community-forming

Fri Nov 12 09:34:08 UTC 2010

Dear Teun (sorry for the last attempt). I totally agree with Luisa. I think you have been all these years the 'linking strenght' of our community. Without you, we would have not been in contact. Many, many thanks. I will of course support all the new initiatives, count on me. And of course, you will be as active as always, I hope. Carmen

Dr. Carmen Rosa Caldas-Coulthard
Centre for English Language Studies,
Westmere House
University of Birmingham, UK
________________________________
From: Critical Discourse/Language/Communication Analysis [CRITICS-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL] On Behalf Of Luisa Martin Rojo [luisa.rojo at UAM.ES]
Sent: 11 November 2010 21:04
To: CRITICS-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL
Subject: community-forming

Dear Teun,
Reading your message the firs think I want to do it’s send you a public and heartfelt ‘THAN YOU’ for your generous community-forming for so many years. Even of the list isn’t very active in number of messages; it was very strong in its role of creating community, keeping us in contact.
I really hope what you have built will go on in the same way. For all of us, specially people who are working alone or in difficult conditions the important thing is to be in contact with other scholars. The content matters not the container (Google docs or whatever).
In relation to your other plans, I do hope it would be possible for you to carry them out in the university. That would be very positive for students.
Un fuerte abrazo
Luisa

-------- Mensaje original --------
Asunto:         Ending the Critics-L list ...
Fecha:  Thu, 4 Nov 2010 22:17:40 +0100
De:     Teun A. van Dijk <teun at DISCOURSES.ORG><mailto:teun at DISCOURSES.ORG>
Responder a:    Teun A. van Dijk <teun at DISCOURSES.ORG><mailto:teun at DISCOURSES.ORG>
Para:   CRITICS-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL<mailto:CRITICS-L at NIC.SURFNET.NL>

Dear friends,

The Internet Service Provider - ISP -  (Surfnet, the Netherlands) which I have been using for several lists, including the CRITICS-L list, is going to shut down its LISTSERV activities as from January.

This also means the end of the CRITICS-L list, at least with this ISP. Since the list has barely been active, except for the very useful conference messages of some of my (ex) PhD students, and an occasional book announcement, I have decided to stop my activity as list convenor on this occasion.

However, I can imagine that some of you would like to continue the list, and if there are proposals, please post to to this list, so that we can see who can provide a stable infrastructure to maintain the list for at at least several years. Indeed, there may be other ways to communicate besides such a traditional list.

Since I (must) retire from my actual position at Pompeu Fabra University in May 2013, I have been planning to try to found an international PhD "school", whether or not associated with one of the universities here in Barcelona. It is my intention to call this school CRITICS (Center for Research into Text/Talk, Information and Communication in Society) - and thus realize part of the aims of the CRITICS Foundation we founded in the 1990s. If this plan could be realized (which is not at all sure) then somehow the CRITICS-L list might be restored again. The aim of the CRITICS center is to offer brilliant PhD students in critical discourse studies one year of specialized assistance with their thesis, with a staff of the best international scholars in the field who would each teach in the center for one week per year, thus allowing a very prestigious program. Unfortunately, in the present dire economic situation in Spain, such a center could only be realized if it is self-financing and hence be based on (for Spain) high tuition costs of about 10,000 euros annually. I'll keep you posted about these plans - even if the CRITICS-L is discontinued.

Best wishes

Teun
___________________________________________________
Teun A. van Dijk
Pompeu Fabra University
Dept. of Translation and Language Sciences
138, Roc Boronat
08018 Barcelona, Spain
E-mail: teun at discourses.org<mailto:teun at discourses.org>
Web: www.discourses.org<http://www.discourses.org>