The CALPIU Network: Cultural and Linguistic Practices in the International University

The Center coordinates Danish, Nordic and international research into a new theoretical understanding of internationalization processes currently underway in universities and other institutions of higher education. Its focus will be on the function of language in social and cultural practice, especially the significance of language proficiency and language choice within a context marked by power relations and hierarchies of influence, as well as the significance of these power relations and hierarchies vis-à-vis the organization, didactics, learning processes and academic content of educational programs in the humanities and social and natural sciences. Thus the Network works to support the profes­sionalization of university pedagogy within an international context. The fields of practice to be investigated empirically are: The practice of the university as an actor in a multilingual world, teacher-student relations, student-student relations, and secretary-student relations. The data will be gathered into an extensive corpus of language and culture practice within the university. The Center has been initiated by a group of researchers within sociolinguistics, conversation analysis, and discourse and communication analysis at Roskilde University. The Center comprises 49 senior and junior researchers from 27 universities in Denmark, the other Nordic countries and countries across the globe.