Dr Bernhard Forchtner

My research interests fall within the areas of the discursive construction of social identities through social memories, environmental communication and/or by the far right.

I have previously taught in a number of areas, including qualitative methods (critical discourse analysis, narrative analysis), media, sociological theory and environmental sociology as well as memory studies.

My PhD research looked at different ways in which claims to know the lessons from the past can be utilised differently, constituting a range of subject positions. I was also involved in a major research project on multilingualism and identity in the European Union (funded by the European Commission under its Sixth Framework Programme, contract number: 028702).

I am now primarily working on the far right in Europe and environmental communication. Here, I am interested in particular in how issues such as global warming and/or biodiversity (to name only two) are playing their part in far right communication. I am furthermore increasingly interested in how mainstream discourses about the environmental position subjects and enable inclusion and exclusion. 

My research has been funded by the European Commission (2013-15, Marie Curie Action, FP7/2007-2013, grant agreement no. 327595), the Austrian Academy of Sciences (2009-11) and the Economic and Social Research Council (2007-2010). I have also received smaller grants by the School of Media, Communication and Sociology at the University of Leicester (2017) and by the College here in Leicester (Research and Development Grant, 2016).

Research Monographs, Edited Volumes and Special Issues

Kølvraa, C. and Forchtner, B. (2024). Imagining Alternative Worlds. Far-Right Fiction and the Power of Cultural Imaginaries. Routledge.

Forchtner, B. (2023) (ed). Visualising Far-Right Environments. Communication and the Politics of Nature. Manchester University Press.

Ekberg, K., Forchtner, B., Hultman, M. and Jylhä, K. M. (2022). Climate Obstruction. How Denial, Delay and Inaction are Heating the Planet. Routledge.

Forchtner, B. (ed) (2021). Narrative in ‘Critical Discourse Studies’. Special Issue of Critical Discourse Studies. 18(3).

Forchtner, B. (ed) (2019). The Far Right and the Environment: Politics, Discourse and Communication. Routledge.

Kølvraa, C. and Forchtner, B. (eds) (2019). Cultural Imaginaries of the Extreme Right. Special Issue of Patterns of Prejudice, 53(3).

Wodak, R. and Forchtner, B. (eds) (2017). The Routledge Handbook of Language and Politics. Routledge.

Forchtner, B. (2016). Lessons from the Past? Memory, Narrativity and Subjectivity. Palgrave.

Krzyżanowski, M. and Forchtner, B. (eds) (2016). Theoretical and Conceptual Challenges in Critical Discourse Studies. Discourse & Society, Special Issue. 27(3).

Disney, S., Forchtner, B., Ibrahim, W. and Millar, N. (eds) (2009).Papers from the Lancaster/ University Postgraduate Conference in Linguistics and Language Teaching. Volume 3: Papers from LAEL PG 2008. Lancaster: Lancaster University. ISSN 1756-123X.

 

Selected Peer Reviewed Journal Articles

Forchtner, B. and Gruber, M. (2024): Far-right world ordering from the margins: Ethno-ecological degrowth and the nation in the Swiss Democrats’ discourse about the natural environment, Global Studies Quarterly, 4(3).

Olsen, J. and Forchtner, B. (2024). Prophet in the (degrowth) wilderness: storytelling Herbert Gruhl as a far-right environmental lieu de mémoire, Politics, Religion & Ideology, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/21567689.2024.2419677

Forchtner, B. and Olsen, J. (2024): Against the promethean: Energy throughput and the far-right politics of degrowth, Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space, 7(5), 2078-2096.

Forchtner, B. and Lubarda, B. (2023): Scepticisms and beyond? A comprehensive portrait of climate change communication by the far right in the European Parliament, Environmental Politics, 32(1): 43-68.

Engelken-Jorge, M., Forchtner, B. and Özvatan, Ö (2023): Theorizing exclusionary and inclusionary people-making: from narrative genres to collective learning processes, Distinktion: Journal of Social Theory. 10.1080/1600910X.2023.2219416

Balzter, H., Macul, M., Delaney, B., Tansey, K., Espirito-Santo, F., Ofoegbu, C., Petrovskii, S., Forchtner, B., Nicholes, N., Payo, E., et al. (2023): Loss and damage from climate change: Knowledge gaps and interdisciplinary approaches, Sustainability, 15(15):11864.

Forchtner, B. and Özvatan, Ö. (2022): De/legitimising EUrope through the performance of crises: The far-right Alternative for Germany on “climate hysteria” and “corona hysteria”, Journal of Language and Politics, 21(2): 208 - 232

Weicht, B. and Forchtner, B. (2021): Negotiating euthanasia: civil society contesting “the completed life”, Current Sociology. https://doi.org/10.1177%2F00113921211048525.

Forchtner, B. (2021): Critique, Habermas and narrative (genre): The Discourse-Historical Approach in Critical Discourse Studies, Special Issue of Critical Discourse Studies, 18(3): 314-331.

Forchtner, B. (2021): Introducing Narrative in Critical Discourse Studies, Special Issue of Critical Discourse Studies, 18(3):304-313.

Forchtner, B., Engelken Jorge, M. and Eder, K. (2020): Towards a revised theory of collective learning processes: argumentation, narrative and the making of the social bond, European Journal of Social Theory, 23(2): 200-218.

Dekel, I., Forchtner, B. and Efe, I. (2020): Circumcising the body: Negotiating difference and belonging in Germany, in: National Identities, 22(2): 193-211.

Forchtner, B. (2019): Climate change and the far right, in: WIREs Climate Change, 10(5): 1-11. DOI: 10.1002/wcc.604.

Forchtner, B. (2019): Nation, nature, purity: Extreme-right biodiversity in Germany, in: Cultural Imaginaries of the Extreme Right. Special Issue of Patterns of Prejudice, 53(3): 285-301.

Kølvraa, C. and Forchtner, B. (2019a): Cultural imaginaries of the extreme right: An introduction, in: Cultural Imaginaries of the Extreme Right. Special Issue of Patterns of Prejudice, 53(3): 227-235.

Forchtner, B., Kroneder, A. and Wetzel, D. (2018): Being Skeptical? Exploring Far-Right Climate-Change Communication in Germany, in: Environmental Communication, 12(5): 589-604.

Forchtner, B. and Tominc, A. (2017):Kalashnikov and Cooking-spoon: Neo-Nazism, Veganism and a Lifestyle Cooking Show on YouTube, in: Food, Culture and Society, 20(3): 415-441.

Forchtner, B. and Kølvraa, C. (2017): Extreme right images of radical authenticity: multimodal aesthetics of history, nature and gender in social media, in: European Journal of Cultural and Political Sociology, 4(3): 252–281.

Krzyżanowski, M. and Forchtner, B. (2016): Theories and concepts in Critical Discourse Studies: facing challenges, moving beyond foundations, in: Discourse & Society, 27(3): 252-261.

Forchtner, B. and Schneickert, C. (2016): Collective learning in social fields: Bourdieu, Habermas and Critical Discourse Analysis, in: Discourse & Society, 27(3): 293-307.

Forchtner, B. and Kølvraa, C. (2015): The nature of nationalism: populist radical right parties on countryside and climate, in: Nature & Culture, 10(2): 199–224.

Efe, I. and Forchtner, B. (2015): ‘Saying sorry’ in Turkey: the Dersim massacre of the 1930s in 2011 in: Journal of Language and Politics, 14(2): 233-257.

Forchtner, B. (2014): Rhetorics of judge-penitence: claiming moral superiority through admissions of past wrongdoing, in: Memory Studies, 7(4): 409-424.

Wodak, R. and Forchtner, B. (2014): Embattled Vienna 1683/2010: right-wing populism, collective memory and the fictionalisation of politics, in: Visual Communication, 13(2): 231-255.

Wodak, R., Krzyżanowski, M. and Forchtner, B. (2012): The interplay of language ideologies and contextual cues in multilingual interactions: language choice and code-switching in European Union organizations, in: Language in Society, 41(2): 1-30.

Forchtner, B. and Tominc, A. (2012): Critique and argumentation: on the relation between the discourse-historical approach and pragma-dialectics, in: Journal of Language and Politics, 11(1): 31-50.

Forchtner, B. and Kølvraa, C. (2012): The desire for unity in Austrian and Danish Postwar-film: the case of ‘DerBockerer’ (1981) and ‘Matador’ (1978), in: Zeitgeschichte, 39(6): 388-402.

Forchtner, B. (2011): Critique, the discourse-historical approach and the Frankfurt School, in: Critical Discourse Studies, 8(1): 1-14.

 

Selected Book Chapters/Edited Volumes

Forchtner, B. (2024): Thunberg, not iceberg: visual melodrama in German far-right climate change communication. In: I. Allen, K. Ekberg, S. Holgersen and A. Malm (eds). Political Ecologies of the Far Right. Fanning the Flames. Manchester University Press.

Forchtner, B., Hultman, M. and Jylhä, K. (2024): Still heating: Unfolding a typology of climate obstruction. In: N. Marschner, C. Richter, J. Patz and A. Salheiser (eds). Contested Climate Justice – Challenged Democracy. International Perspectives. Campus.

Forchtner, B. (2023): Studying the far right’s natural environments: towards a visual turn. In: B. Forchtner (ed). Visualising Far-Right Environments. Communication and the Politics of Nature. Manchester University Press. 1-23. 38.

Forchtner, B. and Jonathan Olsen (2023): Double vision: local environment and global climate change through the German far-right lens. In: B. Forchtner (ed). Visualising Far-Right Environments. Communication and the Politics of Nature. Manchester University Press. 229-252. 39.

Forchtner, B. (2023): Looking back, looking forward: some preliminary conclusions on the far right’s visualisation of its natural environments. In: B. Forchtner (ed). Visualising Far-Right Environments. Communication and the Politics of Nature. Manchester University Press. 294-301.

Schmalenberger, S., Kølvraa, C. and Forchtner, B. (2023): Extreme right. In: Y. Gutman and J. Wüstenberg (eds). The Routledge Handbook for Memory Activism. London: Routledge. 86-90.

Lubarda B. and Forchtner B. (2022): The far right and the environment: Past-present-future. In: V. A. Bruno (ed). Populism and Far-Right. Trends in Europe. Milan: Polidemos. 85-112.

Forchtner, B. (2019): Far-right articulations of the natural environments: An introduction. In: B. Forchtner (ed). The Far Right and the Environment: Politics, Discourse and Communication. London: Routledge. 1-17.

Forchtner, B. (2019): Looking back, looking forward: some preliminary conclusions on the far right and its natural environments. In: B. Forchtner (ed). The Far Right and the Environment: Politics, Discourse and Communication. London: Routledge. 310-320.

Forchtner, B. and Özvatan, Ö. (2019): Beyond the ‘German forest’: Environmental communication by the far right in Germany. In: B. Forchtner (ed). The Far Right and the Environment: Politics, Discourse and Communication. London: Routledge. 216-236.

Forchtner, B. (2019): Articulations of climate change by the Austrian far right: a discourse-historical perspective on what is ‘allegedly manmade’. In: R. Wodak and P. Bevelander (eds). “Europe at the Cross-road”: Confronting Populist, Nationalist and Global Challenges. Lund: Nordic Academic Press. 159-179.

Özvatan, Ö. and Forchtner, B. (2019): The Far-Right Alternative für Deutschland in Germany:Towards a ‘Happy Ending’?. In: A. Waring (ed). The New Authoritarianism. Volume 2. Stuttgart: ibidem. 199-225.

Forchtner, B. (2017): Critical Discourse Studies and Social Theory, in: J. Flowerdew and J. E. Richardson (eds). The Routledge Handbook of Critical Discourse Analysis. Oxon: Routledge. 259-271.

Wodak, R. andForchtner, B. (2017): Introducing the language-politics nexus, in: R. Wodak and B. Forchtner (eds). The Routledge Handbook of Language and Politics. Oxon: Routledge. 1-14.

Forchtner, B. and Wodak, R. (2017): Critical Discourse Studies: a critical approach to the study of language and communication, in: Wodak, R. and Forchtner, B.  (eds). The Routledge Handbook of Language and Politics. Oxon: Routledge. 135-150.

Wodak, R. and Forchtner, B. (2017): The fictionalisation of politics ('popular/ized politics'), in: R. Wodak and B. Forchtner (eds). The Routledge Handbook of Language and Politics. Oxon: Routledge. 572-586.

Forchtner, B. and Eder, K. (2017): Europa erzählen: Optionen Europäischer Identität, in: G. Hentges, K. Nottbohm and H.-W. Platzer (eds). Europäische Identität in der Krise? Europäische Identitätsforschung und Rechtspopulimusforschung im Dialog. Wiesbaden: VS. 179-200.

Forchtner, B. and Tominc, A. (2017): Balaclava Küche: Extreme Rechte – Veganismus – Lebensstil. Eine semiotische Perspektive, in: H. Dingeldein and E. Gredel (eds). Diskurse des Alimentären. Essen und Trinken aus kultur-, literatur- und sprachwissenschaftlicher Perspektive. Münster: LIT Verlag. 209-226.

Forchtner, B. (2016): Longing for communal purity: countryside, (far-right) nationalism and the (im)possibility of progressive politics of nostalgia, in: C. Karner and B. Weicht (eds). The Communalities of Global Crises. Basingstoke: Palgrave. 271-295.

Forchtner, B. (2015): Extrem rechte Parteien im Klimawandel: Ein (kurzer) Blick auf die Schweiz, Österreich und Deutschland, in: G. Heinrich and K.‐D. Kaiser (eds). Naturschutz und Rechtsradikalismus. Bundesamt für Naturschutz. 128-135.

Forchtner, B. and Kølvraa, C. (2015): Peace and unity: imagining EUrope in the founding fathers’ house‐museums, in: A. Reading and T. Katriel (eds). Cultural Memories of Nonviolent Struggle: Powerful Times. Basingstoke: Palgrave. 128-146.

Forchtner, B. (2014): Multilingual practices in the European Commission: a view from above and within, in: J. W. Unger, M. Krzyżanowski and R. Wodak (eds). Multilingual Encounters in Europe’s Institutional Spaces. New York: Continuum. 151-173.

Forchtner, B., Krzyżanowski, M. and Wodak, R. (2013): Mediatisation, right-wing populism and political campaigning: the case of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ), in: A. Tolson and M. Ekström (eds). Media Talk and Political Elections in Europe and America. Basingstoke: Palgrave. 205-228.

Forchtner, B. (2013): Legitimising the Iraq War through the genre of political speeches: A judge-penitent perspective on the narrative reconstruction of Denmark’s cooperation with Nazism, in: P. Cap and U. Okulska (eds). Analyzing Genres in Political Communication: Theory and Practice. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 239-265.

Forchtner, B. (2012): Critical Discourse Analysis, in: C. A. Chapelle (ed). The Encyclopedia of Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.

 

Book Reviews

Forchtner, B. (2018): Memory on the move: past, legitimacy and identity in the making. Book review of Jeffrey K. Olick’s The Sins of the Fathers: Germany, Memory, Method, in: European Journal of Sociology, 59(3): 507-511.

Forchtner, B. (2017): Global Media Studies. By Toby Miller and Marwan M. Kraidy, in: European Journal of Communication, 32(5):  490-492.

Forchtner, B. (2016): The Discourse Studies Reader. Main currents in theory and analysis. By Johannes Angermuller, Dominique Maingueneau and Ruth Wodak, in: Journal of Language and Politics, 15(6): 818-820.

Forchtner, B. (2011): Metaphor, Nation and the Holocaust. By Andreas Musolff, in: Kelly-Holmes, H. and Tommaso M. (Eds). Thematising Multilingualism in the Media. Special issue of Journal of Language and Politics, 10(4): 615-619.

Forchtner, B. (2011): Social Theory in the Twentieth Century and Beyond. Second Edition. By Patrick Baert and Filipe Carreira da Silva, in: Sociological Research Online, 16:2.

I welcome applications in the following areas:

• Political communication (in particular but not restricted to communication by nationalist/far-right actors)
• Environmental communication
• Discursive construction of the past/collective memories and research drawing on multimodal (critical) discourse analysis

 

Past and present PhD students include

• Samuel Nicholes, ‘The New Environmental Determinism? Transitions to far right environmentalism’, 1^st supervisor
• Joe Bedford, ‘Green, Pleasant and Ours: Challenging 'far-right ecologism' through contemporary environmental fiction’, 2^nd supervisor
• Matthew Brennan, ‘The Construction and Negotiation of Masculine Identities on talkSPORT’, 1^st supervisor
• Barry Hawthorne, ‘Insiders out, Outsiders in: a comparative study of the discourse of inclusion and exclusion of people with disabilities and displaced individuals in German society’, 2^nd supervisor
• Sebastian Aravena Ortiz, ‘Sustainable identity through media screens’, 2^nd supervisor
• Paul Covaliu, ‘Surveillance and censorship. The impact and influence of secret services on media freedom and pluralism. A case study of Romania’, 2^nd supervisor
• Pamela Wilson, ‘The construction and performance of Turkish secular identity in an age of opposition’, 1^st supervisor
• Taylor Brooks, ‘Immigration in the Press: The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal during the Obama and the Trump Presidencies’, 1^st supervisor
• Ella Muncie, ‘Campaigning for the Future and the Future of Campaigning: The Case of Greenpeace International’s Alternative Futures Campaign’ (awarded 2024), 2^nd supervisor
• Chris Tsui, ‘The “Golden Rule”: Misogyny in the Hong Kong Golden Forum During the 2019 Hong Kong Protests’ (awarded 2024), 1^st supervisor
• Abdullatif Alhaj Omar, ‘A Framing Analysis of the United States Government Counter-Terrorism Messaging Strategies During the Rise and Fall of ISIS’ (awarded 2024), 2^nd supervisor
• Mai Alshareef, ‘Implementation of Vision 2030 in the Saudi Education System: Views from Educators, Policymakers, and the Public Debate on Twitter’ (awarded 2023), 2^nd supervisor
• Chimwemwe Chavinda, ‘The Co-construction of knowledge of climate change adaption in Malawi’s environmental communication’ (awarded 2022), 2^nd supervisor
• Sandra Kaulfuss, ‘Same Old News? A Critical Discourse Analysis of Migration News in British and German Broadsheet Journalism’ (awarded 2020), 2^nd supervisor
• Asmali Sulaiman, ‘Inventing Apps: The Case of The Incubatees at iCentre Brunei’ (awarded 2020), 1^st supervisor
• Aynur Unal, ‘Analysing the Discourse about Kurdishness: Indigeneity and the Kurdish Political Movement in Turkey’ (awarded 2019), 1^st supervisor

I have taught a variety of modules at both the undergraduate and postgraduate level.

As module leader

    MS1001: Introduction to Media and Communication
    MS3030: Dissertation
    MS7006: Global Affairs - Actors, Communication and Culture
    MS7310: Strategic Communications Management

    SY3099: Identity Troubles: Nationalism, Jihadism and the Far Right
    SY7006/SY7045: Philosophy of Social Science

    SS7200: Research Philosophy

As contributor (selection)

    MS2002: Analysing Communication Processes
    MS3003: Science, Environment and Risk Communication
    MS7004: Media and Communication Research Methods
    MS7306: Advertising Research Methods

Far right environmental communication

Selected conference presentations include:

Lubarda, B. and Forchtner, B., Far-right ecologism(s) in Europe. Webinar Populism and Far-Right Trends in Europe. Catholic University of Milan. 13 April 2022.

Forchtner, B., Narrative and emancipation: Habermas, storytelling and collective learning processes. Workshop on Narratives in East Asia and Beyond –
Debating Narrative's Limits, Prospects and Linkages Across Disciplines. University of Duisburg-Essen. 14-22 March 2022.

Forchtner, B., The Discourse-Historical Approach (DHA) in Critical Discourse Studies (CDS): Analysing discourse and narrative. Renmin University of China, Beijing. 7 May 2021.

Forchtner, B., The Far Right and the Environment: Identity, Homeland and Climate Change. S&D Group, European Parliament. European Parliament, Brussels, 18 December 2020.

Forchtner, B., Far-right ethnonationalism and the environment: ecofascism and beyond. CENS Webinar Series Age of Rages. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. 2 June 2020.

Forchtner, B., Food for Volk: “The politics of soil” in the German Extreme right today. Food and Ideological Extremism: Philosophical and Empirical Dimensions. University of Milan, Milan. 5 February 2020.

Forchtner, B., Far-right ecology and climate change (scepticisms) in Europe. What is going on? Political Ecologies of the Far Right. Lund University, Lund. 15-16 November 2019.

Forchtner, B., Äpfel – Wölfe – Klimawandel. Die radikale Rechte und der Schutz der Umwelt. Expert meeting on Populismus, Nationalismus und Desinformation und die Zukunft der internationalen Klima- und Energiepolitik. adelphi, Berlin. 8 May 2019.

Forchtner, B., The natural environments of the German far right. On ladybirds, climate change and the Holocaust. Stanley Burton Centre for Holocaust and Genocide Studies Public lecture. Leicester. 5 December 2018.

Forchtner, B., Emotions, populism and collective learning: analysing narratives by populists from the right and the left. The New Right and the New Left. Continuity, Rupture and the Politics of Emotion in Europe. London, LSE. 12 November 2018.

Forchtner, B., German neo-Nazi activism in the 21st century: online and offline. Neo-Nazi activism and terrorism in the UK and Germany: social movements, radicalisation, and the new media. Research seminar at the University of Leicester, Leicester, 18 April 2018.

Forchtner, B., Articulating global climate change in the European Parliament: the case of the Far-Right. Contesting the Populist Challenge: Beyond ‘Orbanism’ and ‘Trumpism’ and the Normalisation of Exclusion.Malmö. 16 November – 17 November 2017.

Forchtner, B., Climate change communication by far and extreme right parties in the European Parliament. Conference on Communication and Environment 2017.Leicester. 29 June – 2 July2017.

Forchtner, B., Networks of scepticism and denial? Far right environmental communication about climate change. IAMCR 2016. Leicester. 27-31 July.

Forchtner, B., Unpacking far right discourses about climate change: scepticism and denial by anti-Islam and National Socialist actors in Germany. CADAAD 2016.Catania. 5-7 September 2016.

Forchtner, B. and Kølvraa, C., Radical imaginaries: multimodal representations of ‘History’, ‘Nature’ and ‘Gender Roles’ on German extreme right Facebook pages. CADAAD 2016. Catania. 5-7 September 2016.

Forchtner, B., Networks of scepticism and denial? Far-right environmental risk communication about climate change.IAMCR 2016. Leicester. 27-31 July 2016.

Forchtner, B., Nature and ‘counter-modernity’: reproducing ideas of national purity and sovereignty in radical right discourses on ecological crises. ESA 2015. Prague. 25-28 August 2015.

Irit, D., Efe, I. and Forchtner, B., Debating circumcision in Germany, Israel and Turkey: the negotiation of bodies and differences. ESA 2015. Prague. 25-28 August 2015.

Forchtner, B. and Tominc, A., Kalashnikov and cooking-spoon: neo-Nazism, veganism and lifestyle in Germany. Eating Otherwise. Lancaster, United Kingdom. 28 February-1 March 2015.

Forchtner, B., Playing fields of collective learning: Bourdieu, Critical Theory and the Discourse Historical Approach. Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis across Disciplines. Budapest, Hungary. 1-3 September 2014.

Forchtner, B., Far-right discourses on the environment: the Austrian case. Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis across Disciplines. Budapest, Hungary. 1-3 September 2014.

Forchtner, B. and Kølvraa, C., Making anti-war history in Europe – once and for all. Resisting War in the 20th Century. Lisbon, Portugal. 27 February-1 March 2014.

Forchtner, B., Communicating environmental crises: sovereignty, ‘risk society’, and the far-right. ESA 2013. Torino, Italy. 28-31 August 2013.

Forchtner, B. and Weicht, B.,Performing euthanasia: civil society on ageing, free will and a fulfilled life. ESA 2013. Torino, Italy. 28-31 August 2013.

Forchtner, B. and Kølvraa, C., Glocalising the “age of apology” in the genre of EUropean speculative speeches. SLE. Stockholm, Sweden. 29 August-1 September 2012.

Forchtner, B., On the discursive construction of a “new Europe”: from “bitter past” to self-righteousness? Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines 2012. Braga, Portugal. 4-6 July 2012.

Forchtner, B., The discursive construction of ‘post-national Europe’ via the (mis)uses of ‘historia magistra vitae’ and rhetorics of judge-penitence. 6th European Consortium for Political Science. Reykjavik, Iceland. 25-27 August 2011.

Forchtner, B. and Tominc, A., Is the Pragma-Dialectical theory of argumentation an obstacle for a coherent notion of emancipatory critique in the Discourse-Historical Approach? Critical Approaches to Discourse Analysis Across Disciplines 2010. Łodz, Poland. 13-15 September 2010.

Forchtner, B., Multilingual practices in the European Commission: power in meetings. Sociolinguistik Symposium. Southampton, United Kingdom. 1-4 September 2010.

Forchtner, B. and Tominc, A., Rationality in Pragma-Dialectics: Critical Rationalism or the communication a priori? 7th Conference on Argumentation of the International Society for the Study of Argumentation. Amsterdam, Netherlands. 29 June - 02 July 2010.

Forchtner, B., How Albert Camus met Anders Fogh Rasmussen, or: how confessions of wrongdoing legitimise the claim for moral superiority in post-1989 Denmark and beyond. Post-War Memory of the Holocaust in Europe. Copenhagen, Denmark. 26-27 May 2010.

Forchtner, B., Claiming the moral high-ground via misuses of public acknowledgments of wrong-doing: judge-penitence in Denmark and Germany. New Perspectives in Memory Studies. Rethinking Movement, Representation and Materiality. Vienna, Austria. 12-13 October 2009.

Forchtner, B., Nazi-collaboration, confessions of wrong-doing and the legitimation of the Iraq war in Denmark: a judge-penitent perspective. 2nd International Conference on Political Linguistics. Łodz, Poland. 17-19 September 2009.

Forchtner, B., Albert Camus meets Jürgen Habermas: Europe between judge-penitence and moral-practical learning. UACES Study Group: Values and the European Union – 'What Binds Europeans Together?' Glasgow, United Kingdom. 24-25 April 2009.

Forchtner, B., Confessions of guilt as moral-practical learning or claims to power – the case of the judge-penitent. British Sociological Association Annual Conference 2009. Cardiff, United Kingdom. 15-17 April 2009.

Forchtner, B., Probing the shady side of forgiveness – the 'judge-penitent discourse' as a conceptualisation of the misuse of confessions of guilt. 2nd Global Conference: Forgiveness – Probing the Boundaries. Salzburg, Austria. 13-16 March 2009.

Forchtner, B., Confessions of guilt and the claim for moral superiority – the case of the judge-penitent. Dynamics of Memories. Lancaster, United Kingdom. 28-29 November 2008.

Forchtner, B., Performing the 'judge-penitent' – emergence and regression of the German perpetrator trauma. Cultural Memory: Forgetting to Remember / Remembering to Forget. Kent, United Kingdom. 10-13 September 2008.