Contact Details
Tel: +44 (0)1524 592437
Room: Bowland College, B68
Office Hour: Monday, 2pm - 4pm; or by personal appointment
My Projects
DYLAN: Language Dynamics and Management of Diversity EU-Sixth-Framework Integrated Project (IP)
Dr., Dr. Hab. Ruth Wodak

Distinguished Professor of Discourse Studies
Degree: PhD (Vienna), Habilitation (Vienna)
Associated research centres and groups: Centre for Gender and Women's Studies, Centre for Language in Social Life, Dynamics of Memories, Lancaster Professions Network, Language, Ideology and Power Group (LIP)
Current Teaching
LING 442 Introduction to Discourse Studies
LING 440 Critical Discourse Analysis
Qualitative Methods for the New Route PhDs (password required)
Research Interests
Ruth's main research agenda focus the development of theoretical approaches in discourse studies (combining ethnography, argumentation theory, rhetoric, and functional systemic linguistics); gender studies; language and/in politics; prejudice and discrimination.
Currently, Lynne Pearce (English Department, Lancaster) and Ruth are editing a special issue of the European Journal of Cultural Studies, to be published 2010, focussing the construction of regional and national identities in the media and in fiction. A special issue of Critical Discourse Studies together with John E. Richardson (Loughborough) on 'Discourse, History, and Memory',has justbeen published in October 2009. In this special issue, we present a range of different discourse theoretical approaches to the discursive construction of memory and the past(s). The edited volume Memory and Justice (Passagen Verlag, Vienna), co-edited with Gertraud Auer (Kreisky Forum, Vienna) is due to be published in October 2009. This volume is dedicated to European and more global aspects of commemoration and to the many ways societies deal with traumatic pasts.
Ruth has also been commissioned (together with P. Kerswill and B. Johnstone) to edit a new comprehensive Handbook of Sociolinguistics (Sage, forthcoming).
Ruth's current research projects include DYLAN (EU funded integrated project, 6th framework, coordinated by Anne-Claude Berthoud, University of Lausanne; on European Language Policies and their national, regional, and local implementation); and 'New Discourses in Contemporary China' (NDCC) (together with Paul Chilton, Lancaster University). Recently, we submitted the final report for 'Asylum-seekers and Refugees in the British Press' (funded by ESRC, together with Paul Baker, Lancaster University). Ruth has also been invited to participate on the advisory boards of a7th EU-framework project, due to start late fall 2009 or in the spring2010: ACCEPT (coordinated by Anna Triandafyllidou, EUI).
Ruth teaches on MA and PhD levels and supervises 14 PhD students at Lancaster University. She also convenes the LIP group (Language, Ideology, and Power) which meets every week during term times.
See full CV.
Some recent book publications
Potential Doctoral Proposals
Discourse Studies
Identity Politics
Language and/in Politics
Discrimination, Racism, Anti-Semitism, and Xenophobia in/via Discourse
Analysis of Media
Critical Discourse Analysis
Brief Bio
Ruth Wodak is Distinguished Professor and Chair in Discourse Studies at Lancaster University since 1/9/2004 (personal chair). She moved from Vienna, Austria, where she was full professor of Applied Linguistics, University Vienna,since 1991 (she is still supervising some PhD students at the Department of Linguistics, University Vienna). She has stayed co-director of the Austrian National Focal Point (NFP) of the European Monitoring Centre for Racism, Xenophobia and Anti-Semitism (see http://www.eumc.eu.int for more information on the work of the EUMC and the NFP's) (now renamed European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights - FRA). In September 2009, Ruth was elected as president of the Societas Linguistica Europea (http://www.societaslinguistica.eu/).
Besides various other prizes, Ruth was awarded the Wittgenstein Prize for Elite Researchers in 1996 which made six years of continuous interdisciplinary team research possible. The main projects focussed on "Discourses on Un/employment in EU organizations; Debates on NATO and Neutrality in Austria and Hungary; The Discursive Construction of European Identities; Attitudes towards EU-Enlargement; Racism at the Top. Parliamentary Debates on Immigration in Six EU countries; The Discursive Construction of the Past - Individual and Collective Memories of the German Wehrmacht and the Second World War." In October 2006, she was awarded the Woman's Prize of the City of Vienna.
Her research is mainly located in Discourse Studies (DS) and in Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). Together with her former colleagues and Ph.D students in Vienna (Rudolf de Cillia, Gertraud Benke, Helmut Gruber, Florian Menz, Martin Reisigl, Usama Suleiman, Christine Anthonissen), she elaborated the "Discourse-Historical Approach in CDA" (DHA) in the 1990s which is interdisciplinary, problem-oriented, and analyzes the change of discursive practices over time and in various genres.
She is member of the editorial board of a range of linguistic journals, co-editor of the journal Discourse and Society and editor of Critical Discourse Studies (with Norman Fairclough, Phil Graham and Jay Lemke) and of the Journal of Language and Politics (with Paul Chilton). Together with Greg Myers, Ruth edits the book series DAPSAC (Benjamins). She was also section editor of "Language and Politics" for the Second Edition of the Elsevier Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics. Ruth chaired the Humanities and Social Sciences Panel for the EURYI award, in the European Science Foundation, 2006 - 2008.
Ruth has held visiting professorships in Uppsala, Stanford University, University of Minnesota, and Georgetown University, Washington, D.C. In the spring 2004, she had a Leverhulme Visiting Professorship at the University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK. 2007, she was awarded the Kerstin Hesselgren Chair of the Swedish Parliament and stayed at University of Örebro, Sweden, from March to June 2008.
Recent Announcements
New books and special issues of journals published:
Wodak, Ruth (2009) The Discourse of Politics in Action: Politics as Usual Basingstoke: Palgrave, http://www.palgrave.com/products/title.aspx?pid=276612.
'Discourse, History, and Memory', Critical Discourse Studies 6/1 (Eds. J. E. Richardson & R. Wodak)
J. Culpeper, F. Katamba, P. Kerswill, R. Wodak, T. McEnery (Eds.) (2009) English Language: Description, Variation and Context Basingstoke: Palgrave http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fass/doc_library/linguistics/wodakr/English_Language_leaflet.pdf.
A. Triandafyllidou, R. Wodak, M. Krzyzanowski (Eds.) (2009) Europe in Crisis: The 'European Public Sphere' and National Media in the Post-War Period Basingstoke: Palgrave.
Wodak, Ruth & Meyer, Michael (Eds.) (2009) Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis London: Sage (2nd revised edition) (http://www.uk.sagepub.com/booksProdDesc.nav?contribId=500587&prodId=Book232883)
Wodak, Ruth, De Cillia, Rudolf, Reisigl, Martin, Liebhart, Karin (2009) The Discursive Construction of National Identity. Edinburgh: EUP (2nd revised edition) (http://www.euppublishing.com/book/9780748637348)
de Cillia, Rudolf & Wodak, Ruth (Eds.) (2009) Gedenken im 'Gedankenjahr', Innsbruck: Studienverlag.
Krzyzanowski, Michal &Wodak, Ruth(2008) The Politics of Exclusion: Debating Migration in Austria New Brunswick:Transaction Press(http://books.google.com/books/transaction?id=V3qXaV9EYREC&pg=PA3&dq=Politics+of+Exclusion#PPP1,M1).
Robert Jessop, Norman Fairclough, Ruth Wodak (Eds.) (2008) Higher Education and the Knowledge Based Economy in Europe Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.
Gerard Delanty, Ruth Wodak, Paul Jones (Eds.) (2008) Migration, Identity, and Belonging Liverpool: Liverpool Univ. Press.
Wodak, Ruth and Veronika Koller (eds) (2008) Handbook of Communication in the Public Sphere. Berlin: De Gruyter.
Ruth Wodak & Michal Krzyzanowski (Eds.) (2008) Qualitative Discourse Analysis for the Social Sciences Basingstoke: Palgrave
Hannes Heer, Walter Manoschek, Alexander Pollak, Ruth Wodak (Eds.) (2008) The Construction of History. Remembering the War of Annihilation Basingstoke: Palgrave.
New books in DAPSAC series:
New book in DAPSAC series: Dolon, Rosana and Julia Todoli (eds) (2008) Analysing Identities in Discourse, Benjamins.
New book in DAPSAC series: Verdoolaege, Annelies (2008) Reconciliation Discourse: The Case of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Benjamins.
New book in DAPSAC series: Wilson, John & Sharon Millar (2007) The Discourse of Europe. Benjamins
New book in DAPSAC series: Hodges, Adam & Chad Nilep (2007) Discourse, War & Terrorism. Benjamins.
New book in DAPSAC series: Goatly, Andrew (2007) Washing the Brain - Metaphor and Hidden Ideology. Benjamins.
ePrints Publications Repository
Ruth Wodak has 249 publication records in the Lancaster University ePrints repository. Use links to access abstracts and full text where available. View all records to sort by date, type and title.
Strath, B. and Wodak, R. (2009) Europe-Discourse-Politics-Media-History: Constructing Crises. In: The European public sphere and the media : Europe in crisis. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke , pp. 15-33. ISBN 9780230210424
Bialasiewicz, Luiza and Dahlman, Carl and Apuzzo, Gian Matteo and Ciută, Felix and Jones, Alun and Rumford, Chris and Wodak, Ruth and Anderson , James and Ingram, Alan (2009) Interventions in the new political geographies of the European ‘neighborhood’. Political Geography, 28 (2). pp. 79-89. ISSN 0962-6298.
Wodak, R. (2009) Language and Politics. In: English Language: Description, Variation and Context. Palgrave, Basingstoke, pp. 576-593.
Kwon, I. and Clarke, R. and Wodak, R. (2009) Organizational decision-making, discourse, and power: integrating across contexts and scales. Discourse and Communication, 3 (3). pp. 273-302. ISSN 1750-4813
Wodak, Ruth (2009) Pragmatique et Analyse de Discours Critique: un exemple d'une analyse a la croisee des disciplines. Semen, 27 . pp. 97-126. ISSN 0761-2990
Richardson, J.E. and Wodak, R. (2009) Recontextualising fascist ideologies of the past: right-wing discourses on employment and nativism in Austria and the United Kingdom. Critical Discourse Studies, 6 (4). pp. 251-267.
Wodak, Ruth (2009) Staging politics in television: fiction and/or reality. In: Einigkeitsdiskurse : zur Inszenierung von Konsens in organisationaler und öffentlicher Kommunikation. Kommunikation in Organisationen : Studien zu Sprache, Interaktion und Diskurs in professionellen Kontexten (242). VS Research, Wiesbaden , pp. 33-58. ISBN 9783531164090
Wodak, Ruth (2009) The semiotics of racism: A Critical Discourse-Historical Analysis. In: Discourse, of course : an overview of research in discourse studies. Benjamins, Amsterdam, pp. 311-326. ISBN 9789027232588
Wodak, Ruth (2008) ‘Us’ and ‘Them’: Inclusion/Exclusion – Discrimination via Discourse. In: Migration, Identity, and Belonging. University of Liverpool Press, Liverpool, pp. 54-78. ISBN 978-1846311185
Baker, Paul and Gabrielatos, Costas and Khosravinik, Majid and Krzyzanowski, Michal and McEnery, Anthony M. and Wodak, Ruth (2008) A useful methodological synergy? Combining critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics to examine discourses of refugees and asylum seekers in the UK press. Discourse and Society, 19 (3). pp. 273-306. ISSN Online ISSN: 1460-3624 Print ISSN: 0957-9265
Associated Keywords: Discourse analysis, Gender, Gender identities, Memory, Migration and diaspora, Multilingualism, National identities, New media, Non-verbal communication, Organisations, Semiotics, Sociolinguistics, Spoken language corpora
View all research activities, news and events associated with Ruth Wodak.

