Curriculum Vitae
ISABELA VIOLETA IETCU
Reader
English Department, Faculty of Foreign Languages
University of Bucharest
isavio@pcnet.ro
EDUCATION
1988: graduated from the Faculty of Foreign Languages, University of Bucharest (1983 – 1988) – English language and literature (major), French language and literature (minor); final mark 9.98. Diploma Paper: Verbs of Perception as Modal Operators – A Syntactic and Semantic Analysis (supervisor: Prof. Alexandra Cornilescu).
1992-1993: Soros/Georgescu scholar at the University of Oxford, UK, Somerville College (a one-year research scholarship in linguistics and philosophy of language).
1997 (May): intensive course at the Vienna Institute for Translators and Interpreters, sponsored by Tempus-Phare.
1996 (July): Soros scholar at the Central European University-HESP Summer University, Budapest. Completed course: "Scientific Methods: From Positivism to Postmodernism" in philosophy of science.
1997-2003: Ph.D. student at the University of Lancaster, UK, on a British Council-financed programme - ‘Part-Time Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics for Romanian Academics’ – involving face-to-face teaching (1997-2000), assessed coursework (1997-2000) and Ph. D. thesis - completed in 2004.
Ph.D. THESIS (Lancaster University, UK)
Dialogicality and Ethical Perspective in Romanian Intellectual Discourse after 1989. A study of H.-R. Patapievici (14 July 2004) Diploma of 'Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics', 1 August 2004. Examiners: Prof. Paul Chilton (East Anglia), Prof. Greg Myers (Lancaster).
EMPLOYMENT AND TEACHING EXPERIENCE
1. 1988-1990 – high-school teacher of English at ‘Liceul Sanitar’ Tirgoviste;
2. 1990-1997 – assistant-lecturer in the English Department of the University of Bucharest;
3. 1997 – up to the present – lecturer in the same department.
4. Courses taught at undergraduate and postgraduate level in the English Department of the University of Bucharest:
• Discourse and the Public Sphere. Approaches to Discourse Analysis (within the M.A. programme in British Cultural Studies, University of Bucharest).
• Introduction to Discourse Analysis and ArgumentationTheory (within the M.A. programme in Applied Linguistics, University of Bucharest).
• Theories of Argumentation: Pragma-Dialectics (M.A. in Applied Linguistics/ Discourse and Argumentation Studies, University of Bucharest).
• Media Discourse (M.A in Applied Linguistics/ Discourse and Argumentation Studies, University of Bucharest)
• Research Methods in the Social Sciences (M.A in Applied Linguistics, University of Bucharest)
• Introduction to Semantics/ Pragmatics ( 3rd year A and B).
CONFERENCE PAPERS
(a) International Conferences
• ‘Status groups’ or a ‘free market of ideas’ – an analysis of a Romanian cultural polemic in pragma-dialectical and critical discourse-analytical terms, ISSA 6th International Conference on Argumentation, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, June 27-30, 2006.
• Varieties of populism. Legitimation Strategies in the Romanian Presidential Election of 2004, International Conference of Critical Discourse Analysis, University of Athens, 20-21 May 2005.
• Argumentation, dialogue and ethical perspective in two essays on Romanian economic transition by H.-R. Patapievici, International Conference IADA, May 26-28, 2005 University of Bucharest.
• A failure of dialogicality: argumentation and explanation in the journalism of Romanian intellectuals after 1989 , International Conference on Critical Discourse Analysis, University of Valencia, Spain, 6-8 May 2004.
• Anti-feminism as Conservatism in post-communist Romania: a discourse-analytical perspective, International Conference on Language and Gender, IGALA2, Lancaster University, UK, 12-14 April, 2002.
• Genre, discourse and style in the political writings of the Romanian intellectuals, International conference "Genre 2001: Genres and Discourses in Education, Work and Cultural Life", University of Oslo, Norway, May 13-16, 2001.
• Ideology and mythology: Images of Romanianness in an English language textbook, International Conference in Applied Linguistics Discourses and Learning: Theoretical and Applied Perspectives, Lancaster University, UK, 10-11 July 1999.
• Discourses of illusion and disillusion in post-1989 Romania: decommunization as political myth in the writings of the critical intellectuals (a case study: G.Liiceanu), International seminar on Texts and Nations, University of Lancaster, Department of Linguistics and Modern English Language, UK, 9 July 1999.
• Stylistic Features of the ‘Political Essays’ of H.-R. Patapievici: Pragmatic Strategies in the Discursive (De)construction of Romanian National Identity, International Conference on Speech, Writing and Context: Literary and Linguistic Perspectives, University of Nottingham, UK, 16-19 July 1998.
(b) National Conferences:
• Metaphor an Strategic Maneuvering in the Legitimation of the ‘War on Terror’, Conference of the English Department, 1-3 June 2006, University of Bucharest.
• Legitimation Strategies in the Romanian Presidential Election of 2004, Conference of the English Department of the Transylvania University, Brasov, 18-19 March 2005.
• Modele și teorii normative ale argumentării: pragma-dialectica și logica informală.
• analiză a două texte despre tranziția românească de H.-R. Patapievici, Sesiunea de comunicari a Facultatii de limbi straine ‘Modele si metamorfoze’, April 15-16 2005, Bucharest
• 'Mentalities' and 'attitudes' in the construction of argument and explanation: an analysis of three essays by H.-R. Patapievici, Conference of the English Department of the ‘Transylvania’ University, Brasov, 18-20 martie 2004.
• Discursive strategies and argumentative schemes in the essays of H.-R. Patapievici Conferinta internationala de Studii Britanice si Americane, Timisoara 13-15 mai 2004.
• Argument and Explanation in the writings of Romanian intelectuals. A study of H.-R. Patapievici, Annual Conference of the English Department ‘The Secret and the Known’, Bucharest, 3-5 June, 2004
• Arguing against feminism in post-communism – a discourse analytical perspective, Annual Conference of the English Department, ‘Orientalism and Occidentalism’, University of Bucharest, 6-8 June 2002.
• Discourses and genres in a text by H.-R. Patapievici: an analysis of the argument against social justice in ‘Note despre omul recent’, Annual Conference of the English Department ‘Fictions of Nature’, Bucharest, 31 may – 2 June 2001.
• Modernitate recenta si timp in "Note despre omul recent" de H.-R. Patapievici (Recent Modernity and Time in "Notes on Recent Man" by H.-R. Patapievici'), Sesiunea de comunicari a Facultatii de limbi straine, "Timpul si timpurile", Universitatea Bucharest, 27 June 2001.
• Lingvistica aplicata: istoria unui concept. Paradigme metodologice in lingvistica aplicata , comunicare in cadrul Atelierelor Solidaritatii Universitare: "Cercetarea stiintifica in stiintele umane" (organizator Prof.dr.Iancu Fischer) 31 octombrie 2001, Universitatea Bucuresti.
• New Narratives of Late Modernity and a New Research Agenda for Critical Discourse Analysis, Conferinta anuala a Catedrei de engleza, "Translation as Quest", Universitatea Bucuresti, iunie 2000.
• Nationalism as mythology: critical notes on Vladimir Tismaneanu's book, Fantasies of Salvation: Democracy, Nationalism, and Myth in Post-communist Europe (Princeton University Press, 1998), comunicare in cadrul seriei de conferinte saptaminale pe tema nationalismului, organizate de Centrul de Studii Britanice (coordonator Prof. Mihaela Irimia), Universitatea Bucuresti, 21 februarie 2000.
• Images of Romanianness in an English language textbook, International Conference on British, Irish and American Studies, Timisoara, 20-23 mai 1999.
• Doing discourse analysis in a British and Romanian Academic Context: A Brief Look at Issues of Research Validity, Annual Conference of the English Department ‘Rewriting the Past’, Bucuresti, iunie 1999.
• ‘I’, ‘We’ and ‘Them’: The Representation of Individual and Collective Identities in and Essay by H.-R.Patapievici, Second International Conference in Sociolinguistics, Universitatea din Craiova, 5-7 noiembrie 1998.
• Critical Discourse Analysis and the Reconstruction of Romanian National Identity in the ‘Political Essays’ of H.-R. Patapievici, Annual Conference of the English Department, Universitatea Bucuresti, 4-5 iunie 1998.
• The Development of Applied Linguistics in Romania: the Lancdoc Programme, (workshop), Annual General Meeting of the British Council, Constanta, 6-9 iunie 1998.
• Teaching Semantics: Frame-Semantics and the Organization of the Mental Lexicon, International Networking Conference ‘Communication and Intercultural Dimension’, British Council in collaboration with Prosper ASE (Academia de Studii Economice), Bucuresti, 1995.
• A Few Remarks on the Poststructuralist Interpretation of the Concepts of Constative and Performative Utterance, Conferinta Anuala a Catedrei deEngleza, Bucuresti, 1994.
• Intentionality and the Cognitive Approach to Meaning, Conferinta Internationala Tout est signe, mais le signe est-il tout?, Suceava, 1993.
• Elements of Categorization and Prototype Theory, presentation, Linguistics Circle, Linguistics Sub-department, University of Oxford, November 1992.
TRANSLATIONS:
• Thomas Nagel - What Does it All Mean? (A Very Short Introduction to Philosophy), Editura All, Bucuresti, 1995;
• Sergiu Al-George - Brancusi and the Ritual Column, published in Art - The Integral Vision, B.N.Saraswati (ed.), D.K. Printworld (P) Ltd., India, 1994;
• The Collected Papers of Sergiu Al-George, volum editat de Radu Bercea si Tatiana Segal, Editura All, 1998.
MEMBERSHIP OF PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZATIONS:
• member of Somerville College Alumni Association (Oxford, UK)
• member of Lancaster Alumni Association (UK)
• member of ESSE
• member of ISSA (International Society for the Study of Argumentation)
PARTICIPATION IN RESEARCH PROJECTS (as researcher):
• Spatiul public in contextul viitoarei dezvoltari a Uniunii Europene. Cetateanul si formele de dezbatere a normelor si valorilor europene (SPED) . Proiect CEEX aprobat, 2006-2008. Coordonator proiect: Camelia Beciu, cercetator stiintific, Institutul de Sociologie al Academiei.
• European Project FP7 Debating and shaping Europe in national and regional parliaments (EPARDIS), Coordonator: Cornelia Ilie (Prof.dr., University of Orebro, Sweden) (2006-2009)
