MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships (PF) 2021 candidate sought Public Discourse group

The Public Discourse Group at the Institute for Culture and Society, University of Navarra, studies discursive practices across all areas of social, public, and private life. Our main interests are the analysis of political and media discourses (e.g. populism, nationalism, migration), the intersection of discourse and law (hate speech, freedom of speech), discourse and identity, and multimodal discourse analysis. GradUN has a sound track record in publications (23 Q1/Q2 articles, 13 books and 26 chapters in 2016-18), and the group has also been successful in obtaining competitive funding, including several MINECO-funded projects. GradUN is also outstanding for its truly international character, with researchers from Spain, UK, Belgium, Russia, Italy and Turkey, and (current and recent) PhD students from Germany, Pakistan, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Belgium, Algeria, Russia, China. In particular, we have recently hosted/are hosting three Marie Curie postdoctoral fellows.

GradUN organises a large number of seminars, and has hosted many conferences under the auspices of national and international associations (Sociedad de Lingüística General, DiscourseNet Spring School, DiscourseNet Conference, Asociación de Lingüística del Discurso, AELFE, etc.). This has recently been complemented by numerous focused workshops and seminars within MINECO, PIUNA and Marie Curie projects, generating a high volume of interdisciplinary dialogue, as well as having positive consequences for our visibility on the international research landscape.

Research / Project description

Objectives: We are currently seeking Marie Curie candidates that can contribute to one or more of the following projects (please consult the leading researchers’ websites for further information):

• Politics, populism, migration and inclusion. Leading researcher: Ruth Breeze. We have been researching the developments in political discourse since 2008, focusing particularly on new political parties and movements, and on the ongoing reactions to these within the established parties, and within society. We are particularly interested in the way these parties stake their claims to represent “the people”, through populist discourses, multimodal representations, practices and performances (the main focus for our project “Imagining the people in the new politics”, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economics and Competition (2016-2018)). We are currently extending this focus to look at the interface between political discourses and migration. A new project (Myourope) on migrants’ discourses concerning Europe, and the visions of and from the Arab diaspora, is being led by former Marie Curie fellow Sarali Gintsburg. New Marie Curie fellow Melike Akkaraca is heading the project EMO-FORTE, considering the role of emotions in contemporary Turkish political discourse.

• Digital discourses, hate speech and freedom of speech. Leading researchers: Eleonora Esposito and Dámaso Izquierdo. Building on our group’s interest in political discourse, we are exploring the ongoing debate concerning expression of opinions and ideologies in digital media. On the one hand, we are focusing on discourse relating to women in politics (issues relating to identity, as well as misogyny, discrimination and hate speech), an area which formed the subject of the project WONT-HATE, led by recent Marie Curie fellow Eleonora Esposito. On the other, we are engaged in an Erasmus+ project (CoMMITTEd) to provide teacher training to combat fake news on migration and reduce its impact on young audiences. Finally, we are also investigating hate speech in general within the intersection between the legal and linguistic sphere (Verbal aggression versus freedom of speech in social networks), a project headed by Dámaso Izquierdo. This project will refine the definitions of hate speech, particularly thinking of its digital dimension, with a view to clarifying this difficult area and promoting standards and principles that will have a positive impact on public life.

• In all these areas, our team can provide support and training in discourse analysis, corpus linguistics and multimodality, and in the creative interplay between these different approaches to analysing political, legal and social discourse and media representations. We also have strong relationships with the Schools of Communication and Law, and with the ICS Big Data Unit, which enable us to conduct truly interdisciplinary research within our fields of specialization.

Expected impact: Our research projects address crucial issues facing Europe today. Our aim is to provide deep insights into ongoing social transformations with a view to:

• Gaining a deeper understanding of the discursive dynamics underlying recent developments in the fields of politics and migration, in order to strengthen democracy, inclusion and peaceful cooperation.

Defining, developing and promoting ethical standards for digital communication.

Who can apply?

General requirements:

We are interested in collaborative and translational research and in people with an innovative and open perspective that complements the most clinical or biomedical perspective.

At the deadline for the submission of proposals (15/09/2021), researchers:

• shall be in possession of a doctoral degree or have at least four years of full-time equivalent research experience.
• up to 8 years research experience after PhD
• must not have resided or carried out his/her main activities in Spain for over 12 months in the three years immediately prior to the above-mentioned deadline.

Specific requirements:

• Researchers should have a sound background in discourse/language studies, and should be committed to their social applications.
• Researchers should be proficient in English

Interested candidates should provide the following documentation:

• A cover letter (1 page)
• CV with complete contact details (2-4 pages)
• Research statement (including methodology, objectives and expected results) (max. 2 pages).