Poster: Grimm Lecture 2012 Poster (PDF)
The Grimm Lecture 2012, the annual flagship event of the Waterloo Centre for German Studies, was given by Ruth Wodak on October 23rd 2012. In her diverting lecture Recent developments in post-war Austrian German: A case study on genre-related language change, Ruth Wodak talked about language change in Austrian German in the fields of education, media, and business. She showed how different text genres – business reports, newspaper articles, the Austrian Press Agency’s news reports, and high school students’ German essays – underwent significant change between 1970 and 2010. She also illustrated how the change of Austrian German is driven by change in genres, a change that is embedded in larger socio-political and global contexts. The lecture and discussion were followed by an enjoyable reception.
Ruth Wodak is a critical discourse analyst who has made extraordinary contributions to the field of applied linguistics in recent years. She is originally from Austria and currently Distinguished Professor of Discourse Studies at Lancaster University, the university with the strongest program in applied linguistics in the UK. Through her interdisciplinary research she is affiliated with a number of research groups at her university: Centre for Gender and Women's Studies, Centre for Language in Social Life, Cultural Political Economy Research Centre, Dynamics of Memories, Language, Ideology and Power Group (LIP).
For further information about the lecture, please read the article in our newsletter Wat's In-Sight issue 8 (PDF).
