DeXus - Discourse Nexus 2.0 
  An international discourse studies 
summer school 
 August 16th-21st, 2004 

 Location 
Centre for Discourse Studies 
Aalborg University
Denmark

 Invited guests 
Puleng Hanong, University of Witwatersrand, South Africa
Gunther Kress, The Institute of Education, University of London, UK
Luisa Martín Rojo, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
Ron Scollon, Georgetown University, USA

DeXus is the name given to the Discourse Nexus alternative summer school for discourse studies to be held yearly in the Centre for Discourse Studies at Aalborg University. DeXus, which took place very successfully for the first time in August 2003. The code 2.0 signifies version 2.0, the second actualisation, with progressively refined versions to come. DeXus will focus on innovative research in discourse studies and its application to a variety of settings and data sets, using a mix of lectures, workshops, group work and discussion sessions. 

The goal of DeXus is to create a space in which attendees — invited guests, students, postgrads and established scholars — can discuss the latest moves in discourse studies, apply approaches in discourse studies to ‘real world’ problems, learn hands-on in a positive environment and find new relays between academic work and social change. 

We invited a number of guests to play the role of ‘wayfinders’ or 'midwives'. Their job is to provide a range of resources for learning: to give lectures, to hold workshops, to promote discussion and reflection, to clarify methods, and to illustrate analysis.

Following the first day of lectures by the invited guests, which will establish a common framework, we concentrate over the following three days on two or three themes around which the group work will cluster. In the mornings, there are workshops, and in the afternoons group work. Each group will work on a set of problems over the three days that are to be decided by the groups themselves. Furthermore, the wayfinders are assigned in pairs to work with a specific thematic group on each of Days 2, 3 and 5. We trust that the pairings of wayfinders from different disciplinary backgrounds generates novel ideas and fruitful challenges that benefit the problem-based learning. On the last day, all groups come together to report on their findings, solutions and applications, with commentary and discussion from the wayfinders.

Keynote lectures will focus on the following themes:

Video recordings of the lectures are accessible from inside Aalborg University.

Workshops will take place on the following topics:

The poster session on the first day is for those who wish to present their research publicly.

DeXus will interest students and scholars who work in the diverse fields of discourse studies, particularly mediated discourse analysis, critical discourse analysis, interactional sociolinguistics, linguistic anthropology, multimodal discourse analysis, educational discourse analysis, social semiotics, practice theory, identity and discourse, gender and discourse.

DeXus themes include studies of discursive phenomena in relation to: 

Wireless LAN facilities are offered on campus during Dexus. Bring your laptop computer with an installed wireless 802.11b Wi-Fi card (or MAC Airport), and you can be mobile and surf the web, read email, take part in web chat, and so on. We integrate Wi-Fi into the DeXus group work by using groupware, which enables us to chat, share files and collaborate on discussion topics. Internet-connected PCs will be available in each room.

The summer school is international and open to all scholars, researchers and PhD students. 

For more academic information, contact Paul McIlvenny or Pirkko Raudaskoski.

Registration for DeXus 2.0 can be completed online. The registration deadline is 15th June 2004. After registration you will immediately be sent an invoice with which you can pay the fee using your local banking system. Payment of the fee should be received by 15th July at the latest. 

  REGISTER HERE   

The participation fee is 3000 Danish kroner (approx. 400 Euro),  which covers administrative costs, tea/coffee and lunches every working day, and one evening drinks reception (Monday) and one evening dinner (Thursday). 

Payment of the fee secures your registration. Please contact the Bente Vestergaard, if you need further assistance with registration and other practicalities.

Under special circumstances (eg. students or scholars travelling from the Global South) a reduced fee can be offered (please apply directly to the secretariat). 

Location, travel and accommodation information is available on this web site. Travel and accommodation is the responsibility of the participant.

A poster (PDF) for DeXus 2.0 is available. Please download, print, post and redistribute...

Note: PDF files require Acrobat Reader.

Provisional schedule

The summer school will run daily from 9:00 to 17:00 (Monday to Friday) and 9:00 to 16:00 on Saturday. The precise schedule may be altered. Unless otherwise stated, coffee/tea, lunches and reception drinks on Monday plus evening dinner on Thursday are included in the registration fee.

Invited Guests

Puleng Hanong

Puleng Hanong is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Linguistics at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa, where she teaches Sociolinguistics, Psycholinguistics and Discourse 
Analysis.

Publications include:

Gunther Kress

Gunther Kress is Professor of English at The Institute of Education, University of London.

He is Head of the School of Culture, Language and Communication, Director of ESRC Research Project 'The production of School English' and Co-Director of ESRC Research Project 'Biliteracies'.

His research interests include literacy, social semiotics, multimodality, discourse analysis, learning theory and the curriculum (both English and in general).

Publications include:

Luisa Martín Rojo

Luisa Martín Rojo is Associate Professor in Linguistics at the Universidad Autónoma (Madrid, Spain). She has for several years been a visiting scholar at the International Pragmatics Association Research Center (University of Antwerp, Belgium). Her research draws on sociolinguistic studies of the diversity of languages, pragmatic studies of communication and discourse analysis. 

Her work at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid reflects these interests through the subjects she teaches: Sociolinguistics, Pragmatics and Intercultural Communication, on the Linguistics and Translation and Interpretation degree courses, in addition to courses on Discourse Analysis on the doctoral program.

Through her work, she attempts to gain a deeper understanding of how domination is exercised by means of the control of language use and the production of linguistic ideologies (imposition of languages and communicational styles, prejudices and linguistic norms), and by means of control of the production, circulation and reception of discourse (social order of discourse). Her work in this main area of interest has had both theoretical and applied dimensions. The theoretical dimension focuses on the study of social and epistemological aspects that have contributed to the emergence of discourse as the object of a field of knowledge and the changes that have occurred in the task of the analyst and how it is perceived. Her more applied work, on the other hand, deals with the way domination is exercised, focusing on processes such as the imposition of languages and communicational styles (communication in organizations and gender), the commodification of languages and conversational practices, and the construction of social representations in discourse. Dr. Martín Rojo’s work shows how these representations have a key role in domination processes: their circulation and imposition have devastating effects on certain social groups (criminals, Spanish gypsies, women executives, migrants, etc.), particularly when the social representations are internalized (and especially in relation to gender). 

Likewise, Dr. Martín Rojo has taken a keen interest in phenomena of resistance to domination through processes of linguistic variation and discourse production (jargon, alternative discourses in new social movements). Recently, she has returned to the ethnographic approach employed in her early work, now combined with a critical perspective of discourse analysis, for studying the management of cultural and linguistic diversity in Madrid schools and the ideologies underlying it. The research project she headed, "Assimilate or Integrate? Dilemmas of educational policies in the face of classroom multilingualism", was awarded a social research prize, and she has just embarked on a new project, entitled: "A socio-pragmatic analysis of intercultural communication in education: towards integration in schools".

These are the research lines and theoretical approaches that form the basis of Dr. Martín Rojo’s work, which in view of its wide-ranging nature has always necessarily been interdisciplinary, and in many cases has involved collaboration with other researchers. The social commitment underlying this research obliges her to combine the academic dimension with social intervention, and she has collaborated as an expert with the European Observatory on Racism, Xenophobia and Antisemitism (Vienna, Austria), as well as working on the setting up of an agreement with the Madrid City Council for consultancy and participation in schools.

She is also on the editorial board of several journals and book series, including Discourse & Society, Language and Politics, Estudios de Sociolinguística, Spanish in Context, Critical Discourse Studies, The Rape of Europe, and Political Discourse, edited by Ruth Wodak and Paul Chilton.

Publications include:

JARGONS AND LINGUISTIC DIVERSITY

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS: THEORY AND PRACTICES

DISCOURSE ANALYSIS: GENDER STUDIES

POLITICAL DISCOURSE, DISCOURSE AND RACISM

INTERCULTURALITY AND EDUCATION

Ron Scollon

Professor Ron Scollon is based at the Department of Linguistics, Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA.

Publications include: