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76520-01 - Seminar: Language, Power, Resistance: Explorations in Critical Discourse Studies (3 CP)
| Semester | fall semester 2025 |
| Course frequency | Once only |
| Lecturers | Danièle Klapproth Muazzin (daniele.klapproth@unibas.ch, Assessor) |
| Content | Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) understands discourse – i.e. language use in speech and writing – as a form of social practice and is particularly interested in its role in the shaping of societal power relations. By exploring the ideological loading of particular ways of using language, CDS aims at revealing the ways in which language can be used to reproduce social and political inequality. It also explores how power abuse can be challenged and resisted. This seminar will offer an introduction to both the theoretical and the practical dimensions of CDS. Focusing in particular on media discourse, political-institutional discourse, and social movement discourse (all three of which play a vital role in exerting and defying relations of power within society), we will engage in the critical analysis of actual (multimodal) texts and explore the sociocultural and political aspects of their production and use. |
| Learning objectives | Students will deepen their understanding of such notions as discourse, agency, and ideology, and will develop the methodological skills to analyse how language is used (and abused) in different socio-political contexts. |
| Bibliography | All obligatory reading for the course will be made available on ADAM. |
| Weblink | ADAM |
| Admission requirements | This course is open to BA students of English who have completed all three introductory modules (including the proseminar papers) and to MA students of English and MA Sprache und Kommunikation. |
| Course application | Please register for this course on services unibas. In order to ensure a good learning environment, we aim at no more than 20 students per linguistics seminar. We ask you to sign up for classes via the ADAM registration surveys, which will open on 4 August 2025, 10am (CEST) and close on 19 September 2025, 2pm (CEST): https://adam.unibas.ch/goto_adam_crs_1623802.html. **Please only register for a maximum of TWO seminars and only for more than one if you really intend to take both courses.** Should you have not made it into one of the courses and you are only able to register on the list in a position higher than 20, we guarantee that we will take you in the course with the least student numbers. |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Use of digital media | Online, mandatory |
| Interval | Weekday | Time | Room |
|---|---|---|---|
| wöchentlich | Friday | 10.15-12.00 | Rosshofgasse (Schnitz), Sitzungsraum S 184 |
Dates
| Modules |
Modul: Advanced English Linguistics (Bachelor's degree subject: English) Modul: English Linguistics (Master's degree subject: English) Modul: Forschungspraxis und Vertiefung (Master's degree program: Language and Communication) Modul: Sprache und Gesellschaft (Master's degree program: Language and Communication) |
| Assessment format | continuous assessment |
| Assessment details | Regular and active participation; preparatory reading; participation in group work (data analysis task and oral presentation) |
| Assessment registration/deregistration | Reg.: course registration; dereg.: not required |
| Repeat examination | no repeat examination |
| Scale | Pass / Fail |
| Repeated registration | no repetition |
| Responsible faculty | Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Offered by | Fachbereich Englische Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaft |