A Farewell to Cultural Competence

By Dietrich Jung, 3/21/2024

This has enabled me to discuss and develop the research on modern Islam that we conduct at the Center for Modern Middle East and Muslim Studies at the University of Southern Denmark (SDU). These research projects were only possible because we repeatedly managed to obtain external research funding from the Independent Research Fund Denmark (DFF) as well as the Carlsberg and Velux foundations, which also enabled us to employ junior researchers, especially PhD students. 

Unfortunately, this lecture tour was also a farewell tour. In May 2023, SDU’s management decided to discontinue our Middle East Studies education programme and thus in the long term also the Center for Modern Middle East and Muslim Studies. Without students, no research. Over the past few years – boosted by the COVID pandemic – the number of students decreased noticeably, so that the study programme was no longer financially sustainable. With a university funding system based largely on student numbers, this decision may be financially sound. Whether it is wise for the future challenges facing Denmark, however, depends on one’s perspective. Those who already regard the humanities as superfluous will no doubt applaud the decision. For those who see the acquisition and preservation of cultural competences as an important task in the future, the reduction of humanities subjects is a cause for concern. 

With the discontinuation of the Center for Modern Middle East and Muslim Studies, SDU continues a course that has led to only three languages being taught today as majors at SDU’s Faculty of Humanities: Danish, German and English. Thus, one no longer finds the strong competence in philology that once played an important role in the history of Danish science. But language and area studies form the basis for acquiring cultural competence. In the long term, I fear that our abandonment of the language and area studies will contribute to Denmark — and Europe as a whole — losing influence in the global competition. This is underlined by some observations from my lecture tour.  

In just a few decades, the scenes in Malaysia and Singapore have changed markedly. The infrastructure of both countries is now very well developed, Singapore having almost tripled its population within a few decades. In the international ranking, the two universities in Singapore where I have partners are far ahead of all Danish universities. It is also interesting to consider tourism, which has changed considerably. It used to be dominated by Europeans, but today they have been replaced by Asian tourists. In Kuala Lumpur, Singapore, but also in Sydney, the Chinese and Indian middle classes are increasingly displacing Europeans in the streets. This change also reflects the political and economic power relations in the world. 

In the public debate in Denmark, these changes are discussed with a focus on how best to liberate oneself from global dependence. The debate revolves around politics and economics but does not take into account the complexity underlying the global challenges we face. The preservation of prosperity, a democratic welfare state and an open liberal society must also be defended in the global competition for institutions, ideas and values. We need to be able to promote our lifestyle over other models in the global competition. However, this requires the translation of European institutions and ideas into other languages and cultural understandings. We therefore need more, not less, cultural competence. In this light, the current, relatively marginal savings in humanities research and education, which SDU and other universities are continuously implementing, will cost us dearly in the future.