Course description:
Discourse Analysis points to a family of approaches to inquiry and a
substantive area of study. In communication, the substantive area of
communication study is often referred to as language and social
interaction, "LSI." This class attends to both meanings, albeit tilting
toward discourse analysis as a method for the study of social life. The
seminar has two purposes, with each reflected in class activities and
assignments. A first purpose of the seminar is to enable you to do a
discourse analysis: To take instances of talk and text and arrive at
interesting, persuasive claims. To accomplish this purpose, you will be
practicing the technical and analytic skills that comprise discourse
analysis (transcribing and being able to read transcripts; developing a
vocabulary that enables you to comment on features of talk, language,
and interaction; learning how to select excerpts for analytic focus;
developing your ability to explicate inferences and make arguments; and
building an insightful paper-length claim that contributes to your
academic community’s scholarly discussions. A second purpose of the
seminar is to provide you a sense of the variety of discourse
traditions while developing deeper understanding of three particular
ones: (1) conversation analysis, (2) action-implicative discourse
analysis, and (3) critical discourse approaches. The first part of the
class will involve assignments with common texts. Then, in the second
part of the semester, students will work with a slice of institutional,
interpersonal, or on-line interaction that is of interest to you to
develop a discourse analytic research paper that would be suitable for
submission to an academic conference.
LING 7800: Contemporary Ethnographies on Language and Society
Professor: Kira Hall
Time: T 11-1:30
Place: TBA
Course description:
This seminar addresses contemporary developments in the fields of linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, and discourse analysis by examining recently published monographs that incorporate, or potentially inform, ethnographic methodology. Participants will be expected to engage critically with twelve different texts over the course of the semester, compose a publishable book review on one of these texts, and submit several response papers regarding theoretical and methodological themes that emerge from the readings.
Prerequisite: Graduate-level coursework in linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics, or socially oriented discourse anlaysis.
