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Discourse is a key interest of researchers in the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics at the Open University. They study how, through language, people participate in, normalise or disrupt cultural and social structures, norms and practices, e.g. in public communication, institutional talk or conversation. They use a wide range of methodological and theoretical tools to study written and spoken meaning making, including face-to-face interaction, print and digital media.

For example, researchers in the School explore and problematize political discourse in the media; social media mourning; decoloniality and discourse; the role of discourse in constructing power structures in academia; workplace intercultural communication; discourses of marriage; discourses of language in higher education; the discursive construction of gender in children’s fiction and of morality in public and private discourse. As a PhD student, you will be part of a vibrant international community of discourse researchers: International Association of Discourse Studies.

Entry requirements

Minimum 2:1 undergraduate degree (or equivalent) and an MA or research methods training at MA level (or equivalent). If you are not a UK citizen, you may need to prove your .

Potential research projects

• Discourse and politics
• Workplace discourse including intercultural communication and pragmatics
• Topics combining discourse analysis with corpus linguistics or ethnography
• Narrative and argumentation
• Social media narratives
• Critical discourse analysis of identity construction in print media or fiction
• Representation of marginalised groups and/or of poverty
• Language and gender
• Linguistic practices and (im)mobility
• Communicative practices in the informal economies of the Global South and the Global North.

Current/recent research projects

• A discursive construction of leadership.
• The case of a German start-up Moroccans in Paris: linguistic practices and landscaping

Potential supervisors

• Professor Johannes Angermuller
• Dr. Jackie Tuck

Fees and funding

PhD fees

Professional doctorate fees

Some of our research students are funded via The Grand Union Doctoral Training Partnership; others are self-funded.

For detailed information about fees and funding, visit Fees and studentships.

To see current funded studentship vacancies across all research areas, see .

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