The Doctoral Programme in Language and Communication serves the Institute of Language and Communication (ISK), SDU, Odense, and the Institute of Business Communication and Information Science (IFKI), SDU, Kolding.
The main responsibilities of the doctoral programme are 1) to arrange disciplinary specific tuition for PhD students, 2) to assist the students in fulfilling the requirement to visit research institutions outside of SDU, and 3) to help create a positive, intellectually stimulating work environment for PhD studies. The director of the programme is Dr. Dennis Day, Assoc. Professor at ISK.
The Doctoral Programme in Language and Communication arranges a variety of opportunities for tuition at the PhD level. We host courses led by local staff as well as colleagues from other universities in Denmark. The doctoral programme is quite known for its extensive network of international scholars who have held seminars for the programme on numerous occasions and participated in international conferences arranged by us.
In addition to PhD tuition held at SDU, the doctoral programme cooperates with Scandinavian as well as Danish graduate study networks. The programme in cooperation with Nordic partners participates in NordLing 1.5, a Nordic network of national graduate schools funded by NordForsk. NordLing 1.5 is hosted by the doctoral programme which, in this capacity, administrates several courses attended by PhD students from Scandinavia, the Baltic states and Western Russia as well as sponsors PhD student mobility in the region. Within Denmark, we have for quite some time cooperated with other doctoral programmes in language and communication in Aalborg, Aarhus, Roskilde, and Copenhagen. We meet frequently so as to coordinate our respective course activities and we have an student mobility agreement whereby each course offered allocates places for students from partners in the network.
The programme has a logical and practical connection to the various research centers at ISK and IFKI, as well as other research groups formed typically through successful research project applications. Many of our PhD students are attached to these research units, most often by way of external project financing, but also by institute financing. ISK hosts 'The Center for Child Language', 'The Center for Social Cognition and Practice (SoPraCon), Language and Cognition Research Group (LaCoRG), Center for Cross-cultural, Interorganizational Communication Leadership (CrossCom) and the IT Center. IFKI has research cooperation across SDU's various campuses as well as with the University of Flensborg. Most recently they have begun cooperation with the Mads Clausen Institute in a five-year project on participatory design (SPIRE), as well as in an EU financed project on human-machine interaction.
Priorities for the immediate future at The Doctoral Programme in Language and Communication are improving the local work environment for PhD students and diversifying forms of tuition. With regard to work environment, the programme hosts a yearly PhD day which encourages interaction between the PhD students and senior staff on issues of research as well as tuition. We also arrange 'Underway' seminars, for PhD students and staff, where students are encouraged to present issues of relevance to their respective PhD projects. Our ambition is to have more senior researchers and PhD students engage in lively, mutually rewarding exchanges, outside of, and beyond, the framework of classroom tuition and supervisory sessions. Similarly, with regard to tuition, we encourage new forms of tuition, such as 'master classes' and 'staff-led study circles', whereby PhD students can utilize the wide range of competences within ISK and IFKI. We hope that this effort will provide a fruitful balance between our substantial international networks and our local competencies, as well as a rewarding mutual commitment between the PhD students and their respective institutes.