Academic staff

  • Prof. Christopher Jenks (Programme Coordinator)

    Christopher Jenks specialises in the study of language in society and is particularly interested in the political and cultural implications of the global spread of English.  His research interests include online communication, intercultural encounters, political discourse, and identity construction. 

  • Dr Debbie Cole (English track)

    Debbie Cole is Associate Professor trained in formal linguistics and linguistic anthropology at the University of Arizona. Her research focuses on comparative concepts of diversity, the effects of language ideologies on public and classroom discourses, and representations of ethnolinguistic variation, particularly in verbal art. Having spent her childhood and field research years in Indonesia, she also translates Indonesian poetry into English.

  • Dr Roselinde Supheert (English track)

    Roselinde Supheert is a lecturer at the Department of Languages, Literature and Communication, teaching English and Irish literature, adaptation studies and ICC. Her research interests are in the field of cultural identity in different media, and from a variety of perspectives. Topics include the representation of migrants in the news and the relevance of (post-)colonial discourse in this respect, as well as the use of national stereotypes in advertising and websites.

  • Dr Marie Steffens (French track)

    Marie Steffens, after ten years of experience in teaching French language/linguistics to various learners at university (Liège and Québec) and for a non-profit organisation, is now Assistant Professor in French linguistics as well as a collaborator to EDINA, a project related to the education of newly arrived migrant pupils. Regarding research, she combines lexical semantics and corpus linguistics to adapt digital collaborative resources to language learning.

  • Dr Manuela Pinto (Italian track)

    Manuela Pinto is Assistant Professor Italian Linguistics. Her current research interests focus on language development and assessment in L1 and L2. With colleague Shalom Zuckerman and in collaboration with Boom Uitgeverijen Amsterdam she is leading the project Coloring Book: een nieuwe test- en onderzoeksmethode voor taalbegrip. The goal of this project is to develop a new test for receptive vocabulary to measure language development in Dutch L1-L2 children aged 4-8.

  • Dr Sergio Baauw (Spanish track)

    Sergio Baauw is Assistant Professor in Spanish Linguistics. His research focuses on first and second language acquisition, multilingualism and the integration of newcomers into mainstream education. From September 2017 to September 2018 he was project leader of EDINA, an Erasmus + project in the field of newcomer education. Within ICC he teaches and supervises theses in the field of multilingualism, language contact and language policy.

  • Dr Luisa García-Manso (Spanish track)

    Luisa García-Manso is Assistant Professor in Hispanic Literature and Culture. Her fields of expertise are Contemporary Spanish Theatre (20th and 21st Centuries) and Gender Studies. Currently, she is focusing on participatory and documentary forms of theatre that use testimony to reflect on identity, cultural diversity and social change. Her research interests linked to ICC are transculturality, cultural representation, diversity, identity, migration and exile in current Spanish and Spanish-American Literature, Theatre, and Film.

  • Dr Rena Zendedel

    Rena Zendedel is Assistant Professor at the Department of Languages, Literature and Communication and teaches in the Intercultural Communication MA programme. Her research interests are in health communication with migrant patients, intercultural awareness, intercultural competences and intercultural learning. In addition to her teaching and research activities, she is also a trainer in intercultural competences for both UU personnel and for professionals outside of the academic context. 

  • Kimberly Naber

    Kimberly Naber holds a background in Intercultural Communication and Dutch Language and Culture. Since January 2023, she has been conducting PhD research on the extent to which a receptive approach can be used to learn a language and communicate effectively in multilingual contexts. Her academic interests include Receptive Multilingualism and Intercultural Awareness.