31.1739, Support: Dutch; French; Spanish; Discourse Analysis; Pragmatics: PhD, University of Louvain

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-31-1739. Tue May 26 2020. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 31.1739, Support: Dutch; French; Spanish; Discourse Analysis; Pragmatics: PhD, University of Louvain

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Date: Tue, 26 May 2020 13:00:30
From: Philippe Hambye [philippe.hambye at uclouvain.be]
Subject: Dutch; French; Spanish; Discourse Analysis; Pragmatics: PhD, University of Louvain, Belgium

 Institution/Organization: University of Louvain 
Department: Institut Langage et Communication 
Web Address: https://tinyurl.com/yabhpfg2 

Level: PhD 

Duties: Research
 
Specialty Areas: Discourse Analysis; Pragmatics 
 
Required Language(s): Dutch (nld)
                      French (fra) 
                      Spanish (spa) 

Description:

Discourse, populism and democracy. Tracking the uses of populism in media and
political discourse (TrUMPo)

1 full-time PhD position, for 4 years (supervisors: B. De Cock and Ph.
Hambye). This project will be carried out in the field of discourse analysis.
It will focus on the comparison between languages in order to capture in a
detailed way how the term “populism” is used, focusing on the linguistic
strategies to do so and the specificities of the different languages and
countries involved. This PhD will hence involve comparative work on Dutch,
French and Spanish data.

Profile:
Master in linguistics, or master in languages with a strong focus on
linguistics, or near fields;
- Min. C1 command of French and Spanish. A good knowledge of Dutch is an
asset;
- High level of academic English, both written and spoken, will be considered
an asset;
- Good methodological skills both quantitative and qualitative;
- Familiarity with discourse analysis (asset);

Project Description:
In contemporary democracies, there is not a day without the word populism
being used in political and media discourse. This has led to the development
of a booming literature on populist political parties and politicians. These
works have provided rich insights into the origin, the discourse and the
impact of such particular actors. Nevertheless, one major aspect of populism
remains understudied, namely the use of the term populist itself by political
and other actors, which is the subject of a real political struggle (Laclau,
2005). Populism is indeed used by some political actors to disqualify
political opponents but also as a positive category/label demonstrating
proximity to people’s concerns in order to gain legitimacy (Mazzoleni, 2007).

These uses of populism lead to fierce debates about the role and place of the
people in democracies, and about who can pretend to best represent the people.
It also raises the question of what is a legitimate (or illegitimate) way to
refer to the people in a democracy in the context of a deep democratic malaise
worldwide and in particular in Western democracies. Hence, the way the word
and the notion of populism are defined, used and circulated is directly
related to competing conceptions of democracy. In order to understand how the
construction of this category of populism contributes to shaping our
collective imagination of democracy, we consider that we need to understand in
which contexts and situations this notion is used, which meaning it conveys in
actual discursive practices, and how it circulates in the public debate. This
is why we will study this topic from a threefold perspective: political
science, communication studies and linguistics.

We will compare these discourses in the national public sphere of three
countries Belgium, France and Spain, and we will conduct a qualitative and
quantitative analysis of data from different forums in which discourses about
populism can be held: (i) the parliamentary arena (ii) mass media and (iii)
social media platforms. 

Procedure:
Interested candidates should send their application to: Catherine Goossens
(trumpo at uclouvain.be) before 10 July 2020.

Applications should include in one single pdf file:
- A curriculum vitae,
- A letter of application stating to which PhD you apply,
- A list of courses and academic transcripts,
- An academic publication (if you have one) or your Master's thesis, and
- The contact information (e-mail) of two potential references.

After a first round of selection based on the applications, the short-listed
candidates will be interviewed via videoconferencing between 15 and 20 July
2020.
 

Application Deadline: 10-Jul-2020 

Web Address for Applications: https://cdn.uclouvain.be/groups/cms-editors-ilc/jobs-posting/TrUMPo_Call%20for%20PhD%20students.pdf 

Contact Information: 
	Catherine Goossens 
	trumpo at uclouvain.be  


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