DN Elections 2026 - Candidate Team 1

DN Elections 2026 - Candidate Team 1

Message of Jan Zienkowski to DiscourseNet members 

Dear DiscourseNet members,

With this message we would like to present the candidacy of our team for the 2026 DiscourseNet Association elections. Our team consists of the following people and functions: 

1. Jan Zienkowski (President)

2. Jens Maesse (Treasurer and Vice-President)  

3. Thomas Jacobs (Secretary and Events Coordinator)

4. Magdalena Nowicka-Franczak (Groups Coordinator)

5. David Adler (Social Media Coordinator)

6. Johannes Angermuller (Scientific Board Coordinator) 

7. Michael Kraenert (auditing officer)

Following extensive exchanges with old and new members of DiscourseNet we would continue to develop DiscourseNet as an interdisciplinary and multilingual space for Discourse Studies. We aim to prepare DiscourseNet for the future by improving its (1) organisation, its (2) coordination), and its (3) visibility. These three objectives and the associated measures are detailed in a PowerPoint presentation that you can download here.

To improve (1) the organisation of our association we have proposed an organisational reform that should contribute to a more transparent and efficient division of labour. To this effect our team includes people responsible for the coordination of events, groups, social media and the scientific board. An overview of the new functions and the overall structure of the DiscourseNet Association as we envision it is included in the presentation. 

To improve (2) our coordination we intend to work with clear bi-annual agenda's that should facilitate the communication about DiscourseNet events. DN Groups will be more actively encouraged to (co) organise events. We will make sure this bi-annual agenda includes : 

• 1 bi-annual DN congress (the site to be determined three years in advance) 
• 3 DN conferences / year
• 5 DN digital events (online workshops conferences / possibly (co-) organised by the Research Groups)
• At least 1 DN PhD school in Winter, Fall, Spring orSummer.

We also propose to (3) improve the online and offline visibility of DiscourseNet. The new president will reach out regularly to DiscourseNet members and inform them about activities, membership renewal, and other relevant issues. A social media coordinator will coordinate the online diffusion of DN-related information (abstracts, deadlines, events, …). The international scientific board coordinator will establish and reinforce contacts with (scholars associated with) other networks and associations. Also note that the new team proposes to evaluate and take initiatives to change the DiscourseNet website accordingly. The website is an existential tool for our association and the new team will make sure to take steps to assure its operation. 

Please note that we invite all DiscourseNet members willing to help develop our association to reach out to us. There are many ways to contribute. If you wish to collaborate by taken on an active role in the (new) board, propose and (co-) organise DN events, or if you simply have a question for us, please reach out to us. 

We therefore kindly ask for your confidence for these elections.

With kind regards,

Jan Zienkowski, Jens Maesse, Thomas Jacobs, Magdalena Nowicka-Franczak, David Adler, Johannes Angermuller