In this research I intend to reveal the linguistic and visual profile of appropriateness of both women and men Muslim refugees, as it is constructed in the first episode of the Greek, antiracist, television series «Γλυκάνισος (Aniseed)». Essentially, I investigate the ideal linguistic and visual representation given to these persons (-Us) by the majority screenwriters (+Us), with the aim of joining (-Us) the above-mentioned tv-series.

More specifically, I investigate the hypothesis if the majority screenwriters represent both women and men Muslim refugees in terms of equality at the level of work, living and wider obligations and rights with the corresponding Greek women/men or finally of non-equality, promoting in this way messages of liquid racism (see Archakis, Karahaliou & Tsakona, 2023 and the references given there). As liquid racism we can define the antiracism with the finally racist presuppositions (discrimination, assimilation, exclusion).

In more general terms, I would like to examine whether the discourse (see Archakis, 2020 and the references given there) of the above mentioned media text, as a dominant, linguistic and visual representation of the Others, functions as a purely post-national discourse (of multilingualism and at the same time multiculturalism· Archakis, 2020: 33-34) or finally as a national one (of homogenization).

My methodological tools are membership categorization device (Sacks, 1995) for the linguistic axis, which I specialize for reasons of gender representation with the logico-historical approach of Reisigl & Wodak (2001: 44-85) and the visual approach of Van Leeuwen (2008) for the visual axis. The reason I have chosen those tools lies upon my goal to follow a critical approach (Critical Discourse Analysis∙ see Archakis & Tsakona, 2020 and the references given there) in my data.

Consequently, I am interested in examining whether both the linguistic and visual representation of Muslim refugees is realistic or if it ends up being generic/grouping and finally stereotypical.

In this paper, I focus on the media narratives of immigrants with the aim of analyzing the identities constructed within them. Specifically, I investigate, both qualitatively and quantitatively, the types of identities that emerge from these immigrant narratives and whether any differences in identity construction are observed in relation to the social variable of gender. Furthermore, I explore whether liquid racism (Weaver 2016) and internalized racism (Pyke 2010) can be observed within these narratives, as well as whether these identities ultimately reproduce social discrimination against immigrants.

To examine all the above, I draw on migrant narratives with antiracist intent and focus, sourced from the TRACE corpus. The narratives come from various sectors of the Greek public sphere. Utilizing tools of Critical Discourse Analysis, I aim to connect the micro-level conclusions of the narrative choices with the dominant macro-level discourses, particularly national discourse. For this exploration, I employ Bamberg's (1997, 2004) model of narrative positioning, incorporating concepts such as Reisigl and Wodak's (2001) discourse strategies and Brown and Levinson's (1987) face-threatening.

In this paper, I identify four distinct types of identities: (a) legitimizing identities, (b) hybrid identities, (c) self-determined identities, and (d) resistance identities. The self-determined identity emerges as a new finding based on the data. For each identity type, I analyze one narrative text. Regarding the social variable of gender, the research reveals that while gender is an important factor in the analysis and the construction of identities, it does not determine the identities that migrants construct in their narratives. Instead, the migration experience plays a decisive role in shaping these identities.

Following the multiliteracies model, in this thesis I present some critical teaching proposals focusing on narrative humorous and non-humorous texts about migrant-refugee issues. Although these texts ostensibly promote anti-racist discourse, they end up reproducing racist perceptions, bringing to the surface a modern and subtle kind of racism, i.e. liquid racism. The aim of the exploitation of such texts in class is for students to become aware of the ways in which narrative and humor often reinforce the emergence of liquid racism. In addition, critical discussion of racism, anti-racism and the blurred boundaries between them could contribute to challenging racist perceptions of immigrant-refugee populations cultivated by seemingly anti-racist discourse. Since the implementation of such activities requires the teachers’ contribution, this thesis also explores the attitudes expressed by a group of teachers towards relevant teaching material. The pilot investigation of their attitudes brings to the surface both positive and cautious tendencies of valuing such activities.

The refugee “crisis” has revived the public debate on the national homogeneity of European states. Today, however, racist beliefs and messages of exclusion and/or assimilation of refugees are not (re)produced solely through hate speech, but may also appear indirectly in anti-racist environments. By exploiting tools of Critical Discourse Analysis, in this study I explore the relationship between two seemingly conflicting Discourses: that of institutional anti-racism, which initially seems to support refugees, and the national Discourse, which proclaims the necessity of linguistic and cultural homogeneity within the nation-state. To this end, I examine seven videos related to the UNHCR ESTIA program, analyzing the ways in which refugees who have settled in Greece are portrayed. My analysis shows that refugees are constructed both linguistically and visually as appropriate others, namely, as familiar with the host country and willing to assimilate into it. Despite their anti-racist aim, the multimodal texts in question ultimately do not challenge the aspirations of national Discourse for linguistic and cultural homogeneity, but rather strengthen its dominance by proposing a conditional acceptance of specific types of refugees only.

In the present thesis I examine the concept of “we and the others” in three High School textbooks addressed to students of Modern Greek as L1. I focus on education as an institution shaped by contradictory ideologies, i.e. the national homogenizing discourse and the anti-racist belief of the acceptance of the other. In particular, I aim to investigate the representations of the national “we” and the national “other” in written texts and images included in textbooks, through detecting practices of acceptance or discrimination of the “other” that (re)produce racism. Drawing on CDA, I exploit Reisigl and Wodak’s discursive strategies and van Leeuwen’s multimodal approach, which reveal the representation of "we" as a dominant, majority group and the representation of "the other" as a minority and marginalized group. Specifically, three categories of the concept “we and the others” are attested: the dominant “we”, the dominant “others” and the migrant “others”. An ambiguous kind of racism emerges from the categories, called liquid racism (Weaver 2011, 2016), which coexists with anti-racist values. Finally, although education seeks to promote anti-racist values, it cannot be disengaged from the racist implications of national discourse, that is, from fostering linguistic and cultural homogeneity.

The main focus of this study is the construction of power relationships in public antiracist discourse. Focusing on six videos from advertising campaigns of antiracist organizations, I intend to examine whether (and how) antiracist discourses may repress and/or undermine the agencyof refugees and immigrants. I will approach this issue through two analytic lenses: a) how antiracist discourses (re)produce power effects and b) how the (re)production of these power effects is attained in a covert manner. The central objective of the analysis is to account for the discursive representations, not as depictions but as constructionsof social reality, individuals/groups and the relationships among them. The main findings suggest that, despite their explicit denial of racism, antiracist discourses may occasionally and covertly reinforce, allow for, and consolidate racist practices, namely the exclusion, devaluation and assimilation of refugees/immigrants. The analysis shows that antiracist discourses may facilitate the (re)production of racist effects, which however are communicated not as racistand oppressive, but as invisible, acceptable or familiar, pleasant and useful to refugees and immigrants.

Nowadays racism is not only (re)produced through blatant racist declarations and hate speech, but also indirectly, even in the context of anti-racist discourse. In the present thesis I examine Greek parliamentary discourse produced by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition, which is intended as anti-racist both due to the current anti-racism legislation (Law 927/1979, Law 4285/2014) and due to the humanitarian values that indicate tolerance, acceptance of diversity and equal opportunities and rights for all. By exploiting tools from Critical Discourse Analysis and combining two of its approaches (the discourse-historical approach and the sociocultural approach), I will try to highlight the ways in which the two politicians represent refugees and the refugee issue. I will shed light on the racist views that are embedded in the speeches of the two politicians and I will talk about the liquid racism arising therein. Liquid racism is a new kind of racism emerging from the coexistence and juxtaposition of anti-racist and racist discourses.

One of the most debated issue in the news is the refugee/immigration issue which promotes racist perceptions of refugees/immigrants either directly or indirectly. In this context, three news articles about the refugee/immigration issue were selected from newspapers with different ideological orientation in order to explore racism in news discourse. This will be achieved with the help of two analytical tools from Critical Discourse Analysis, Halliday’s Systemic Functional Theory of language and Reisigl & Wodak’s methodological tool. It will be shown that the linguistic choices of the journalists construct specific versions of social reality, as these choices are ideologically charged. In addition, based on the findings of our analysis, we propose tentative activities based on the multiliteracies model. Our basic aim is to enable second grade high school students to investigate how racism permeates the public sphere and in what forms it appears, i.e. explicit or liquid racism, as well as to help them understand that journalists are influenced by the ideological orientation of the newspaper, and eventually to encourage them to take a more critical attitude, both as discourse producers and as discourse participants through cultivating their critical language awareness.

Journalistic and media discourse are among the genres with which students come into contact in their daily lives and may therefore become influenced by it. Critical discourse analysis aims to highlight the different versions of reality constructed by media texts and may help students to acquire a critical attitude towards the variety of information they receive. A key assumption of critical discourse analysis is that linguistic choices made or not made by text producers activate or conceal specific ideological positions respectively. News articles are suitable for discussion and analysis in the classroom. Hence, the aim of this paper is to present ways of using news articles as material for language education. Utilizing Halliday’s Systemic Functional Theory of language, four articles will be analyzed on teaching Greek language to refugees, and at the end, indicative educational activities will be presented based on the multiliteracies model. The ultimate goal of the thesis is to strengthen students’ critical awareness of the ideologies on which the texts are based, and of the specific versions of social reality they promote depending on the goals of their authors.