DNS6 DiscourseNet Summer School 6: Ethnography meets Discourse Analysis

***The event has been cancelled due to travel restrictions and health and safety concerns***

We are planning to postpone the 6th DiscourseNet Summer School in Tutzing (close to Munich), Bavaria, in the south of Germany, until summer 2021. Exact dates tba.

Rationale

Ethnography is often understood as a method for collecting data that enables us to pay attention to bodies, material surroundings, atmospheres, informal or mundane conversations and insights into the backstage of organisations and communities of practice. This is fascinating and invaluable, yet, ethnography can do much more than that. Ethnographers contextualise linguistic data, explore unanticipated contexts, and carry out reflexive analysis. Doing ethnography often entails building relations of trust with “participants” and it represents people by translating their cultural practices into sincere, ethical and reflective writing. We propose that insights developed in ethnographic research can be fruitful for discourse analysts, even if one does not collect data ethnographically. Likewise, discourse studies have a lot to offer to ethnographers: Discourse analytical methodology and theory put the spotlight on discourse articulation or formation, usually paying attention to – and offering ways of conceptualising – ideological struggles, political representations, subjectivation, power, inclusion and exclusion. Studies of social interaction or the polyphony of writing offer an extensive toolkit for dissecting minute details of talk, voices in written text and multimodal data, both in offline and online communication.

What can you expect?

In the three-day Summer School, you will acquire practical skills about specific ethnographic and discourse analytical methods, such as interviewing, participant observation, transcribing, coding, as well as writing fieldnotes and vignettes. We will also introduce you to several software packages that might assist you in doing your research. In addition, you will acquire theoretical skills that allow you to better situate discourse ethnographic methods within your approach or your disciplinary traditions and professional ambitions. In addition to advanced scholars sharing their theoretical insights and teaching practical competences we will reserve time for reflection sessions and open discussion fora in which you are invited to share experiences, point to potential problems and discuss possibilities for solving them. If you have already collected your own empirical material, you are most welcome to suggest samples for us to analyse or discuss together.

Format of classes

Classes will be held in a variety of formats: reading groups, data collection exercises such as mini- field trips, walks or audio/photo/video recordings, data interpretation and analysis sessions, lectures, and writing workshops. We have capped the number of participants at 30, so as to ensure a beneficial small-group learning environment.

Accommodation, meals and venue

The Summer School will take place at the Akademie für politische Bildung, in Tutzing, Southern Bavaria, Germany, approximately 30 minutes away from Munich. You can find more information about the venue here: https://www.apb-tutzing.de/english/

Accommodation in single- or double-bed rooms and full catering will be provided in the venue. The venue is beautifully located right by the famous and placid Starnberger Lake.

Your teachers

• Dr Yalız Akbaba, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz
• Professor Jan Blommaert, Tilburg University
• Professor Endre Dányi, Bundeswehr University, Munich
• Dr Martina Kolanoski, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt
• Professor Teresa Koloma Beck, Bundeswehr University, Munich
• Professor Felicitas Macgilchrist, Georg Eckert Institute for International Textbook Research, Braunschweig
• Dr Yannik Porsché, Bundeswehr University, Munich
• Dr Jaspal Naveel Singh, The University of Hong Kong

How to apply? 

***The call for applications has now been closed***

The DiscourseNet Summer School “Ethnography meets Discourse Analysis” is open to PhD and post-graduate students. If you would like to apply, please send a brief summary of your research project in English (max. 250 words) and a short biography (max. 100 words) by 29 February 2020 to yannik.porsche@unibw.de and singhjn@hku.hk.

Participants are expected to present their ongoing research in brief statements or academic posters, and you are also invited to submit limited data segments (e.g. field notes, audio/video clips, images, articles or work documents) for collaborative analysis in workshops.

Readings

We will circulate some research literature that you are asked to read before the Summer School for discussion in class.

Fees for the Summer School

Participation fee: 180 Euros
DiscourseNet membership fee: 30 Euros
Full accommodation and meals for three days/nights: 240 Euros

Total: 450 Euros

Hopefully, we will be able to waive some fees (approximately 130 Euros) for participants who do not receive sufficient funding from their institutions (to be confirmed).

Stay connected with others

Once your application has been accepted, please create an account at disocurseanalysis.net, and join our group: https://discourseanalysis.net/ethnographicdiscoursestudies

We hope to see you in Tutzing!
Yannik Porsché and Jaspal Naveel Singh