Doctoral Candidate (GRK-2840) Laura Gärtner

My research interests are computer-mediated communication, semantics, and the intersection between cognitive linguistics and discourse analysis. In my dissertation, I am investigating the staging of enemies from a linguistic angle. I examine language structures that transmit enemy representations in an array of media sources from 21st-century Identitarian movements in France. By adopting a two-fold approach that includes French discourse analysis and construction grammar, I explore syntactic structures in a large-scale, multi-media corpus. My data set comprises of music, literature, essays, social media, and websites produced by self-declared Identitarian groups and individuals. By combining statistical corpus linguistic techniques with a qualitative analysis, I aim to show that cognitive representation units are expressed through recurrent language patterns that can be detected in discourse.

2023–  Doctoral Candidate at the Research Training Group Ambivalent Enmity, Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies
Working Title: Exploring Linguistic Enemy Images in Identitarian Movements in 21^st century France
2023  Internship at the Institut des Humanités Numériques, Cergy Paris University 
2022  Teaching Assignment: Accompanied Reading of linguistic fundamentals in French
2021– 2023  Research Assistant at the Chair of Romance languages 
2020– 2022  M.A. in Literature and Language in Francophone Studies, Seminar for Romance Languages, Heidelberg University 
2017– 2018  Support Seminar German Grammar and Syntax, Translation into German, Sorbonne University
2016– 2019  B.A.  Applied Languages, Sorbonne University