introducing myself to list members

[Ellen Valle]

I'm a new list member and the moderator has asked me to introduce myself.
I'm an ex-pat (originally American) lecturer at the Department of English
at the University of Turku, Finland. My main scholarly interests are in
academic and scientific discourse (both written and spoken, in a
contemporary and especially a historical context; my thesis (1999) was on
the linguistic and rhetorical means used for the construction of a
discourse community (a "collective intelligence") in the life sciences from
the 17th to the 20th century. My current research project deals with the
use of correspondence in the long 18th century in natural history to
construct the typical 'colonial exchange' between periphery and center, in
this case of raw material (plant and animal specimens, descriptions etc)
for finished products (codified scientific knowledge printed in books:
species names, descriptions and taxonomy).
I hope this is a lively discussion list -- too many promising-sounding
lists seem to be moribund or dead!
Ellen Valle.




Ellen Valle, Ph.D.
Senior Lecturer
Department of English, University of Turku
20014 Turku, Finland
tel +358 2 3335321
fax +358 2 3335630
ellen.valle at utu.fi