On April 18, Dr. Tom Bartlett from Cardiff University of U.K. visited SFS and gave a lecture entitled "Positive Discourses of Sustainability: Bridging Discursive Divides". Deputy Dean Prof. Li Zhanxi hosted the lecture, and Dean Prof. Huang Guowen and Deputy Dean Prof. Chen Yang were present.

   Dr. Bartlett first briefly introduced three approaches to ecolinguistic study, and then with a paper that compared environmental discourses from Shell and Greenpeace, he explored the differences between the two in their ways of constructing environmental discourses, raising topics like "not all texts are equal", "some texts transmit faster" etc. On the basis of this, he then analyzed sustainability as an empty signifier, pointing out that different interest groups view this word from completely different perspectives. At the end of his lecture, Prof. Bartlett put forward a new model, i.e., "Positioning Star of David", which incorporates three variables of register and conducts situationalized positive discourse analysis.

   Dr. Bartlett's lecture has close relation with the ecolinguistic research in SFS and his insightful ideas have inspired the teachers and students that attended the lecture.

(Report by Qin Jianhua  Pictures by Cen Haoxian)