Ruth Wodak

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ruth Wodak (born July 12, 1950 in London ) is an Austrian linguist and former professor of linguistics at the University of Vienna and Lancaster University . Wodak is one of the most exposed representatives of critical discourse analysis and has dealt intensively with prejudice research.

Life

Ruth Wodak was born on July 12, 1950 in London, Great Britain. Her mother Erna Wodak was a chemist, her father Walter Wodak was a politician and an important Austrian diplomat. Ruth Wodak is one of the founders of critical discourse analysis. She was a member of feminist movements and part of a group of feminist researchers; their main topics ranged from discrimination against women to European identity. In 1996 she was awarded the Wittgenstein Prize and was the first to be awarded in Austria. In the course of her career to date, she and her team have published 43 books and over 200 articles in eight different languages ​​in magazines and edited volumes.

Educational path

Ruth Wodak attended the International School (an elementary school) in Belgrade, in what was then Yugoslavia, from 1956 to 1959. In 1959/60 she attended the fourth grade of elementary school in Vienna's Albertgasse and then the grammar school in Langegasse in Vienna, where she passed the Matura with distinction. She then studied Slavic Studies, Eastern European History and Linguistics at the University of Vienna from 1968 to 1974. In 1974 Ruth Wodak received her doctorate in linguistics from the University of Vienna. She wrote her dissertation on the subject of “Sociolinguistic approaches to a theory of verbalization: The language behavior of defendants in court”. In 1980 she completed her habilitation in applied linguistics, including socio- and psycholinguistics, also at the University of Vienna with a thesis on “The word in a group. Linguistic Studies in Therapeutic Communication ”.

Career

Ruth Wodak has been scientifically active since 1971. She worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Linguistics at the University of Vienna, and later, from 1975 to 1983, as a university assistant. Subsequently, Ruth Wodak was employed as a lecturer in applied linguistics, including socio- and psycholinguistics, until 1991. In 1991 the linguist was offered a "full professorship" at the University of Michigan , which she refused. Instead, she continued her career as a university professor for applied linguistics at the University of Vienna. In 1998 Wodak was appointed a corresponding member of the ÖAW (Austrian Academy of Science). From 2000, the “Austrian National Focal Point” of the “European Agency for Fundamental Rights” appointed Ruth Wodak as co-director. From 1997 to 2006 she was also director of the Wittgenstein research focus on “Discourse, Politics, Identity”. In addition, the linguist was involved as a research professor at the Academy from 1999 to 2002. In 2005 Ruth Wodak received another offer to do international research, this time from the University of Waterloo , which she again refused. It was only from 2004 to 2007 that she carried out her research on discourse analysis at Lancaster University in Great Britain, Department of Linguistics and English. Immediately afterwards, Ruth Wodak worked as a professor in the same department until 2014. She still works there as Emerita today. In 2012 Wodak left the Academy. She has been a member of the Academia Europaea since 2010 .

Research overview

Wodak's research interests focus on (critical) discourse studies, in particular the discourse historical approach (whereby aspects of the integration of text and context are emphasized), national or transnational and European identity politics, (national and European) politics of the past (especially in connection with the Second World War and the Holocaust ), racism , anti-Semitism and xenophobia . She also researches the complex dimensions of right-wing populism and exclusion rhetoric. In examining these topics, she systematically analyzes a range of written, verbal, and visual genres. Ruth Wodak's research focus is on discourse theories (combinations of ethnography, argumentation theories, rhetoric and text linguistics), organizational communication, identity politics and politics of the past, language in politics, racism as well as prejudice and discrimination. By combining different disciplines, she further developed the discourse-historical approach of critical discourse analysis, an interdisciplinary, problem-oriented approach that analyzes the changes in discursive practices over time and in different genres.

Latest research and works

Her monograph entitled “The Politics of Fear” was published in 2016. In it, she focuses on the discourse, rhetoric, execution and argumentation of populist right-wing politicians in Europe. In particular, she examines the dependencies between politics and the media on the basis of several case studies. The recontextualization and glocalization of images and posters about several European, right-wing extremist political parties are also a focus of her book. She also published, together with Michael Meyer, a new edition of “Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis” (2001). In her research projects, Wodak deals with the language change from Austrian German (from 1970–2010). She is part of an interdisciplinary team of historians, journalists, psychiatrists and linguists who investigate the discursive and psychological dynamics of a unique network of children of Holocaust survivors and resistance fighters in Vienna. The research project is called “Children's snack - On the history of a marginalized group”. In 2013 she was co-author of two volumes on right-wing populist discourse, "Analysis of European Fascism: Fascism in Text and Talk" (together with John Richardson, Routledge) and "Rightwing Populism in Europe: Politics and Discourse" (Maijd KhosraviNik and Brigitte Mral, Bloomsbury). Among other things, she published three articles on this in "Opendemocracy". A more recent monograph by Ruth Wodak, “The Discourse of Politics in Action: Politics as usual” appeared in paperback in June 2011 (second revised edition by Palgrave). The book Migration, Identity and Belonging, which she wrote with Gerard Delanty and Paul Jones, was published in March 2011. In 2013 she edited the “Handbuch für Soziolinguistik” together with Paul Kerswill and Barbara Johnstone.

Other Information

Ruth Wodak has been involved in several large, funded research projects in the past. Between 2005 and 2007 she was part of a project on asylum seekers and refugees in the British press, funded by the Austrian Economic and Social Research Council. Between 2006 and 2011 she led the Lancaster team of DYLAN (Language Dynamics and Management of Diversity), an interdisciplinary project and part of the 6th EU framework. Between 2004 and 2007 she worked on the EMEDIATE project, which is also part of the EU framework. Before that, she was head of the discourse, politics, identity research center and coordinated projects on Austrian and European identities, racism and discrimination, which was funded by the Austrian Academy of Sciences as part of the Wittgenstein Prize. Wodak is a member of the editorial board of a number of linguistic journals. She is co-editor of the journals "Discourse and Society" (with Teun van Dijk, Teresa Carbo and Mick Billig), "Critical Discourse Studies" (with John Richardson and Phil Graham) and "Journal of Language and Politics" (with Michal Krzyzanowski and David Machin). Together with Andreas Musolff and Johann Unger she publishes the book series "DAPSAC" (Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture), John Benjamin Verlag. The recently published monograph in the “DAPSAC” series is “Journalism and Politics”.

Works

Monographs

  • Politics with fear. On the effect of right-wing populist discourses. Contours, Vienna, Hamburg 2016.
  • The Politics of Fear: What Right wing Populist Discourses Mean. Sage, London 2015.
  • The Discourse of Politics in Action: Politics as Usual. Palgrave, Basingstoke 2009. (2nd, revised edition. 2011)
  • Discourse, Jazyk i Polityka. Akamiceski, Moscow 2010.
  • The Disorders of Discourse. Longman, London 1996.
  • Language Behavior in Therapy Groups. Univ. of California Press, Los Angeles 1986. The word in the group.
  • Helpless closeness? - Tell mothers and daughters. Deutike, Vienna 1984.
  • The word in the group. Linguistic studies on therapeutic communication. Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1981.
  • The language behavior of defendants in court. Scriptor, Kronberg, Ts. 1975.

Authorship

  • with A. Pollak: The missing scandal. Czernin, Vienna 2001.
  • with M. Meyer: Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis. Sage, London 2001.
  • with Martin Reisigl: Discourse and Discrimination. Rhetorics of Racism and Antisemitism. Routledge, London 2001.
  • with Peter Muntigl and Gilbert Weiss: European Union Discourses on Un / employment. An interdisciplinary approach to employment policy-making and organizational change. Benjamin, Amsterdam 2000.
  • with M. Meyer, St. Titscher and E. Vetter: Methods of Text and Discourse Analysis. Sage, London 2000.
  • with Teun. A. van Dijk: Racism at the Top. Drava, Klagenfurt 2000.
  • with R. de Cillia, M. Reisigl and K. Liebhart: The Discursive Construction of National Identity. University Press, Edinburgh 1999.
  • with St. Titscher, M. Meyer and E. Vetter: Methods of text analysis. West German Publishing House, Wiesbaden 1998.
  • with R. de Cillia, M. Reisigl, K. Liebhart, K. Hofstätter and M. Kargl: On the discursive construction of national identity. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1998.
  • with B. Matouschek and F. Januschek: Necessary measures against strangers? Passagen Verlag, Vienna 1995.
  • with F. Menz, R. Mitten and F. Stern: Languages ​​of the Past. Public commemoration in Austrian and German media. Suhrkamp Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1994.
  • with H. Gruber: A case for the public prosecutor? Discourse analysis of the Kronenzeitung reporting on Neo-Nazism and the Prohibition Act. WLG supplement 11, 1992.
  • with E. Andraschko, J. Lalouschek and H. Schrodt: "School partnership" - communication between parents, students and teachers. Institute for Linguistics, Vienna 1990.
  • with R. de Cillia, H. Gruber, R. Mitten, P. Nowak and J. Pelikan: "We are all innocent perpetrators!" Discourse-historical studies on post-war anti-Semitism. Suhrkamp, ​​Frankfurt am Main 1990.
  • with F. Menz and J. Lalouschek: Everyday life in the ambulance. Narr, Tübingen 1990.
  • with R. de Cillia, H. Gruber, R. Mitten, P. Nowak and J. Pelikan: "We are all innocent perpetrators!" Studies on the anti-Semitic discourse in post-war Austria. Vienna 1989.
  • with F. Menz and J. Lalouschek: Sprachbarrieren . The communication crisis in society. Edition Atelier, Vienna 1989.
  • with R. de Cillia, K.Blüml, and E. Andraschko: Language and Power - Language and Politics. The contribution of linguistics to political education. Deuticke, Vienna 1989.
  • with R. de Cillia: Language and Anti-Semitism. (= Institute for Science and Art Communications. 3.1988). Vienna 1988.
  • with O. Pfeiffer and E. Strouhal: Right to Language. Orac, Vienna 1987.
  • with S. Moosmüller, U. Doleschal and G. Feistrizer: Guidelines for Avoiding Sexist Use of Language. Federal Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, Vienna 1987.
  • with B. Lutz: Information for the informed. Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1987.
  • with M. Schulz: The Language of Love and Guilt. Mother-Daughter Relationships from a Cross-Cultural Perspective. Benjamin, Amsterdam 1986.
  • with N. Hein, J. Lalouschek, P. Nowak and U. Hoffmann-Richter: Communication between doctor and patient. In: Vienna Linguistic Gazette. Supplement 4, 1985.
  • with F. Menz, B. Lutz and H. Gruber: The language of the mighty and the powerless. The Hainburg case. A socio- and text-linguistic study. Vienna 1985.
  • as editor: That can only happen in Vienna. Everyday stories. Czernin, Vienna 2001.
  • with H. Blüml, E. Huk, V. Krammer, V. Liehr, H. Ott, O. Pfeiffer, H. Salaun and L. Staudigl: Citizen-friendly legal texts in Lower Austria. Lower Austrian provincial government, Vienna 1983.
  • The mother-daughter relationship in difficult children. In: Vienna Linguistic Gazette. Supplement 2, 1983.
  • The language of mother and daughter - a sociophonological comparison. In: Vienna Linguistic Gazette. Supplement 1, 1982.

Awards

Literature (selection)

  • Rudolf de Cillia, Helmut Gruber, Barbara Kryk-Kastovsky (eds.): Discourse - Politics - Identity. Stauffenburg Verlag, Tübingen 2010.
  • Edith Saurer : Edith Saurer in conversation with Ruth Wodak. In: Caroline Arni, Gunda Barth-Scalmani, Ingrid Bauer et al. (Eds.): L'Homme. European Journal of Feminist History. Vol. 15, H. 2, 2004, pp. 279-290.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Professor Ruth Wodak, Ph.D., Dr. habil., Dr. hc, FAcSS. (PDF) (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on December 21, 2016 ; Retrieved December 20, 2016 .
  2. ↑ Rudolf de Cillia, Helmut Gruber, Michal Krzyzanowski, Florian Menz (eds.): Discourse - Politics - Identity . Stauffenburg, Tübingen 2010.
  3. ↑ a b c Edith Saurer: Edith Saurer in conversation with Ruth Wodak . In: Caroline Arni, Gunda Barth-Scalmani, Ingrid Bauer (eds.): L'Homme. European Journal of Feminist History . No. 2 , 2004, p. 279-290 .
  4. ↑ "Literally - Ruth Wodak" , Radio Orange 94.0 , May 16, 2016.
  5. ↑ Ruth Wodak also resigned from the academy. In: The press . June 11, 2012. Retrieved June 25, 2017 .
  6. ^ Membership directory: Ruth Wodak. Academia Europaea, accessed January 12, 2018 .
  7. ↑ a b c Professor Ruth Wodak. Retrieved December 20, 2016 .
  8. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF file; 6.59 MB)
  9. ↑ Salzburger Nachrichten: "Lifetime Achievement Award" 2018 awarded to Ruth Wodak . Article dated September 10, 2018, accessed October 31, 2018.
personal data
SURNAME Wodak, Ruth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Austrian linguist
DATE OF BIRTH July 12, 1950
PLACE OF BIRTH London