Multimodality: Social semiotic and discourse analysis perspectives   SUMMER TERM: Wednesdays 8th, 15th, 29th of May and 5th June  15:00-17:00 Room 803, Institute of Education, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL Facilitator : Sophia Diamantopoulou This series of four two-hour sessions involves readings and discussions foregrounding research methods in multimodal research. Participants are encouraged to bring data from their own research for discussion in the light of the readings. Registration The reading groups are offered by the UCL Centre for Multimodal Research and are open to all academic staff, postgraduate students at UCL, as well as visiting scholars with an interest in multimodality. The sessions are free to attend and can be booked by sending an e-mail to sophia.diamantopoulou@ucl.ac.uk by 30th of April for the summer term one. There are places for 25 participants in the session and priority will be offered to those who can attend all sessions in each series. Participants will be notified in advance about the readings for each week. Theme of reading group Multimodality has in the recent years shifted our attention to meanings realised in modes other than the linguistic. Research in different disciplines has adopted multimodal perspectives, while the growing interest in multimodality has created a range of approaches that converse with various epistemologies. This reading group will explore multimodality as it has emerged in the work of Gunther Kress. This foregrounds the social semiotic, communication and discourse analytical perspectives. The first session will include an introduction to multimodality and will set the agenda for the discussions in the light of the participants’ interests. Participants are expected to participate in discussions on the basis of their readings from the list below. Readings Bezemer, J. and Kress, G. (2016). Multimodality, Learning and Communication: A social Semiotic Frame. London: Routledge Jewitt, C., Bezemer, J. and O’Halloran, K. (2016). Introducing Multimodality. London: Routledge Kress, G. (2010). Multimodality: A Social Semiotic Approach to Contemporary Communication. Abingdon: Routledge Kress, G. (2011).  Discourse analysis and education: A multimodal social semiotic approach. In R. Rogers (Ed.), An Introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis in Education. New York: Routledge