DeXus - Discourse Nexus 3.0 
  An international discourse studies 
summer school 
 August 15th-20th, 2005 

 Location 
Centre for Discourse Studies 
Aalborg University
Denmark

 Invited guests 
Jan Blommaert, Institute of Education, University of London
Angel Lin, City University of Hong Kong
Michael Silverstein, The University of Chicago, USA
Terry Threadgold, Cardiff University, Wales

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 3.0 signifies the third version, the third 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 keynote lectures by the invited guests, which will establish a common framework, there are parallel workshops on the second day.

Descriptions of the LECTURES AND WORKSHOPS are now online!

At the end of the first and second days, and for the following two whole working days, we concentrate on group work. Each group will work on a set of problems that are to be decided by the groups themselves, which may or may not be derived from the lectures and workshops on the first two days. 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.

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

The summer school is international and open to all scholars, researchers and PhD students. Student helpers from our own programmes will be taking part to assist participants.

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.

In relation to theorising and analysing discourse, DeXus themes this year include: 

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 open source social software (such as wiki's, blogs and Skype), which enables us to chat, share files and collaborate on discussion topics. Internet-connected PCs will be available in each room, and extra laptops will be available for groups to use. Multimedia equipment, such as digital video cameras, microphones, video players, projectors and televisions, will also be available for use.

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

Registration for DeXus 3.0 can be completed online. The registration deadline is 15th June 2005. 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. 

  Registration is closed   

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 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 and an application form will be sent). 

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 3.0 is available. Please download, print, post and redistribute...

Note: PDF files require Acrobat Reader.

The summer school is supported by the Centre for Discourse Studies and the Doctoral School in Human Centred Informatics.

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

Jan Blommaert

Jan Blommaert is currently Professor of African Linguistics and Sociolinguistics in the Department of African Languages and Cultures at Ghent University, Belgium. He will be starting a new post as Professor and Chair of Languages in Education at the Institute of Education at the University of London in the Autumn.

He is currently coordinating an international research group sponsored by the Belgian National Science Foundation (Flanders) on 'language, power and identity'. The activities of the LPI group are aimed at deepening theoretical and empirical understandings of language in social life, focused on inequality and on a materialistic view of language as a resource in people's lives. Jan is also intensively involved in analyses of African asylum seekers' narratives (together with Katrijn Maryns) and on grassroots literacy in the Congo. Both projects can be connected to his longstanding interest in 'impurity' in language, eg. code-switching and mixing. Both projects have also generated a keen interest in narrative.

Less intensive but nevertheless substantial is his interest in popular culture in Africa, specifically the way in which this popular culture transpires through all sorts of linguistic and broader semiotic phenomena. A theoretical spin-off of his work is language ideologies. He has compiled a series of studies on 'language ideological debates' in 1999 (Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter), in an attempt to formulate some ways in which sociolinguistics and history could be blended in analyses of language-ideological processes.

He is also keenly involved in issues of migration and (more recently) asylum. He is currently exploring the possibilities of a project on the relation between space (neighbourhoods, cities) and ideologies in the field of migration.

His new book is entitled Discourse: A Critical Introduction, published in 2005 by Cambridge University Press.

Publications include:

Angel Lin

Dr Angel Lin is Associate Professor at City University of Hong Kong in the Department of English and Communication.

Her research and teaching have been centred on the connections between local face-to-face interactions and the larger sociocultural, historical, socioeconomic, institutional and political contexts in which they are situated. Broadly speaking, she works in the areas of discourse analysis, school ethnography, sociolinguistics, bilingual education, second language learning, teacher education as well as feminist cultural studies. With a background in ethnomethodology, conversation analysis and social theories, her theoretical orientations are phenomenological, sociocultural and critical. Her aim is to work towards more interaction and collaboration among researchers from different disciplines. Currently she is engaged in collaborative research projects with colleagues from the disciplines of political science, cultural studies, social work, psychology, and education.

Publications include:

Michael Silverstein

Professor Michael Silverstein is currently the Charles F. Grey Distinguished Service Professor of Anthropology, of Linguistics, and of Psychology and in the Committee on Interdisciplinary Studies in the Humanities at The University of Chicago, USA.

He studies problems of language structure and function, language history and prehistory, the anthropology of language use, sociolinguistics, semiotics, language and cognition (and their development), and history of linguistic and ethnographic studies. His fieldwork in northwestern North America and northwestern Australia has been the basis of various descriptive, theoretical and generalizing contributions. He is also investigating language use and textuality as sites of contestation and transformation of cultural value in contemporary American society, rereading social and rhetorical theory in light of the anthropology of communication.

Publications include:

Terry Threadgold

Professor Terry Threadgold is currently Head of the Cardiff School of Journalism Media & Cultural Studies at Cardiff University, Wales, and Director of the Migration Asylum and Refugee Group.

She has published widely in the areas of postructuralist feminist discourse analysis, performance studies, feminist legal studies and on race, identity and nation in contexts of globalisation. She has also worked and published in the areas of postgraduate pedagogy and literacy and has a continuing interest in her current position in the training of journalists, journalism studies and media studies. Her current research interests include: media, representation and asylum; asylum, gender and citizenship and journalism and conflict.

She is General Editor of the international peer-reviewed journal Social Semiotics.

Publications include: