UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND, JOHANNESBURG

Dr. Kevin Whitehead

Dr. Kevin Whitehead
Position:Senior Lecturer
Qualifications:BSc, BSc (Hons), MSc, MA, PhD
Phone:011 717 4530
Fax:086 207 6427
Email:kevin.whitehead@wits.ac.za
Organisational Unit:Psychology
Room:U308, Third Floor, Umthombo Building
Download my CV:Click here

Kevin Whitehead holds MA and PhD degrees from the University of California, Santa Barbara; and BSc, BSc (Honours), and MSc degrees from the University of Natal. Prior to joining Wits in 2010, he worked as a lecturer and researcher at the University of Durban-Westville; California State University, Northridge; and the University of California, Santa Barbara.

 

Research Interests

Kevin's research interests lie at the intersection of social interaction, social categories, and common-sense knowledge. In particular, his research focuses on categorical inequalities (i.e., inequalities associated with social categories), and especially with respect to race and its intersections with other category systems. He is also interested more broadly in interactions and the deployment of common-sense knowledge in organizational/institutional contexts (e.g., therapist-client consultations, medical, media, educational, research, etc. settings). Although he has employed a range of methods (both quantitative and qualitative) in his research, he primarily uses qualitative methods, particularly those directed at examining naturally-occurring interactions and texts (e.g., conversation analysis, discourse analysis).

Research Productivity

Kevin has published methodological and empirical research articles in local and international journals including Social Psychology Quarterly, Research on Language and Social Interaction, Discourse & Society, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Discourse Studies, Journal of Social Philosophy, and South African Review of Sociology. For more information, please see his Google citation profile.

 

Publications

Whitehead, K. A. (2013). Managing Self-Other Relations in Complaint Sequences: The use of Self-Deprecating and Affiliative

Racial Categorizations. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 46(2), 186-203. [Download postprint]

Whitehead, K. A. (2013). Race-Class Intersections as Interactional Resources in Post-Apartheid South Africa. In C. M.

Pascale (Ed.). Inequality and the Politics of Representation: A Global Landscape (pp. 49-63). Newbury Park, CA: Sage.

[Download postprint]

Whitehead, K. A. & Bowman, B. (2012). The professional consequences of political silence. Journal of Social Philosophy, 43(4),

426-435. [Download postprint]

Whitehead, K. A. (2012). Racial Categories as Resources and Constraints in Everyday Interactions: Implications for Racialism

and Non-Racialism in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Ethnic and Racial Studies, 35(7), 1248-1265. [Download postprint]

Whitehead, K. A. (2012). Moving Forward by Doing Analysis. Discourse Studies, 14(3), 337-343. [Download pdf]

Whitehead, K. A. (2011). Some Uses of Head Nods in "Third Position" in Talk-in-Interaction. Gesture, 11(2), 103-122. [Download

postprint]

Whitehead, K. A. (2011). An Ethnomethodological, Conversation Analytic Approach to Investigating Race in South Africa. South

African Review of Sociology, 42(3), 1-22. [Download postprint]

Whitehead, K. A., & Durrheim, K. (2010). Race Trouble in Post-Apartheid South Africa. INKOTA-Brief: Zeitschrift zum Nord-Süd-

Konflikt und zur Konziliaren Bewegung, 151, 21-22.

Whitehead, K. A. (2009). “Categorizing the Categorizer": The Management of Racial Common Sense in Interaction. Social

Psychology Quarterly, 72(4), 325-342. [Download postprint]

Whitehead, K. A., & Lerner, G. H. (2009). When Are Persons "White"? On Some Practical Asymmetries of Racial Reference in

Talk-in-Interaction. Discourse & Society, 20(5), 613-641. [Download pdf]

Whitehead, K. A., Ainsworth, A., Wittig, M. A., & Gudino, B. (2009). Implications of Ethnic Identity Exploration and Ethnic Identity

Affirmation and Belonging for Intergroup Attitudes Among Adolescents. Journal of Research on Adolescence, 19(1), 123-135.

[View HTML]

Durrheim, K., Quayle, M., Whitehead, K. A., & Kriel, A. J. (2005). Denying Racism: The South African Media’s Response to

Accusations of Racism. Critical Arts, 19, 1-22.

Whitehead, K. A., Kriel, A. J., & Richter, L. M. (2005). Barriers to Conducting a Community Mobilisation Intervention Among

Youth in a Rural South African Community. Journal of Community Psychology, 33(3), 253-259.

Whitehead, K. A., & Wittig, M. A. (2004). Discursive Management of Resistance to a Multicultural Education Programme.

Qualitative Research in Psychology, 1(4), 267-284. [Download postprint]

Teaching

PSYC7027: Masters Qualitative Methods

PSYC7032: Research in Context

PSYC4073: Everyday Life and Social Interaction