The meanings of both discourse and culture are highly diverse and contested. Laclau (1990) describes them as “floating signifiers” (Laclau, 1990), which take on different meanings in different disciplinary contexts. The interdisciplinary research undertaken within the “Discourse and Culture” cluster exemplifies this plasticity, covering elements of communicative behaviour (semiotic systems including language and other non-linguistic signs), their social effects, and social, economic, political and cultural contexts. Drawing on their varied disciplinary backgrounds — from social sciences, translation, sociolinguistics, ethnography, discourse analysis to cultural and organizational studies and business communication and discourse — members of the group seek to explore how these semiotic systems are used (discourse) and how they constitute reality (Discourse).
Members
Dr Elisabeth Barakos
Professor Urszula Clark
Dr Erika Darics (Theme Coordinator)
Dr Séverine Hubscher Davidson
Dr Emmanuelle Labeau
Dr Stefan Manz
Dr Carol Marley
Dr Raquel Medina
Dr Stéphanie Panichelli-Batalla
Dr Dina Rasolofoarison
Professor Gertrud Reershemius
Professor Christina Schäffner
Dr Karen West
Elvis Yevudey (PhD researcher)
Projects
Grants
Named investigator: Emmanuelle Labeau
Title: Mission Scientifique at Université Saint-Louis, Brussels
Funder and Reference: Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique, Belgium
Award: 10,000 Euros
Dates: February-May 2016
Summary: This 4-month secondment to Université Saint-Louis is meant to develop the work done during the British Academy Small Grant, French as Spoken in Brussels, by expanding the corpus, disseminating results and exploring ways of obtaining further funding.