*🎓 *We are happy to remind you the next webinar in the CIRCE online
seminar series organized by the CIRCE <https://www.circe-project.eu/>
project in collaboration with DFCLAM University of Siena
<https://www.dfclam.unisi.it/en>, H2IOSC <https://www.h2iosc.cnr.it/>
project and CNR-ILC <https://www.ilc.cnr.it/en/>.
*Dr. Samantha Jackson*
/University of Toronto, Canada/
*/Biased ears: Investigating and reducing accent discrimination in
hiring evaluations/*
đź“… *November 24, 2025*
🕓 *4:30 PM – 5:30 PM (CEST)*
*Venue*: Online
*Attendees*: Researchers, secondary school teachers, language instructors
*Summary: *As international migration continues to increase (IOM 2024),
the last few years have seen a growth in nationalist politics (Bieber
2018) and anti-immigrant sentiments, despite economic reliance on
immigrants in many Global North countries. Immigrants bring not only
their skills and experience, but also their multifaceted identities,
which are partly reflected in their accents. A listener’s language
attitudes often reflect broader social attitudes (Lippi-Green 2012),
influencing their valuation of their interlocutor’s words. In the
workplace, such biases can influence decisions in hiring, promotion and
conflict resolution, creating pressures for immigrants to assimilate
linguistically. In the current climate, it is therefore important that
equitable workplace practices are engrained. This talk uses Canada as a
case study to explore accent discrimination against immigrants in the
job interview, a key “gatekeeping encounter” (Erickson 1976). Canada’s
laws promote mutual acceptance of all cultures and identities. The
project involved 96 Human Resources students trained in recruitment and
selection, who evaluated scripted interview responses from women born
and raised in Canada, China, England, Germany, India, Jamaica, and
Nigeria. Participants were unaware the responses were scripted. A mixed
methods analysis of scores and comments indicates significant bias
against non-Canadian accents. The standard Canadian accent was
associated with greater competence, comprehensibility, desirability and
aesthetic appeal. The talk concludes with an introduction to a new
cross-disciplinary project aimed at mitigating the biases that were
uncovered.
*Bio: *Samantha Jackson is an Assistant Professor, Teaching Stream, in
the Department of Linguistics and the Graduate Centre for Academic
Communication. Her research interests stem from the need to address
societal issues such as accent discrimination, bias in large language
models and under-documented language acquisition norms. Her pedagogical
interests focus on student engagement and research-informed teaching.
Register at the seminar registration page:
https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/5322572e-6caf-42f4-826b-24e9a13fa919@34c64e9f-d27f-4edd-a1f0-1397f0c84f94
Make sure to have the Teams platform installed.
Upcoming webinars:
- Julia Swan (Monday, 15 December 2025)
The recording of the last CIRCE seminar by Onur Ă–zkaynak is now
available on theH2IOSC Training Environment
<https://h2iosc-training-platform.ilc4clarin.ilc.cnr.it/en/login>. Once
logged in with your credentials, choose the course “Language and Accent
Discrimination - Online Seminar Series” and activate it with the code
PbK837GtE. For any inquiry, write to [email protected].
All the best,
Claudia Soria
CIRCE Project
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