An introduction to Critical Discourse Studies: Texts, contexts and power

This two-day workshop offers a comprehensive introduction to qualitative Critical Discourse Studies. The workshop is for anyone interested in analysing how language is used (and abused) in different socio-political contexts and invites you to consider how you could integrate it into your own research.

CDS is a burgeoning approach to the analysis of text and talk in different socio-political spaces. CDS understands language as a form of social practice and that language use cannot be understood without looking at wider contexts of power relations. Though CDS has a basis in sociolinguistics, it offers set of a theories and methodologies that can be applied by researchers in different fields (e.g., Political Science, International Relations, Media & Communication, and Sociology). As such, one of the key outcomes of the workshop is an understanding of how to build a research project that focuses on your chosen topic and which integrates CDS as the key analytical approach.

The workshop starts with an introduction of key terms and concepts in CDS and consider what ‘Critical’ can mean. We follow this by looking at how different socio-political theories can be used alongside more linguistic-based analyses of data in interdisciplinary projects. Throughout the workshop, participants will be able to actively engage with the material, ask questions and offer their own thoughts on how CDS can be used in their own work.

Dates

The course will take place in person at the GIGA in Hamburg on the 23rd and 24th October 2024. The first day from 9 am to 5 pm and the second day from 9 am to 2 pm. Please note that the course is open for external participants.

About the lecturer

Samuel Bennett is a critical discourse analyst working on cross-discipline linguistic research. He is an Assistant Professor at Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań, and holds a BA in International Relations (Sussex University) and an MA in Peace & Development Studies (Universitat Jaume I).

Working with different linguistic and discursive methodologies, his research centres around discursive constructions of migrant integration, (non)belonging and exclusion, populist politics, and online communication, with a focus on the UK. His methodological approach is also strongly informed by his involvement in immigration, community building, and empowerment charities for over twenty years, in four countries. His upcoming book is about the connection between discursive constructions of colonialism and current debates about belonging and national values in the UK, and is entitled Myths & Sanctioned Ignorance in British Migration Discourse: Towards a linguistic sociology of absences (Oxford University, 2025). He is also the current chair of CADAAD (Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines).