Ruth Wodak (born 12 July 1950 in
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
) is an
Austrian linguist
Linguistics is the scientific study of language. The areas of linguistic analysis are syntax (rules governing the structure of sentences), semantics (meaning), Morphology (linguistics), morphology (structure of words), phonetics (speech sounds ...
, who is Emeritus Distinguished Professor and Chair in
Discourse Studies in the Department of Linguistics and English Language at
Lancaster University
Lancaster University (officially The University of Lancaster) is a collegiate public university, public research university in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established in 1964 by royal charter, as one of several new univer ...
and Professor in Linguistics at the
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna (, ) is a public university, public research university in Vienna, Austria. Founded by Rudolf IV, Duke of Austria, Duke Rudolph IV in 1365, it is the oldest university in the German-speaking world and among the largest ...
.
Wodak's research is predominantly rooted in
discourse studies and in
critical discourse analysis. Together with her former colleagues and some of her early 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, an interdisciplinary, problem-oriented approach to analysing 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 ''
Discourse and Society''
Critical Discourse Studies and of th
Journal of Language and Politics She was the founding editor (together with
Paul Chilton) of the book serie
Discourse Approaches to Politics, Society and Culture She was also section editor of "Language and Politics" for the Second Edition of the Elsevier ''
Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics
The ''Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics'', first published in 1994 (edited by Ronald E. Asher), with a 2nd edition in 2006 (edited by Keith Brown), is an encyclopedia of all matters related to language and linguistics.
Reception
The ''Jo ...
''. Ruth Wodak chaired the
Humanities
Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...
and
Social Sciences
Social science (often rendered in the plural as the social sciences) is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of society, societies and the Social relation, relationships among members within those societies. The term was former ...
Panel for
EURYI Award, in the
European Science Foundation
The European Science Foundation (ESF) is an association of 11 member organizations devoted to scientific research in 8 European countries. ESF is an independent, non-governmental, non-profit organization that promotes science in Europe. It was e ...
from 2006 to 2008.
Awards and honours
In 1996, she was awarded the
Wittgenstein-Preis
The Wittgenstein Award () is an Austrian science award supporting the notion that "scientists should be guaranteed the greatest possible freedom and flexibility in the performance of their research." The prize money of up to 1.5 million euro make i ...
, the highest Austrian science award, for her projects focused on "Discourses on Un/employment in EU organizations; Debates on
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
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.
She was awarded the
Kerstin Hesselgren Chair of the
Swedish Parliament and stayed at
University of Ă–rebro, Sweden, from March to June 2008.
In December 2011, Professor
Karl Heinz Töchterle, Minister of Science and Education, presented her with the
Grand Decoration of Honour in Silver for Services to the Republic of Austria (''GroĂźes Silbernes Ehrenzeichen fĂĽr Verdienste um die Republik Ă–sterreich''), in Vienna, on behalf of the President of Austria, Dr
Heinz Fischer
Heinz Fischer Order of Prince Henry, GColIH, Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, OMRI, Order of the Seraphim, RSerafO, Military Order of Saint James of the Sword, GCollSE (; born 9 October 1938) is an Austrian politician who served as the pre ...
. "The award citation emphasises the social relevance and impact of her outstanding research on the discursive construction of national and transnational identities and patterns of racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism."
She was elected Fellow of the
Academy of Social Sciences
The Academy of Social Sciences (AcSS) is a representative body for social sciences in the United Kingdom. The academy promotes social science through its sponsorship of the Campaign for Social Science, its links with Government on a variety of m ...
in 2013.
Ruth Wodak has been a
Fulbright Austria Scholar at
Stanford University
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
. She has held visiting professorships at
Uppsala University
Uppsala University (UU) () is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in operation.
Initially fou ...
,
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...
, and
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private university, private Jesuit research university in Washington, D.C., United States. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789, it is the oldest Catholic higher education, Ca ...
, and a Leverhulme Visiting Professorship at the
University of East Anglia
The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...
.
In 2023 Wodak received an honorary degree from the
University of Warwick
The University of Warwick ( ; abbreviated as ''Warw.'' in post-nominal letters) is a public research university on the outskirts of Coventry between the West Midlands and Warwickshire, England. The university was founded in 1965 as part of ...
.
Selected bibliography
Books
*De Cillia, Rudolf, Ruth Wodak, Markus Rheindorf, Sabine Lehner (2020). ''Österreichische Identitäten im Wandel: Empirische Untersuchungen zu ihrer diskursiven Konstruktion 1995-2015.'' Berlin: Springer.
*Wodak, Ruth (2015). ''The Politics of Fear: What Right-Wing Populist Discourses Mean''. London: Sage.
*Wodak, Ruth (2011). ''The Discourse of Politics in Action: Politics as Usual'' (2nd revised edition). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
*Reisigl, Martin & Wodak, Ruth (2001). ''Discourse and Discrimination.'' London: Routledge.
*Wodak, Ruth (1996). ''Disorders of Discourse.'' London: Longman.
Edited books
*Wodak, Ruth, & Forchtner, Bernhard (Eds.) (2017). ''The Routledge Handbook of Language and Politics.'' London: Routledge.
*Wodak, Ruth, Mral, Brigitte, & Khosravinik, Majid (Eds.) (2013). ''Right Wing Populism in Europe: Politics and Discourse.'' London: Bloomsbury Academic.
*Wodak, Ruth (Ed.) (2013). ''Critical Discourse Analysis: Four Volumes.'' Sage.
*Wodak, Ruth, Johnstone, Barbara, & Kerswill, Paul (Eds.) (2011). ''The Sage Handbook of Sociolinguistics.'' Los Angeles: Sage.
*Wodak, Ruth & Meyer, Michael (Eds.) (2009). ''Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis'' (2nd revised edition). London: Sage.
*Wodak, Ruth & Reisigl, Martin (Eds.) (2009). ''The Discursive Construction of National Identity''. Edinburgh: EUP.
*Wodak, Ruth & Koller, Veronika (Eds.) (2008). ''Handbook of Communication in the Public Sphere.'' Berlin: De Gruyter.
*Wodak, Ruth, & Krzyzanowski, Michal (2008). ''Qualitative Discourse Analysis in the Social Sciences.'' Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
*Wodak, Ruth & Chilton, Paul (Eds.) (2005). ''New Agenda in (Critical) Discourse Analysis.'' Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
*Weiss, Gilbert & Wodak, Ruth (Eds.) (2003). ''Critical Discourse Analysis: Theory and Interdisciplinarity.'' Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
*Wodak, Ruth, de Cillia, Rudolf, Reisigl, Martin, & Liebhart, Karin (Eds.) (1999). ''The Discursive Construction of National Identity.'' Edinburgh: EUP.
*Wodak, Ruth (Ed.) (1997). ''Gender and Discourse.'' London: Sage.
*Wodak, Ruth (Ed.) (1989). ''Language, Power and Ideology: Studies in Political Discourse.'' Amsterdam: John Benjamins.
References
External links
Staff page at Lancaster UniversityProfile at Academia.eduLanguage, Ideology and Power Research GroupJournal of Language and Politics*
Fulbright Austria
Entry for Ruth Wodakat
OCLC
OCLC, Inc. See also: is an American nonprofit cooperative organization "that provides shared technology services, original research, and community programs for its membership and the library community at large". It was founded in 1967 as the ...
Worldcat Classify
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wodak, Ruth
Sociolinguists
Applied linguists
Discourse analysts
Academics of Lancaster University
Academics of the University of East Anglia
Academic staff of Ă–rebro University
1950 births
Living people
Recipients of the Grand Decoration for Services to the Republic of Austria
Fellows of the Academy of Social Sciences
Austrian women academics
Women linguists
University of Vienna alumni
Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University
20th-century Austrian linguists
21st-century linguists