Rhetoric-Performative and Post-Foundational Analysis
| Study location | Finland, Helsinki |
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| Type | Short duration course, short course |
| Nominal duration | 4–20 Aug 2020 (5 ECTS) |
| Study language | English |
| Tuition fee |
EARLY BIRD prices valid until 28 February 2020 |
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| Entry qualification | A minimum of 2 years of university-level studies is required for all courses. See course-specific requirements below >> target students. |
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| Language requirements | English All courses are taught in English. Although applicants are not required to present an official certificate of language proficiency, all students must be fluent in English. A good command of English is necessary for completing the course (following teaching, participating in classroom discussions, writing essays) as well as managing day-to-day matters in Finland. An applicant can be rejected if his/her level of English is not deemed equivalent to the standards. |
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| Other requirements | A motivation letter must be added to your application. Please tell us about your academic goals and why you would like to attend Helsinki Summer School and the course you have applied for. For example: Why is this course important to your studies or to your future career? How do you satisfy the course requirements? Please note that plagiarism is strictly forbidden at the University of Helsinki. Any applicant caught of plagiarism will be automatically rejected. |
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| More information |
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Overview
Synopsis
This course will familiarise the students with a distinct framework to study the relational nature of political meaning-making: rhetoric-performative analysis based on post-foundational political thought. Through this framework the students will be able to critically analyse some of the most pressing questions and phenomena of our era, such as the legitimacy of democracy, the logic of populism, articulations of gender and sexuality, competing forms of economic production and property, and the functioning of identity politics.
Rather than taking political concepts and categorisations at face value, this course suggests that the focus of analysis should shift to the ways in which meaning-making takes place and to the contingency of the concepts, discourses and structures we inhabit.
During the course the students will learn about different forms of post-foundational thinking. They will get to explore the ways in which it can be combined with various research techniques focusing on the relational nature of meaning. The course will introduce the students to the works of authors such as Ernesto Laclau, Chantal Mouffe, Jacques Derrida, Judith Butler, Michel Foucault, Stuart Hall, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Jean-Luc Nancy, Louis Althusser and Antonio Gramsci as central to this approach.
Through in-class discussions, group work, excursions and guest lectures, the course will enable the participants to start using insights from this strand of European continental political philosophy in the study of contemporary political issues. Teaching will be composed of lectures and seminars as well as workshops with researchers at the University of Helsinki.
Building on three previous years’ successful Helsinki Summer School courses on post-foundational political theory and discourse analysis, this year’s course will in part take its cue from the volume Discourse, Culture and Organization (2019, Palgrave Macmillan), edited by Tomas Marttila and with a contribution by Emilia Palonen, both of whom will be teaching on the course.
As in previous years, the course will again invite prominent scholars to teach and comment on the work of the students. As has been noted by the students during and after the previous years’ courses, this course provides a unique space for learning, networking and becoming a member of a vibrant international scholarly community.
Target students
Master’s/PhD level students. Bachelor’s degree or previous knowledge of research methods and research practice required.
Coordinators
Emilia Palonen (responsible teacher), emilia.palonen@helsinki.fi
Marina Vulovic, marina.vulovic@helsinki.fi
You may contact the course coordinators with questions concerning the course content.
With any other questions concerning Helsinki Summer School or the application process, please contact summer-school@helsinki.fi.