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Professor Dr. Werner Welzig<br>
President of the Austrian Academy of Sciences<br>
Vienna, Austria<br>
<br>
<br>
Dear Professor Welzig,<br>
<br>
Thank you for your letter of June 30 (regarding my advice about grant
application nr. 21440) which -- strangely-- reached me only a few days
ago. <br>
<br>
In normal circumstances I would be glad to act as an outside reviewer
of ÖAW grant applications in my field of specialization, as I have done
before. <br>
<br>
However, I am afraid that I shall no longer be able to serve as
reviewer for the Academy, in view of the Academy's scandalous treatment
of my colleague Prof. Dr. Ruth Wodak, when she was turned down as the
leader of the scholarly project she had proposed herself to the
academy, and that was broadly reviewed as an excellent continuation of
the already internationally famous and extremely productive
Wittgenstein project she had directed in the last 6 years.<br>
<br>
I have taken notice of the fact that at least a majority of the members
of the relevant section of the academy apparently are of the opinion
that my evaluation of Prof. Wodak's work and her application, as well
as the evaluations of my international colleagues in the field of
linguistics, discourse studies and related disciplines, are not to be
taken seriously. In my view this harms the international prestige of
the Academy -- as well as Austrian research on racism and other
socially relevant topics more generally -- in a serious way. <br>
<br>
You'll understand that if my evaluation of an internationally renowned
scholar as Ruth Wodak is not taken seriously, I can hardly be expected
to be taken seriously when evaluating the work of students, so that
there is no longer a point in acting as reviewer for the Academy. <br>
<br>
<i>Indeed, the same will probably be true for many of my colleagues,
anywhere in the world, and I shall urge them to stop cooperating with
the Austrian Academy, until this matter has been resolved in a way that
is satisfactory to Prof. Wodak. I shall therefore forward a copy of
this letter to the internet list CRITICS-L, of which most of my
colleagues in Critical Discourse Analysis are members.<br>
</i><br>
In fact, within several weeks another collective letter will reach you
about this matter, signed by international specialists in critical
discourse analysis, following earlier protests by many international
scholars (including myself) and organizations against the arguments
used by the Academy to reject Prof. Wodak's application, and against
the marginalization of critical social research by the Austrian Academy.<br>
<br>
Of course, to avoid any harm to the students, we shall be glad to
personally and informally advise them how to improve their grant
applications, which in that case for the time being probably will only
be reviewed by local scholars -- should my colleagues outside of
Austria follow my example. Especially also for their sake I hope that
the Academy will soon be able to resolve the serious problem of the
exclusion of Prof. Wodak from the research activities of the Academy. <br>
<br>
</font></font><font size="-1"><font face="Comic Sans MS">Since you as
President
should of course be specifically concerned about the international
reputation of the Academy, I address this letter to you personally. I
also send a copy of this message to Prof. Herwig Friesinger, Secretary
of the Philosophical-Historical section of the Academy. <br>
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Sincerely<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Teun A. van Dijk<br>
Universitat Pompeu Fabra<br>
Departament de Traducció i Filologia<br>
La Rambla 32<br>
08002 Barcelona, Spain<br>
<br>
E-mail: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:teun@discourse-in-society.org">teun@discourse-in-society.org</a><br>
Internet: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.discourse-in-society.org">www.discourse-in-society.org</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
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