This two-day masterclass is an applied introduction to discourse analysis. Providing a theoretical overview and using a variety of textual data, this workshop introduces critical methods for analysing and interrogating discourses. It will provide tools for researchers to generate new insights into how complex social problems are understood through communication.
This course will be run over 2 days in three sessions per day:
- 10.00 am - 11.30 am - Session 1
- 12.30 am - 2.30 pm - Session 2
- 3.00 pm - 4.30 pm - Session 3
Course notes will be sent out in advance and exercises will be provided over the 2 days.
Dr Archie Thomas is a Chancellor’s Research Fellow at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS) who has published widely on self-determination and Indigenous aspirations, and diversity, discrimination and inclusion in media and education. He is a Chancellor’s Research Fellow at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS). He is the lead author of Does the media fail Aboriginal political aspirations? 45 years of news media reporting of key political moments (Aboriginal Studies Press, 2020), Yipirinya: Education for self-determination (forthcoming, 2026) and co-editor of Educational agitations (Routledge, 2026).
Discourse is a description of how language and representation, beyond the level of sentence and grammar, generates ways of knowing and understanding the world. Discourse analysis considers how, through communication, ideas and social processes are made, understood and become ‘common sense’. Discourse analysis aims to interpret and understand those ways of knowing, often with the goal of revealing and/or challenging inequalities. This workshop provides crucial theoretical background to discourse analysis, combined with a strong focus on applying and adapting methods for scholarly and policy research projects.
It will consider how discourse analysis can help us see how problems are understood and represented, and how social norms, categories and identities (e.g. around class, gender, race, ethnicity, Indigeneity) are communicated textually.
It will include exemplars of methods and qualitative analysis of real textual data (written, spoken, visual and so on). Participants will be encouraged to develop analysis of discourses of a variety of texts using three key methods, and will be provided with tools to continue their self-education and discourse analysis investigations beyond the workshop.
This course is relevant to scholars or policy analysts with some experience in qualitative analysis who are looking for an introduction or a refresher in critical discourse analysis. It is suitable for postgraduate students up to career scholars, as well as policy analysts in the government or community sector. The methods provided are useful tools across all fields of the social sciences and humanities as well as adjacent fields such as education, law and health.
Day 1
Session 1: Language, power and ideology: The roots and key ideas of Discourse Analysis
Session 2: Putting discourse analysis to work: investigating problems, questions and data types
Session 3: Asking questions of texts: investigating discourse analysis in action across the social sciences
Day 2
Session 4: Discourse Analysis Method 1 – What is the problem represented to be?
Session 5: Discourse Analysis Methods 2 – Critical Discourse Analysis
Session 6: Discourse Analysis Methods 3 – Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis
Refresher and summary
This workshop will take place online using Zoom
Participants will need:
- access to a PC or MAC with Microsoft Excel, a camera, a microphone, and ability to run Zoom without interruption
- basic understanding of Excel
This online masterclass will combine specific/direct instruction, modelling of discourse analysis processes, small group workshop tasks, instructor feedback, and a guide to resources.
An understanding of qualitative research methods is required. For example, participation in training such as ACSPRI’s Introduction to Qualitative Research, or a university-level subject in Research methodologies in social sciences will provide relevant background.
Participants are welcome to bring a research question, project, issue or topic to focus their applied work on.
Bacchi, C., & Goodwin, S. (2016). Making politics visible: The WPR approach. In Poststructural policy analysis: A guide to practice (pp. 13-26). New York: Palgrave Macmillan US.
Paltridge, B. (2012). ‘Critical Discourse Analysis’ in Discourse Analysis: An Introduction (second edition), pp. 186-203, London: Bloomsbury
Wodak, R., & Meyer, M. (2009). Critical discourse analysis: History, agenda, theory and methodology. Methods of critical discourse analysis, 2(1), 1-33.