Who we are
We are researchers interested in disseminating the knowledge produced in Discourse Analysis in Brazil. For this purpose, we have organized ENCIDIS, a Virtual Encyclopedia of Discourse and related areas.
From the position of subject researcher in Discourse Analysis (Pêcheux, 1969, 1975, 1982) and in History of Linguistic Ideas (Auroux, 1992), ENCIDIS represents the construction of a digital device, a technical object, whose purpose is to disseminate knowledge produced in the area of language studies. Consequently, as to the Encyclopedia, it is appropriate to theorize about its own production process as one, among several academic possibilities for the dissemination of research. By putting the knowledge produced by Brazilian linguists into circulation in digital media, the Encyclopedia aims to transmit this knowledge, and it also aims to promote its dissemination. In other words, based on a digital technology, the intended purpose is to put into circulation concepts, terms and research in Discourse Analysis and related areas in a specific way.
ENCIDIS has received support from the CNPq Universal Program (2016). We submitted to CNPq the project entitled “Production of the virtual audiovisual encyclopedia in Discourse Analysis and related areas: new entries and subtitling for scientific dissemination”. The project has been developed at Universidade Federal Fluminense by the Laboratório Arquivos do Sujeito – LAS (Archives of the Subject Laboratory –UFF) in partnership with the Laboratório de Tradução – LABESTRAD (Laboratory of Translation Studies– UFF).
Objectives and innovating aspects
Regarding this project, the theoretical discussion lies on the functioning of language technologies, which have revolutionized people’s way of relating to the world over the centuries.
The current project’s general goal is the elaboration and organization of video-recordings for a virtual audiovisual encyclopedia of Discourse Analysis and related areas. In specific terms, the goal is to develop the theoretical support for the construction of this digital instrument of language, as well as to problematize such practice conceived to put into circulation the production of knowledge on the Internet. It is necessary to theorize about the production process of a digital instrument that circulates knowledge produced in the field of reflections on language, in Brazilian Portuguese, with subtitles.
One of the innovative aspects of the project is the proposed format, which shows invited researchers being filmed as they present a certain entry, and another innovation is the use of the YOUTUBE channel, as a means of disseminating the knowledge production proposed here.
This goal is related to the permanent theoretical discussion about the production and circulation of knowledge in view of our own conditions of production, in the university space, of an encyclopedia with the above-mentioned characteristics. Our theoretical foundation lies in the reflection areas formulated by discourse analysts and researchers in the History of Linguistic Ideas, who have worked with Orlandi (2001), Guimarães (2002) and Auroux (1992) for more than three decades.
Keywords: knowledge dissemination, encyclopedia, Discourse Analysis, language technologies, Brazilian Portuguese, translation/subtitling
Timeline
The project presented, “Production of the virtual audiovisual encyclopedia in Discourse Analysis and related areas: new entries and subtitling for scientific dissemination”, proposes to continue and expand the scope of a previous project, which received FAPERJ’s support and was developed during 30 months, completed in January 2016.
Under my general coordination, this previous project “Scientific dissemination in Discourse Analysis: investigation and innovation based on new technologies” (FAPERJ process number: E-26/111.085/2013), was implemented and carried out by the Arquivos do Subject Laboratory. (www.uff.br/LAS), located in room 410-II, block B, Gragoatá campus, at Universidade Federal Fluminense. The main objective was to develop a virtual audiovisual video encyclopedia on Discourse Analysis and related areas. This encyclopedia was organized with presentations of specialists in Discourse Analysis, who were filmed describing and/or discussing a concept, a term, or a research fragment linked to the entry in question. Those presentations, once spoken and filmed, were edited, and became small video-recordings. As a whole, the video-recordings were posted on the channel that the Arquivos do Sujeito Laboratory (LAS) has on the so-called UFFTUBE, a UFF channel on youtube.com, and can now be accessed via the link http://ufftube.uff.br/user/LAS. The invited researchers were invited to send a written page about the entry presented and, according to their availability, to give a lecture to the UFF community.
Innovating characteristics
The first project’s main characteristic was the fact that it was a collective research project. In other words, it was the work carried out by professors, post-doc scholars, doctoral, master program, and undergraduate students. Their work included practice, a praxis that moved the positions of the researcher subjects, not only among team members, but among the scholar-guests as well. The initial team submitted to FAPERJ had nine members, and along the two years it was carried on, there were a few changes in the group, resulting from the fact that new members joined the group while some other members quit the group, in a typical movement in academic life.
The project had innovative characteristics since it proposed to disseminate scientific production in a differentiated way. It also planned to develop a strong action educational action. The project had two goals:
1) to map, give visibility and put into circulation basic concepts and research of Discourse Analysis and related areas, in order to disseminate the academic work and research of this discipline using the format of the moving image on the web; and
2) to invest strongly in an educational way since its required previous theoretical readings. The live presentations happen at the time of filming and they remain available to be seen later. In addition, by organizing this video encyclopedia, the team had contact with contemporary technologies, opening up another field and perspectives for the students in the university Language Courses.