for employees at the Department of Culture and Language

David Wallace holds the Judith Rodin Chair of English at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a prominent literary historian who has broken out of the national paradigm in innovative ways. He has published widely on late medieval English literature, and his collaborative project which resulted in the two-volume Europe – A Literary History 1348-1418 (Oxford UP, 2016) is highly acclaimed. He is now editing a global literary history, National Epics, which focuses on national literatures in a large chronological and comparative frame – from Homer to the present day.This event is open for all

The new Head of the Department of Design, Media and Educational Science will be Alexandra Holsting. Alexandra Holsting has been Head of Studies on several occasions and has been a collective union representative at the Faculty of Humanities in the period 2018–2023.Since 2023, she has been vice head of department at the Department of Culture and Language at the same place. Alexandra Holsting holds an MA in German and Comparative Literature from the University of Southern Denmark. She holds a PhD degree from the Department of English, Germanic, and Romance Studies at the University of Copenhagen. Dean Simon Møberg Torp: I am sure that IDMU will benefit greatly from having Alexandra Holsting as head of department, and in view of her holistic attitude and ability to challenge she will also greatly complement the management group at the Faculty of Humanities. I look forward to working with Alexandra, as I know her to be razor-sharp and incredibly good at seeing nuances and bringing different perspectives into play. She always works to contribute to good solutions – even in difficult situations. In a statement about the department and the job,Alexandra Holsting is lokking forward to the new position: The Department of Design, Media and Educational Science is a department with strong academic and collegial environments that cover many different areas in the humanities, which have in common that they live up to SDU’s goal of creating value for and with society. I look forward to working with both academic staff and administrative staff at the Department, not least when it comes to implementing SDU’s 2030 strategy.Alexandra Holsting will take up the position as Head of Department on August 1.

Dear colleagues I am proud of, impressed with and genuinely pleased with the outstanding work my colleagues at the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Southern Denmark are doing. They are showing an unrivalled commitment and dedication to bringing important research into play and ensuring that crucial scientific contributions are made wherever they can make a positive difference for and with society. A prerequisite for the success of our research is that we secure the financial basis. It is therefore marvellous to see that we have broken all records on this front this year. Funding has been applied for like never before, and I’m happy to say this has resulted in a record amount of external funding – and we still have many promising projects under review. Research is a collective process, and this year’s application efforts have certainly proven this. Systematic collegial discussions and exemplary collaboration, coupled with the fierce competition where even the best don’t always succeed, means that everyone deserves individual recognition for their outstanding efforts. However, this isn’t feasible, so I’ll just stick to the names on the notices of funding. Huge congratulations to: Anders Ljungdalh, The Formation of Impartiality Anders V. Munch, History of Danish Design Ane Qvortrup, Eco-engagement and eco-literacy Anne-Marie S. Christensen, Individuelt moralsk ansvar i skyldens tidsalder (Individual Moral Responsibility in the Age of Guilt) Cecilie Bjerre, Paternity In Denmark, ca. 1920s–1990s (PAID) Eva Knutz, Co-designing new support practices with young children Eva Lykkegaard, Students' voices on wellbeing (VoiceWell) Gro Hellesdatter Jacobsen, EXPECT_Art Janne Liburd, ISOSCAN Johanne Louise Christiansen, QURANATURA Jytte Isaksen, Aphasia is more than a language impairment Kathrin Maurer, Aesthetics of Biomachines Michael Paulsen, Playing with disaster Nina Nørgaard, Kommunikation om Seksuel Sundhed (Communication about Sexual Health) Nikolaj Elf, Centre for Primary School Research 2.0 Søren Wind Eskildsen, (Second) Language Learning in the Wild Susana Tosca, Forskning i kulturarv og Digital Entertainment Machine (Cultural Heritage Research and Digital Entertainment Machine) Thomas Heebøll-Holmøll-Holm , Fama in Medieval Denmark (ca. 1240–1340) Tina Høegh, InDi – Inclusive Dialogue Tine Hindkjær Madsen, Reconciling Science and Democracy Torsten Bøgh Thomsen – H.C. Andersen’s views on nature and technology These are just to name a few. Fortunately, there are far too many for me to mention everyone. And of course, a huge thank you to the generous partners who made it all possible: The A.P. Moller Foundation The Augustinus Foundation The Carlsberg Foundation The European Commission Independent Research Fund Denmark Novo Nordisk Foundation The Velux Foundations (Villum Fonden & Velux Fonden) Best wishes Simon Møberg Torp Dean, The Faculty of Humanities

Dear all, I hope you have had a wonderful summer holiday in the company of family and friends.When the new departmental structure was approved, our two new departments were given temporary names. At the end of February, we started a process to find permanent names for them.All employees at the faculty were invited to send in proposals for new permanent names for the departments, and a committee was established to advise the management group on the final decision on the names. The committee’s membership comprised the heads of department, a representative from each Department Council, a representative from the Academic Council, a student representative and myself. A total of eleven proposals for departmental names were submitted for the Institute of Language, Culture, History, and Communication, and ten proposals were submitted for the Department of Media, Design, Education, and Cognition.A significant majority in the committee thought that the temporary names were too long to be made permanent, so they decided to recommend new names for both departments.After thorough discussions at two meetings in the naming committee, the participants in the second meeting have agreed on the following new names for the departments:• Institut for Kultur- og Sprogvidenskaber / Department of Culture and Language• Institut for Design, Medier og Uddannelsesvidenskab / Department of Design, Media and Educational ScienceThe committee has endeavoured to find names that are not too long while also being as inclusive as possible. Naturally, this has been an extremely challenging task. We are fully aware that there will probably be academic fields that would have preferred different names. With this in mind, work is now being carried out to add an extra level to email signatures and to sdu.dk, so that the specific research environment that you are attached to (such as centre, research group, etc.) will be displayed. In other words, three organizational affiliations will in future be listed: research environment, department and faculty.I would like to extend my gratitude to the members of the naming committee for their dedicated efforts in connection with this thankless task.Best wishes,Simon Møberg TorpDean