Department of English

At the Department of English, we engage with English as the language of globalisation, the native language for almost 400 million people, and the language of communication for many more. English at Aarhus University is one of the largest and most international departments within the Faculty of Arts, with researchers and lecturers from the UK, the USA, Canada, Ireland, India, the Czech Republic, Germany, Tanzania and, of course, Denmark. The research covers four broad disciplines - linguistics, literature, social/historical/media studies, and international business communication - and regions in which English is the primary language - the British Isles, the United States and the English-speaking post-colonial world, as well as English as the global language of international business communication.

Research environment

The linguistic research ranges over language acquisition, multilingualism, comparative and theoretical phonetics and phonology, comparative and theoretical morphology and syntax, language variation and change, language comprehension, and how language is processed in the brain. Research in literature is concerned with a wide range of authors, from Shakespeare, through Austen and Dickens, to living writers such as Thomas Pynchon and Amitav Ghosh, as well as with theoretical approaches to literature such as new historicism, eco-criticism, gender studies, and the relations between literature and moral philosophy. Research in social/historical/media studies examines topics such as migration, hybridity and identity, culture and technology, ethnic conflict and nationalism, memory policy, cultural heritage and tourism, social media, film, and popular and folk music history. Research in international business communication ranges over theories and methods of strategic corporate communication, knowledge communication, lexicography, translation and intercultural communication needed to manage English professional communication in Danish and international companies and organisations with particular focus on business-related topics concerning the English language, business communication and the business environment.

Upcoming Events at the Department

Fri 13 Dec: 14:00-15:30 | Aarhus University, CAVI, Aabogade 34D, bldg. 5345, 8200 Aarhus N
Presentation: Anatomies of Intelligence
From data corpus to models of machine learning algorithms, this lecture performance is an invitation to reflect upton fixed representational structures and opaque learning processes — and collectively explore different forms of bringing-into-relation of such codes.
Sat 14 Dec: 09:30-14:00 | Aarhus University, Helsingforsgade 15, building 5342, room 333, 8200 Aarhus N
Workshop: Anatomies of Intelligence
Following a lecture-performance the previous day, Joana Chicau and Jonathan Reus will share their approach in a public workshop where we will actively explore terminologies and techniques for an “anatomical” critique of computational learning, classifying and prediction processes
Tue 17 Dec: 12:30-14:00 | Aarhus University, Helsingforsgade 14 (building 5347), room 120.
Speculations: Social Science, Climate Change, Science Fictions
Casper Bruun Jensen

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News from the school

2019.05.20 | Afd. for Digital Design og Informationsvidenskab

WRO 2019 Awards

Artist-Researcher Winnie Soon receives WRO 2019 Biennale Award Winnie is now exhibiting two artworks at Four Domes Pavilion in WRO Media Art Biennale, one of the leading forums for new media art in Poland and Central Europe. Her work “Unerasable Images” receives the WRO 2019 Award.

In addition to her new seat on the Jyllands-Posten Foundation board, Anja Bechmann is research director of DATALAB – Center for Digital Social Research, associate professor in media studies and a Jens Christian Skou Fellow at the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies at Aarhus University.

2018.05.28 | Arts, Medievidenskab og Journalistik

IT expert with humanities background elected to Jyllands-Posten Foundation board

Anja Bechmann, associate professor in media studies, has been elected to the Jyllands-Posten Foundation board. She presents her view on why Denmark’s largest media company needs her profile, and why board work is important.

Winnie Soon (Foto: Claus Sjödin - CSPress.dk)

2018.05.14 | Awards, Afd. for Digital Design og Informationsvidenskab, Arts

Winnie Soon receives PhD prize

On 30 May 2018 Winnie Soon will receive the Aarhus University Research Foundation PhD Award for her project ‘Executing Liveness – An examination of the live dimension of code interactions in software (art) practice’.

2017.11.03 | Afd. for Digital Design og Informationsvidenskab

Plant a Light in the dusk of autumn

This autumn, the Tropical Dome of Aarhus Botanical Garden’s Greenhouses will light up in an interactive spectacle. The installation is developed and produced by CAVI, TEKNE, CIBIS, the School of Communication and Culture, AU, in collaboration with the Greenhouses, Science and Technology, AU, and the design agency Kollision.

2017.06.07 | Lingvistik, Kognitionsvidenskab og Semiotik, Awards

Associate Professor Peter Bakker wins award for his work for the deaf

For the past three years, deaf and hearing students from all over the world have been able to attend an international summer school at Aarhus University which is conducted in sign language. The man behind the summer school is Peter Bakker, an associate professor of linguistics, and the Danish Deaf Association has presented him with an award in…

Dream Banking: The challenge: Lots of people have dreams, but not everyone bothers to find out whether they have enough money to achieve them. Solution: An app which shows people their dreams and how much money they have saved – how close are they to achieving their target? As a bonus, the bank gains invaluable insight into its clients and can improve the advice it provides.
The Charitable Micro Donation: The challenge: People rarely have any cash in their pockets these days, and this is a challenge for charities. How can you collect money from people under such circumstances? Solution: An app that allows you to donate a small amount of money each time you perform a transaction in Mobile Pay. You can choose between various charities, and you can change the amount donated as well.

Albert: The challenge: How can we teach our children the value of money when they never see any actual notes and coins? Solution: A digital piggy bank called Albert – a joint piggy bank for the entire family. Parents can access it via their smartphones and identify shared targets for which the family can save up. Children have a contactless card so they can see how much money the family has saved so far.

THE ONE-STOP ECONOMY EXPERIENCE: The challenge: Financial decisions often give rise to anxiety and doubt. Have you made the right decision or not? Lots of bank clients do their own research – or hesitate to make investments they are uncertain about. Solution: A web app which gives users a clear view of the whole process, teaching them when to think with their hearts – and when to think with their brains.

SAVE IT BY CASH: The challenge: Lots of young people have a savings account, but they don’t necessarily make regular deposits. How can we develop a healthy attitude to saving money among young people? Solution: A digital piggy bank which can only be accessed by the user’s fingerprint. Owners can set targets for how much they want to save. They can keep an eye on developments visually in the box.

2017.06.08 | Students, Afd. for Digital Design og Informationsvidenskab

Students designing the digital payment systems of the future

Students of digital design from Aarhus University presented a panel of developers from Danske Bank with their ideas about the digital payment systems of the future and how the Danes perceive money. Increasing digitalisation means that our banks need new skills to rethink the payment systems of the future.

2017.02.23 | Research, Afd. for Digital Design og Informationsvidenskab

Aarhus University to head giant global project on technology in future cities

EU issues major grant to associate professor Martin Brynskov and the beacon project SynchroniCity. This gives Aarhus University a leading role in developing the Internet of Things in cities, and a unique opportunity to work with a global consortium to influence the current process of digitalisation.

2016.12.01 | Afd. for Digital Design og Informationsvidenskab

Turn On Literature: A new EU-project involving the Poetry Machines

A new EU-project includes a further development, distribution and translation of the Poetry Machines. Two new partners join in – a library in Norway and a library in Romania.

2016.11.04 | Research, Afd. for Digital Design og Informationsvidenskab

An expanding global smart city network

Martin Brynskov, associate professor of information studies, is working hard to expand the international smart city research network, and has just signed a collaboration agreement with Seoul in South Korea.

2016.06.17 | Afd. for Digital Design og Informationsvidenskab, Arts, Research

There are always research elements in my artworks

Winnie Soon, a PhD student of Information Studies, has contributed to an exhibition about media art in Hong Kong with “Jsut code”, an artwork showing Twitter messages that must be decoded using a smartphone.

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Recent publications

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Bøss, M. (2015). Man gjorde et fag fortræd: det kulturradikale syn på historie er skræmmende. Kristeligt Dagblad, 12.

Khair, T. (2015). Manasa, The Snake Goddess: How folk myths helped people make sense of their loves and fears. The Hindu Literary Review.

Bøss, M. (2015). Mistillid til demokratiet. Berlingske Tidende, 30.

Bøss, M. (2015). Mistillid til det politiske aristokrati. Kristeligt Dagblad, 7.

Bøss, M. (2015). Monument over dansk velfærds-historie. Kristeligt Dagblad, 7.

Johansen, I. (2015). Møder med Blake & Ginsberg: Om at fordanske William Blake - og andre betragtninger. Plys, (29), 253-62.

Bøss, M. (2015). Når forskere blander sig. Berlingske Tidende, 32.

Bøss, M. (2015). Offentlige opkast. Weekendavisen, 6.

Khair, T. (2015). Old and New Xenophobia. In S. P. Moslund, A. R. Petersen & M. Schramm (Eds.), The Culture of Migration: politics, aesthetics and histories (1 ed., pp. 59-68). London and New York: I.B. Tauris.

McQuaid, S. D. (2015). Passive Archives or Storages for Action? oral history projects in Northern Ireland. Abstract from SOFEIR International Conference, Paris, France.

Horslund, C. S., Ellegaard, A. A. & Bohn, O-S. (2015). Perceptual assimilation and identification of English consonants by native speakers of Danish. Proceedings of the International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 2015.

Garibaldi, C. L. & Bohn, O-S. (2015). Phonetic similarity predicts ultimate attainment quite well: The case of Danish /i, y, u/ and /d, t/ for native speakers of English and of Spanish. Proceedings of the International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, 2015.

Eger, N. A. & Bohn, O-S. (2015). Picking up the cues to a new consonant contrast: Danish learners’ production and perception of English word-final /s/-/z/. In M. Wolters, J. Livingstone, B. Beattie, R. Smith, M. MacMahon, J. Stuart-Smith & J. Scobbie (Eds.), Proceedings of the 18th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences Glasgow: University of Glasgow. Proceedings of the International Congress of Phonetic Sciences, Vol.. 2015

Johansen, I. (2015). Plantens sjæl: Studier i Albert Dams forfatterskab. Aarhus Universitetsforlag.

Rainsford, D. (2015). Poets as Protagonists: The Sun that Rose from the Earth by Shamsur Rahman Faruqi. Biblio: A Review of Books, 20(1&2), 22-23.

Khair, T. (2015). Poisoned Opium. The Hindu (Sunday Magazine), 1.

Bøss, M. (2015). Portræt af en jødisk kulturmuslim. Weekendavisen, 5.

Rainsford, D. (2015). Review: Dickens' Novels as Poetry: Allegory and Literature of the City . Dickensian, 111(497), 273-75.

Sterrett, J. W., Ankerberg , E. & Davies, D. (Eds.) (2015). Scintilla 18: The Journal of The Vaughan Association. Wales: The Vaughan Association. Scintilla

Sterrett, J. W. (2015). Shakespeare and The Violation of Sanctuary. In S. Chiari (Ed.), The Circulation of Knowledge in Early Modern English Literature (pp. 133-144). Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate.

Bøss, M. (2015). Skolen som instrument. Berlingske Tidende, 26.

Balling, L. W. & Kizach, J. (2015). Surprised by locality: An eye-tracking study of Danish double object constructions. Poster session presented at Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing , Valletta, Malta.

Johansen, I. (2015). Tadeusz Różewicz: “Gyldne bjerge”: gendigtet af Ib Johansen. M gasin, ( XXXVII), 41.

Johansen, I. (2015). Tadeusz Różewicz: “Men hvem der ser …”: gendigtet af Ib Johansen. M gasin, (XXXVII), 40.

Johansen, I. (2015). Tadeusz Różewicz: “Min fader”. M gasin, (XXXVII), 41.

Khair, T. (2015). The Bhashanglo Tangle: questions the Nemade-Rushdie spat raises. Outlook Magazine.

Joyce, S. (2015). The Cosmopolitan Exile: The Dilemmas of Younghill Kang. In E. Marino & T. Emin Tunc (Eds.), The West in Asia and Asia in the West: Essays on Transnational Interactions (pp. 179-191). McFarland.

Khair, T. (2015). The Cosmopolitanism of Small Towns. American Book Review, 36(6), 4-5. [2].

Joyce, S. (2015). The Fearful Merging of Self and Other: Intra-civilizational and Inter-civilizational Colonial Cultures in Richard E. Kim’s Lost Names. Cultura, 12(1), 85-98. https://doi.org/10.5840/cultura20151217

Khair, T. (2015). The Gothic, Postcolonialism and Otherness: Ghosts from Elsewhere. (Paperback edition ed.) London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Khair, T. & Doubinsky, S. (2015). The Politics and Art of Indian English Fantasy Fiction. In U. Anjaria (Ed.), A History of the Indian Novel in English (1 ed., Vol. 1, pp. 337-347). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Joyce, S. (2015). The Rapture at the World’s End: Non-optional Choice and Libertarianism in New Media. Synthesis, 6, 73-91.

Mortensen, P. (2015). The Romance of Reinhabitation: Jack London and Knut Hamsun. In M. Lucarelli & S. Bergmann (Eds.), Spaces in-between: Cultural and Political Perspectives on Environmental Discourse (pp. 38-50). Leiden: Brill. Studies in Environmental Humanities, Vol.. 2

Mousten, B. & Laursen, A. L. (2015). Tracking Anglicisms in Domains by the Corpus-Linguistic Method: A Case Study of Financial Language in Stock Blogs and Stock Analyses. In Professional Communication Conference (IPCC), 2015 IEEE International (pp. 206-212). [7235806] IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/IPCC.2015.7235806

Johansen, I. (2015). Tricksters in Philosophy and Fiction: : From William Blake to the Postmodern Age. In M. Bleinert-Coyle, M. Choiński & Z. Mazur (Eds.), Beyond Words: Crossing Borders in English Studies (Vol. 1, pp. 201-16). Krakow: Tertium.

Carter, D. (2015). Uncovering the Cornfield: Revisions of History in Smile's 'Cabin Essence'. Popular Music & Society, 38(5), 565–585. https://doi.org/10.1080/03007766.2014.970858

Bøss, M. (2015). Utopiske drømme gør kun ondt værre. Politiken, 8.

Bøss, M. (2015). Vi er (næsten) alle liberale. Berlingske Tidende, 20.

Bøss, M. (2015). Vi har ret til at begrænse indvandringen. Berlingske Tidende, 25.

Johansen, I. (2015). Walking Shadows: Reflections on the American Fantastic and the American Grotesque from Washington Irving to the Postmodern Era. Holland: Brill. Costerus, Vol.. 211

Khair, T. (2015). When Divinity Turns Demonic. The Hindu (Sunday Magazine).

Khair, T. (2015). Write Wing Protests. The Hindu Literary Review.

Refskou, A. S. H. & de Amorim, M. A., (TRANS.) (2015). “Thou Map of Woe that thus dost talk in Signs”: Lendo (com) o Corpo do Ator em Titus Andronicus. In Shakespeare 450 Anos (pp. 345-366). Instituto Shakespeare Brasil.

Khair, T. (2014). "A God in Every Stone", by Kamila Shamsie. Financial Times (London, 1888).

Mortensen, P. (2014). "I Am a Hottentot": Africanist Mimicry and Green Xenophilia in Hans Paasche and Karen Blixen. Komparatistik, 25 (2013), 41-52.

Böss/Bøss, M. (2014). 1814 – ikke 1864 – var skæbneåret. Kristeligt Dagblad.

Böss/Bøss, M. (2014). 1864 var ikke kun en katastrofe. Kristeligt Dagblad.