Lunchtime Talk: Paul Smith

Our doctoral alumnus Paul Smith is coming back to give a Lantern Lunchtime Talk on 28th Oct., 12 – 1 pm, at A1.13 Ellen Wilkinson! He will talk about a fascinating topic – abduction in the academy. You can read a brief introduction of it below:

Some recurrent conversational structures in student talk concern the puzzling or mysterious nature of both the general desired features of academic writing, and of particular instances of writing outcomes, such as marks or feedback. These conversational practices bring to mind several features of the pragmatist philosopher C S Peirce’s notion of abduction. In Paul’s talk, he will suggest two rival ways of analysing these structures – for content (what the language in them says), and for pragmatic function (what the language in them does) – and initiate a discussion on how these insights might inform pedagogies in higher education (or indeed, any stage of education).