DeXus - Discourse Nexus 1.0 
  An alternative international summer school 
 August 18th-23rd, 2003 

 Location 
Centre for Discourse Studies
Aalborg University
Denmark

 Invited guests 
Carmen Rosa Caldas-Coulthard, University of Birmingham
Rick Iedema, The University of New South Wales
Jay Lemke, University of Michigan
Stef Slembrouck, Ghent University

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 took place for the first time in August 2003. The code 1.0 signifies version 1.0, the first 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.

Lectures in 2003 were held on the following topics:

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

Workshops in 2003 were held on the following themes:

A poster session on the first day is for those who wish to present their research publicly. Posters are displayed at the summer school site, and time is allotted for all participants and guests to view the posters and talk with the postees. Posters should be no more than 1 metre (horizontal) by 1.5 metre (vertical). They will be displayed on pin boards in a room dedicated to the posters.

If you are interested in the relations between language, discursive practices, social action, artifacts, cultural tools, multimodal semiosis and the reproduction of agency, identity and social ordering/organisation you will find our intensive, alternative summer school to be very relevant to your concerns. 

DeXus will also 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 discourse, gender and discourse.

DeXus themes include studies of discursive phenomena in relation to: 

Wireless LAN facilities are offered during Dexus on campus. 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 Hotline Connect groupware, which enables us to chat, share files and collaborate on discussion topics.

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

For more academic information, contact 

               Paul McIlvenny or Pirkko Raudaskoski.

The participation fee is 1800 Danish kroner (approx. 242 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 DeXus secretariat, 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 1.0 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

Further information on our guest 'wayfinders' or 'midwives':

Carmen Rosa Caldas-Coulthard

Carmen Rosa Caldas-Coulthard (senior lecturer), formerly Professor of English Language and Applied Linguistics at the Federal University of Santa Catarina, Brazil, is the Academic coordinator of the MA in Translation Studies at Birmingham University, UK. 

Carmen has published widely in the areas of Critical Discourse, Media and Gender Studies. Her current research interests are in social semiotics, visual communication and multimodality, gender and translation.

Publications include:

Rick Iedema

Rick Iedema is a Lecturer at the School of Health Services Management at The University of New South Wales, Australia.

Rick's projects focus on the discursive-practical disjunctions between the economic constraints and the imperative of meeting individuals' treatment needs in health care. Rick previously studied organisational interaction in the area of mental health policy planning, and this also provided the basis for his PhD on organisational semiotics. He is the primary author of major reports to government on the print and broadcasting media and on the discourses of administration and bureaucracy. He has published in the areas of discourse analysis and semiotics on topics including legal judgements, "teacher talk", women's magazines, political news reporting and organisational communication. Rick is now focusing on communication in health care settings and on the role of language in constituting and enacting professionalism, the representation of health in the popular mass media, and the negotiation of uncertainty in clinical diagnosis.

Publications include:

Jay Lemke

Jay Lemke is Professor in the School of Education, Department of Educational Studies, at the University of Michigan, USA.

His interests include discourse analysis, social semiotics, multimedia semiotics, language in education, ecosocial dynamics and applications of complex systems theory to the study of social, cultural and institutional change.

Publications include:

Jay also has designed a number of hypertext webs.

Stef Slembrouck

Stef Slembrouck is Professor of Linguistics in the English Department of Ghent University, Belgium.

His research areas include approaches to discourse analysis including the relationship between social theory and language study. He is particularly interested in language, power and identity, as well as social processes in language teaching and learning. He is a member of the Language, Power & Identity research group.

Some of the themes of his research include:

Publications include: