Doing CDA: Interview with Professor Ruth Wodak

Monthly interviews and discussion with leading scholars on theories and methods of critical discourse analysis.

Ruth Wodak shares her story of the beginnings of critical discourse analysis; the interdisciplinary nature of critical discourse studies; its problem-oriented approach and the importance of context. The conversation also covers the challenges and best practices for new researchers and the pressing need for critical research in the current global context. 

From the podcast interview:

“I think that we need critical research now more than ever, especially when we see what's happening in the US to universities and elsewhere, that the independence of science is threatened, this independent freedom of opinion is threatened, the freedom of press is threatened. This is terrible. So I think we need critical research now more than ever, challenging what people think is unavoidable, sort of the TINA argument: There Is No Alternative.

Well, there are always alternatives, and speaking out is of course difficult. You have to be in a context where you can speak out, but doing research on challenging all these new developments, I think, is really important…I have the sense that people have forgotten history, and the way migrants and refugees are dealt with, you know, many issues where I think hasn't that happened already?”

Available on podcasting platforms and in the podcast player on the Discourse Academy website. For an extended version, subscribe on Apple Podcasts