in shaping contemporary programmes and practices.

Areas of expertise:

• Language and law
• Critical discourse analysis
• Qualitative & mixed-methodological research methods
• Teaching English as a Second Language

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