Critical Discourse Analysis

About

Acquire the skills to apply the Critical Discourse Analysis/Discourse-Historical Approach to analyse contemporary political discourse in your research.

Need to know
Prior experience in qualitative text and discourse analysis, as well as a solid understanding of social science research methods and designs, is recommended for this course. Familiarity with critical social theory of discourse, including the works of Foucault, Habermas, and others, would be beneficial but not required.

A genuine eagerness to learn new methods and approaches and an openness to tackle complex research questions with a critical eye is essential.

Learning commitment
As a participant in this course, you will engage in a variety of learning activities designed to deepen your understanding and mastery of the subject matter. While the cornerstone of your learning experience will be the daily live teaching sessions, which total three hours each day across the five days of the course, your learning commitment extends beyond these sessions.

Upon payment and registration for the course, you will gain access to our Learning Management System (LMS) approximately two weeks before the course start date. Here, you will have access to course materials such as pre-course readings. The time commitment required to familiarise yourself with the content and complete any pre-course tasks is estimated to be approximately 20 hours per week leading up to the start date.

During the course week, you are expected to dedicate approximately two-three hours per day to prepare and work on assignments.

Each course offers the opportunity to be awarded three ECTS credits. Should you wish to earn a 4th credit, you will need to complete a post-course assignment, which will involve approximately 25 hours of work.

This comprehensive approach ensures that you not only attend the live sessions but also engage deeply with the course material, participate actively, and complete assessments to solidify your learning.

In depth
Day 1
A general introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis and its (interdisciplinary) origins, its key concepts, and on the key approaches in CDA.

Day 2
The introductory focus continues with discussion of CDA’s Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA). You will discuss DHA’s distinctive features or standard research designs, and key DHA-specific levels and categories of analysis will be introduced.

Day 3
Focus will shift to discussing application of CDA/DHA in relation to various political discourses and contexts, and showcasing different pathways of context-specific and comparative analysis. At first, you will explore the notion of ‘discursive shifts’ and show how their analysis, connected to exploration of a wider set of discursive strategies, can help in, for example, exploration of contemporary (right-wing) populism.

Day 4
A DHA-based analysis of discourses and concepts – within the so-called Discourse-Conceptual Analysis (DCA) – is showcased while using the examples from, inter alia, media discourse or policy analysis. The same session also focuses on the DHA-centred Discourse Ethnographic Analysis (or DEA) which combines insights from critical discourse studies and ethnography in a research focussed on political-institutional contexts.

Day 5
The final stage is devoted to the possibilities of deploying CDA/DHA in your own research projects, focussed on analysing contemporary political discourses in and beyond the political field and across various forms of mediated communication.

How the course will work online

Live classes will be held daily for three hours on Zoom, allowing you to interact with both the instructor and other participants in real-time. To avoid online fatigue, the course employs a pedagogy that includes small-group work, short and focused tasks, as well as troubleshooting exercises that utilise a variety of online applications to facilitate collaboration and engagement with the course content.

The instructor will also conduct live Q&A sessions and offer designated office hours for one-to-one consultations.

Course leader

Michał Krzyzanowski is a leading expert in critical discourse studies. His key areas of interest are political, policy and organisational communication as well as media and journalism.

Target group

Researchers, professional analysts, and advanced students

Course aim

To provide a comprehensive introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) – and its central, Discourse-Historical Approach – as the key critical, qualitative approaches to analysing discourse within and beyond the field of contemporary politics.

The course highlights how the deployment of CDA/DHA can be useful in critically and systematically analysing and deconstructing discursive dynamics. It can also be found useful in the recontextualisation of discursive strategies in various forms of communication, including traditional and online media, political communication, policy communication, and institutional communication.

If you're interested in this course, registration opens on 01/10/24 and you can register here: https://ecpr.eu/Events/Event/PanelDetails/15614

Fee info