PhD Courses in Denmark

Welcome to Discourse Analysis

Description:

This 1 day course will give an introduction to discourse analytic approaches, such as Critical Discourse

Analysis (CDA) and Discursive Psychology (DP) and give examples how you can be fruitfully applied to various areas of social research.

It provides practical guidance on how to apply discourse analysis as well as focused discussions of, and feedback on your research project.

The course is open to PhD students from any disciplines who are interested in doing discourse analytical research.

The course will comprise the following formats:

• Key note lecture
• Peer presentations of PhD projects
• Individual consultations with the experts

Teaching methods:

Presentations of PhD projects:

• Participants will have the occasion to present their project and get feedback from both peers and experts.
• They are asked to give a PPT presentation of their PhD project, followed by a discussion of questions the
• participants may have, e.g. regarding research design, data collection, or methodological procedures ofanalysis.

Individual consultations with the experts:

• The participants will have the possibility to talk individually with Eleftheria Tseliou, Filippos Tentolouris, and
• Carolin Demuth for specific questions concerning their Ph.D. projects.

Organizer:
Associate Professor Carolin Demuth, Dept. Communication & Psychology, Centre for Cultural Psychology

Lecturers:

Eleftheria Tseliou, Professor of Research Methodology and Qualitative Methods, Laboratory of Psychology, Department of Early Childhood Education, University of Thessaly, Greece

Filippos Tentolouris, Assistant Professor, Department of Early Childhood Education, University of Thessaly, Greece

Programme outline:

• 09h00 – 09h15 Welcome (Carolin Demuth)
• 09h15 - 10h45 Key note: Eleftheria Tseliou & Filippos Tentolouris
• coffee break
• 11h15 – 12h45 Presentation of student’s PhD projects and individual feedback
• Lunch break
• 13h45 – 15h15 Presentation of student’s PhD projects and individual feedback
• Coffee break
• 15h30-17h00 Individual consultations
• 17h00 – 17h30 Summary

Key note:

What “counts” as context when analyzing discourse? Insights from discursive psychology and critical discursive psychology

Eleftheria Tseliou & Filippos Tentolouris University of Thessaly, Greece:

The aim of our talk is to illustrate how different discourse analytic approaches conceptualize and analytically treat context, that is what surrounds discourse.  The study of discourse, that is language in use as shaped within social interaction in everyday and institutional settings, is the main focus of approaches broadly clustered under the umbrella term “discourse analysis”. The relationship between discourse and context has been an issue of significant debate. Specifically, there has been debate regarding the conceptualization of context and the notion has been considered as difficult to define. Furthermore, there is debate about what or how much of context should be considered when doing analysis. Conversation analysis (CA) is a key 

approach to the analysis of discourse which aims to study how the social world is constructed and ordered by analyzing naturally occurring conversational interaction. Discursive Psychology (DP) aims to study how language in use and social interaction construct the social and psychological phenomena in everyday and institutional settings. For CA and for the discursive psychology (DP) trend which closely affiliates with CA, the analyst should only attend to those features of context which participants themselves topicalize in their conversational interaction, even in the case of institutional discourse, like in psychotherapeutic discourse. On the other hand, for critical approaches to the analysis of discourse, like critical discourse analysis (CDA) or critical discursive psychology (CDP), analysts should also attend to features of context which concern the macro-societal structures or the historical and ideological conditions which shape discourse use even if participants themselves do not orient to those.

In our talk we will address these different preferences with regard to the conceptualization and treatment of context in analysis by focusing on two questions: (a) should we consider context as a pre-determined aspect of discourse or as something which participants construct only in the course of their interaction? and (b) what is the role of  analysts as compared to what participants make relevant in their discourse, when interpreting context during analysis? To address these questions we will draw on examples from discourse analytic research studies. We will conclude with an overview of the implications of the different approaches to the conceptualization and treatment of context in analysis.  

Description of paper requirements:

Before the course:

The applicants will be asked to send in a description of their project and the specific questions they would like to discuss. The are also asked to indicate if/with whom they would like to have an individual consultation.

After the course:

The participants will be asked to send in a reflection of what they learned from the course based on the key note, the data sessions, individual consultations and including the pensum. They are asked to lay out how they are going to apply it to their 

PhD project. Alternatively, they can hand in a draft of a publication that is based on the content and the pensum of the PhD course

ECTS: 2

Time: 15 May 2025

Place: TBA

City: Aalborg

Number of seats: 20

Deadlines:
Enrolment and project description - 24 April 2025
Reflection paper - 28 May 2025
 

Key literature:

Mandatory literature:

Kokkini, V., Tseliou, E., Abakoumkin, G., & Bozatzis, N. (2022). ‘Immersed in World of Warcract (WoW)’: A discursive study of identity management talk about excessive online gaming. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 41(5), 590-612.  https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X211067820

Nanouri, K., Tseliou, E., Abakoumkin, G., & Bozatzis, N. (2022). “Who decided this?”: Negotiating epistemic and deontic authority in systemic family therapy training. Discourse Studies, 24(1), 94-114. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614456211037450

Patrika, P., & Tseliou, E. (2016). Blame, responsibility and systemic neutrality: A discourse analysis methodology to the study of family therapy problem talk. Journal of Family Therapy, 38(4), 467-490. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6427.12076

Tentolouris, F. (2021). Conceptualisations of writing in the curricula and the teachers’ guides of Greek preschool education: A critical discourse analysis. The Curriculum Journal, 32(2), 269-289. https://doi.org/10.1002/curj.78

Tseliou, E., Smoliak, O., LaMarre, A., & Quinn-Nilas, Ch. (2019). Discursive psychology as applied science. In K. C. O’Doherty & D. Hodgetts (Eds.), The Sage handbook of applied social psychology (pp. 400-418). Sage.

Suggested literature:

Billig, M. (1999a). Whose terms? Whose ordinariness? Rhetoric and ideology in conversation analysis. Discourse & Society, 10(4), 543-558. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926599010004005

Billig, M. (1999b). Conversation analysis and the claims of naivety. Discourse & Society, 10(4), 572-576. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926599010004007

Billig, M. (2008a). The language of critical discourse analysis: The case of nominalization. Discourse & Society, 19(6), 783-800. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926508095894

Billig, M. (2008b). Nominalizing and de-nominalizing: A reply. Discourse & Society, 19(6), 829-841. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926508095898

Billig, M., Condor, S., Edwards, D., Gane, M., Middleton, D., & Radley, A. (1988). Ideological dilemmas: A social psychology of everyday thinking. Sage.

van Dijk, T. (2008a). Discourse and context: A socio-cognitive approach. Cambridge University Press.

van Dijk, T. (2008b). Critical discourse analysis and nominalization: Problem or pseudo-problem? Discourse & Society, 19(6), 821-828. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926508095897

van Dijk, T. (2009). Society and discourse. How social contexts influence text and talk. Cambridge University Press.

Duranti, A. & Goodwin, C. (Eds.) (1992). Rethinking context: Language as an
interactive phenomenon. Cambridge University Press.    

Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing discourse: Textual analysis for social research. Routledge.

Fairclough, N. (2009). A dialectical-relational approach to critical discourse analysis in social research. In R. Wodak & M. Meyer (Eds), Methods of critical discourse analysis (2nd ed. pp. 162-186). Sage.

Schegloff, E.A. (1997). ‘Whose Text? Whose Context?’. Discourse & Society, 8, 165–87. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926597008002002

Schegloff, E. A. (1999a). ‘Schegloff’s texts’ as ‘Bilig’s data’: A critical reply. Discourse & Society, 10(4), 558-572. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926599010004006

Schegloff, E. A. (1999b). Naivite vs. sophistication or discipline vs self-indulgence: A rejoinder to Billig. Discourse & Society, 10(4), 577-582. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926599010004008    

Wetherell, M. (1998). Positioning and interpretative repertoires: Conversation analysis and post-structuralism in dialogue. Discourse & society, 9(3), 387-412. https://doi.org/10.1177/0957926598009003005

Wetherell, M. (2007). A step too far: Discursive psychology, linguistic ethnography and questions of identity. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 11(5), 661-681. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9841.2007.00345.x

Important information concerning PhD courses: 

There is a no-show fee of DKK 3,000 for each course where the student does not show up. Cancellations are accepted no later than 2 weeks before the start of the course. Registered illness is of course an acceptable reason for not showing up on those days. Furthermore, all courses open for registration approximately four months before start of the course.

We cannot ensure any seats before the deadline for enrolment, all participants will be informed after the deadline, approximately 3 weeks before the start of the course.

For inquiries regarding registration, cancellation or waiting list, please contact the PhD administration at phdcourses@adm.aau.dk  When contacting us please state the course title and course period. Thank you.