Borderlines Workshop: Discourse Analysis (Theory and Method)
When: Friday, April 17, 2026, 11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Where: Teams (Online)
Borderlines is hosting an online workshop on Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method with Dr Suyash Barve. This workshop particularly suitable for PhD students and early career researchers.
Overview
The session will introduce discourse analysis (DA) as a theoretical framework and qualitative research method, exploring how language shapes social realities and power relations. Participants will engage in close reading of curated materials, including photographs, policy documents, and news coverage. Facilitated by Suyash Barve, social scientist and Teaching Fellow at Queen Mary University of London, the workshop is ideal for PhD students and early career researchers interested in qualitative methods.
Worskshop details
This workshop will offer an overview of discourse analysis (DA) as both a theoretical framework and a qualitative research method. DA is widely used across disciplines such as political science, education, media studies, policy analysis, journalism, and cultural research.
The session will explore how language and meaning-making shape social realities and power relations, and how researchers can analyse texts by asking: how do texts work, who produces them, for whom, and to what end?The workshop will begin with an introduction to the theoretical foundations of discourse analysis, tracing its development from structuralist and functionalist anthropology to its emergence as a post-structuralist and critically oriented approach. The second part will be interactive, where participants will practice close reading of a set of curated materials (including photographs, policy documents, and news coverage) and reflect on their analyses in small groups.
About the facilitator
Suyash Barve is a social scientist engaged in interdisciplinary research. He is currently a resident fellow at Borderlines. His work takes an anthropological approach to media objects to understand how cultures surrounding technical work operate in South and Southeast Asian cities. His doctoral research investigates how the privatization of digital connectivity in India has affected the livelihoods and social status of small-scale entrepreneurs who build, maintain, and repair last-mile fibre-optic infrastructures in Mumbai. He is a Teaching Fellow at the School of Business and Management at Queen Mary University of London, where he teaches modules on sustainability in the creative and cultural industries and on funding and financing creative production.
The method-focused and participatory format makes this workshop particularly suitable for PhD students and early career researchers who are interested in qualitative methods or considering discourse analysis in their research.