Open DiscourseNet Seminar - monthly online seminar in Discourse Studies

Join us for monthly Friday lunchtime online English-language seminars from London, a collaboration of the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics at the Open University, UK and DiscourseNet. 

To join our seminars, you will need to register: just log into your discourseanalysis.net account (you may create one for free on the top right, which may well take two days) and then click 'Join Group' on the top left-hand side. You will then receive regular seminar announcements via email. Note that we will video record all seminars. By joining our seminars, all participants agree that the recording can be made public.

The seminars are open to everybody and free of charge but participants are encouraged to become members of the DiscourseNet Association. All sessions are public, recorded and disseminated on social media. By joining our online session, all participants agree to being recorded. All recordings and the latest version of the programme will be posted on the group's page.

We are looking forward to stimulating discussions!

Johannes Angermuller, Michael Kranert, Stefanie Schneider, Jaspal Singh

Next Talk

30 May 2025 1-2 (London Time), Alessia Tranchese (University of Portsmouth): The Discourse of Online Misogyny - PLEASE REGISTER HERE: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/1464bae3-a107-4ae7-bf90-b7f35b52c7a7@4a5378f9-29f4-4d3e-be89-669d03ada9d8

ABSTRACT

The topic of this talk is online misogyny and the overt or subtler forms it can take. It focuses primarily on the language of online pornography but also on its similarities with other online misogynistic discourses, from incels to men who buy sex and write online reviews and influencers such as Andrew Tate.

Misogyny facilitated by digital technologies has been the object of a number of studies (e.g. Ging & Siapera, 2018; Jane, 2014), but to date the linguistic similarities between its different forms have not been discussed in detail. In particular, while similarities between the language of pornography and incels were highlighted by Tranchese and Sugiura (2021), connections with other online phenomena have been left unexplored.

The analysis is based on a comparison between three corpora: an online pornography corpus, an incel corpus, and a sex buyer review corpus. Based on a quantitative and qualitative investigation, and drawing on the well-established Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and Corpus Linguistics (CL) methodological framework (Baker et al., 2008), this presentation will discuss the most dominant discourses across these widely available platforms, as well as the discursive similarities and differences, and the ideologies that transpire through them.

Through this approach, I will argue that we need to move away from an understanding of online misogyny as an “extreme” phenomenon to focus on “mundane” forms of misogyny which are ubiquitous on social media but are rarely challenged.

References

Baker, P., Gabrielatos, C., Khosravinik, M., Krzyżanowski, M., McEnery, T., & Wodak, R. (2008). A useful methodological synergy? Combining critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics to examine discourses of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK press. Discourse & society, 19(3), 273-306.

Ging, D., & Siapera, E. (2018). Special issue on online misogyny. Feminist media studies, 18(4), 515-524.

Jane, E.A. (2014). ‘Back to the kitchen, cunt’: Speaking the unspeakable about online misogyny. Continuum, 28(4), 558-570.

Tranchese, A., & Sugiura, L. (2021). “I don’t hate all women, just those stuck-up bitches”: How incels and mainstream pornography speak the same extreme language of misogyny. Violence against women, 27(14), 2709-2734.

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Past sessions

28 March 2025 1-2 (London Time), Niru Perera (Curtin University, Australia): Accentism in the ambulance - the misperception of callers' competence, confidence, and emotional state in emergency medical calls. - catch up here: https://youtu.be/rH2hoqVjOKs

28 February 2025 1-2 (London Time), Gertrude Grumah (University of Essex): A Sociolinguistic Study of Mampuli-English Codeswitching in Nalerigu, Ghana. - catch up here: https://youtu.be/91ZrX-ks47I

31 January 2025 1-2 (London Time), Jo Angouri and Shawnea Ting (University of Warwick): But is he unconscious?’ Risk negotiation in critical care dispatch - catch up here: https://youtu.be/FSMyjKYxazU

29 November 2024 1-2 (London Time), Charlotte Taylor  (University of Sussex): Emotion-talk in parliamentary debates on migration - catch up here: https://youtu.be/URD51upz4Qg

25 October 2024 1-2 (London Time), Gerald Roche (La Trobe University): Language and the politics of death - catch up here: https://youtu.be/W4fiy85rIZQ

24th May 2024, Lame Maatla Kenalemang-Palm (Stockholm University): Ageing and beauty: A critical analysis of discourses of agelessness in anti-ageing marketing Catch up with the talk here: https://youtu.be/L_DcTjUPIbA

26th April 2024, Stephanie Schnurr and Rachel Rowntree (University of Warwick): “Those kinds of companies – they just can’t deal with me!” Exploring narratives about neurodiversity, leadership and gender in the workplace -Catch up with the talk here:https://youtu.be/C4xCPn1VqHghttps://youtu.be/C4xCPn1VqHg

22nd March 2024, Dariusz Galasinski (University of Wrocław): Communicating wine – constructions of expert certainty in wine tasting notes - Catch up with the talk here: https://youtu.be/AbcnX2_l6AU

8th March 2024, Samuel Parker (University of the West of England) and Josephine Cornell (Birmingham City University): "The Global Migration Challenge": exploring how UK MPs construct their justification for, and resistance to, the "Rwanda Policy" - Catch up with the talk here:https://youtu.be/siN4-057DM4

26th January 2024, Andreas Musolff (University of East Anglia): How did Reichsbürger integrate COVID-19 conspiracy theories into their own conspiracy ideology? - Catch up with the talk here:https://youtu.be/inNhkuKpJ3I

June 30, 2023, 1-2 (London Time): Michael Kranert (University of Southampton)  “On the Road to Net-Zero: Climate Change Discourses in Local Government“. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs8wJ1ap-kE

May 26, 2023, 1-2 (BST, London Time): Johannes Angermuller (The Open University): "Representing our discipline. A population of unequal academics" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQxSn7gJCf8

April 28, 2023: Sylvia Jaworska (University of Reading): "Who ‘shakes the trees’ and ‘deep dives’? Corpus-assisted discourse analysis of  the language of bias in corporate performance reviews"

March 31, 2023, : Melani Schroeter (University of Reading): "Communicative norms and ideals - and their exploitation in public discourse”. Melani Schroeter “Communicative norms and ideals - and their exploitation in public discourse” - YouTube 

February 24, 2023, 1-2 (London Time): Karolina Placzynta (Center for Research on Antisemitism at the Technical University Berlin) “Hate speech online: Reflections, Methods and Goals of the Decoding Antisemitism Project”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gnfjeKQdOw

Friday, 27 January 2023, 1-2pm (London time): Alan Finlayson (University of East Anglia) on “The Rhetoric of Reactionary Digital Politics”. To view the recording, please follow this link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dttHUlfn6I

Friday, 2 December 2022, 1-2pm (London time). Michael Farrelly (University of Hull) on the topic of "Can discourse analysis predict policy failure? - Applying Critical Policy Discourse Analysis to Policy Concepts of ‘Competition’ and ‘Cooperation’" To view the recording, please follow this link:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iUrlX-NYlg

Friday, 28 October 2022, 1-2pm (London time): Lise Fontaine (Cardiff University) Reference in reconciliation discourse. To view the recording, please follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=575FehcW9c0&t=479s

Wednesday, June 29, 2022, 12-1pm (London time): Richard Bramwell (Loughborough University) Vulnerability, violence and care: Caring masculinities in English rap culture

Friday, October 29, 2021, 1-2pm (London time): Johannes Angermuller (The Open University), Michael Kranert (University of Southampton), Stefanie Schneider (The Open University), Jaspal Naveel Singh (The Open University) "Discourse Studies in the UK today",

Friday, November 26, 2021, 1-2pm (London time): Rodney Jones (University of Reading) "Visibility and accountability in citizen’s encounters with police: An applied linguistic perspective." To view this recording, please follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqGpWk5OyP4

Friday, January 28, 2022, 1-2pm (London time): Stefanie Schneider (The Open University) "A conversation analytical lens on expressing doubt or scepticism in professional settings." To view this recording, please follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXa17PdxriY&t=170s

Friday, February 25, 2022, 1-2pm (London time): Dawn Knight (Cardiff University) and Christopher Fitzgerald (Mary Immaculate College) "Navigating Virtual Meetings: Multimodality and Variation in Online Professional Discourse." To view this recording, please follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyBkb44Hzd8 

Friday, March 25, 2022, 1-2pm (London time): Jan Zienkowski (Université Libre de Bruxelles): "Culture wars in Belgium? Analyzing the metapolitical dimension of civil society discourse(s) in Flanders." To view this recording, please follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNP9foS_s7I&t=3125s

Friday, April 29, 2022, 10-11am (London time): Rick Iedema (King's College London): "Affected: On Meaning Becoming (Undone) and the Meaning of Meaninglessness". To watch the recording, please follow this link: https://youtu.be/Wgk0z6qXePo

Friday, May 27, 2022, 1-2pm (London time): Majid KhosraviNik (Newcastle University) Digital Discourse and Society: Techno-Discursive Considerations in Social Media Critical Discourse Studies. To watch the recording, please follow this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znKv3TgIP0M&t=32s

July 20, 2021, Jaspal Singh (The University of Hong Kong) "A sociolinguistic decolonisation of the Hindu right: ‘Purifying’ Hindi languaging from English and Urdu emblems"

May 10, 2021, 1-2pm BST: Martin Reisigl (University of Vienna), "Careless Car Culture - Critical Discourse Studies of car advertisements and car reviews"

April 12, 2021, 1-2pm GMT: Bogdana Huma (Free University of Amsterdam):"Language and persuasion"

March 15, 2021, 1-2pm GMT: Doris Schedlitzky (London Metropolitan University): "The absent follower or not becoming a leader"

February 15, 2021: Dominique Maingueneau (Sorbonne, Paris, France): “Ethos and 'entrepreneurial spirit'”

January 18, 2021: Rosina Márquez Reiter (The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK): Leverage in relationships. Recommendations among Latin American migrants in London

December 7, 2020: Andrea Whittle (Newcastle University): Jeremy Corbyn – the ‘authentic' leader? Making sense of the press coverage of Corbyn’s authenticity. Go to the recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuS-t-R83yo

November 9, 2020: Lílian Pereira de Carvalho (Federal Institute of São Paulo/Federal University of São Carlos), Julia Lourenço Costa (Federal University of São Carlos/FAPESP), Mariana Morales da Silva (Federal University of São Carlos/CAPES), Júlio Bonatti (Universitat de València): COVID-19 Discursive Encyclopedia.
Go to the recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2eMLA5oBvBw

July 3, 2020: Nkululeko Mabandla (University of Cape Town),  Ana Deumert  (University of Cape Town)
Another Populism is Possible – Popular Politics and the Anti-Colonial Struggle
 
June 19, 2020:  Adriana Bolívar (Universidad Central de Venezuela): "Emotions and ideology in times of political change".
Go to the recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7Qjr9yyia0.

May 22, 2020:  Jens Maeße (University of Giessen): "Post-National Identities: How Discourses of Economics Create Social Positions in European Power/Knowledge Regimes". Go to the recording here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtUib7CWyYo  

April 24, 2020:  Johannes Angermuller (The Open University) and  Juliane Reinecke (King's College London): "Science and populism in the coronavirus controversy: the celebrity logics of expert discourses". Go to the recording here: https://youtu.be/5yL2QTGvTMo