Project Description
Short Vita
I am a student of Language and Communication focusing on Cognitive Media Linguistics at Technische Universität Berlin. Prior to that, I majored in Media and Communication Studies concentrating mainly on media depictions and social disparity. As a Student Research Assistant I am currently assisting the research unit Discourses of Cohesion.
What I find exciting about this research initiative
Under the currently disturbing circumstances due to the pandemic it is only natural to ponder and think about social cohesion, crisis-proneness and resilience. At the beginning of this pandemic, social and democratic awareness turned into their opposites: to be social suddenly meant favouring social isolation to conviviality; to be democratic meant questioning one’s own initiative in accordance with the state’s containment policy regarding the pandemic. Although upheaval can yield opportunities, the pandemic exacerbates existing inequalities and blurs future prospects.
I am excited about being able to investigate the question of what all this means for our understanding of and communication about social cohesion, particularly as this is undertaken by an interdisciplinary team.
What my discipline can contribute to this research initiative
What we understand by social cohesion partly depends on what representations of social cohesion we have perceived over time. Examining what prevalent patterns of communication, persuasive strategies and recurrent metaphors shape the discourse will help us to comprehend the society we live in and the ways in which it continually reconstitutes itself in a much better way.