Centre for Academic and Professional Communication (SEKOM) - Activities and events
Activities and events
2018
Digital Life Norway Research School – 2nd Annual Conference
The national research centre for transdisciplinary training and education within biotechnology, Digital Life Norway Research School, hosted its 2nd annual conference in Verdal between 30 May - 1 June 2018. The event attracted over 80 doctoral and postdoctoral researchers from all over Norway and Professor Srikant Sarangi opened the official conference programme with a well-received keynote speech titled Beneath the Holy Grail: Practising Interdisciplinarity across Peers.
Taking his cue from the conference theme of how to present research within the scientific community, he talked about the conduct of collaborative interdisciplinary research and the challenges it poses when shared understandings and mutually interpretive repertoires cannot be taken for granted. He went on to discuss whether researchers are able to easily uproot themselves from disciplinary bases and/or biases in order to make interdisciplinary and interprofessional partnerships work, and concluded by stressing the growing need for dialogic collaboration between researchers and practitioners as interdisciplinary research in itself does not always translate into practical/societal relevance.
Workshop on Publishing in International Journals
On 29-30 May 2018, Professor Srikant Sarangi led a workshop on publishing international journals that brought together 30 members of staff from across the NTNU faculties, who enjoyed two days of intense exploration of the ways in which ongoing research can be translated into publications in high-ranking international journals.
Drawing on his long-standing experience as editor of three journals, Srikant led the group through the key milestones of the publishing process – submission, peer review, revision and the final editorial decision. Participants were given access to authentic materials (original and revised manuscripts, reviewer reports and author-editor-reviewer correspondences) that illustrated some of the major reasons which underline the negative and positive outcomes concerning journal submissions. During the workshop, participants were eager to share and discuss their own publishing experiences, and their positive overall feedback proved the course to be highly relevant, inspiring and useful with Srikant as an engaging and readily accessible course leader.
2017
Course: Approaching multilingualism
The NORDPAL course for 2017 was held in Jyväskylä, Finland, on 24–26 August, and the theme was “Approaching multilingualism”.
Course: Academic Writing Workshop
On 13 and 14 June, SEKOM was organizing a two-day course for doctoral candidates at NTNU on writing and publishing articles in English. The course was led by Associate Professor Nancy Lea Eik-Nes.
Keynote: The Communicative Basis of Professional Expertise
On 26 April, Srikant Sarangi, adjunct professor at SEKOM, delivered a keynote speech entitled “The Communicative Basis of Professional Expertise” at the symposium “Trading Places, Creating Spaces: A Symposium in Honour of Chris Candlin”. The symposium was a part of the Asia-Pacific LSP & Professional Communication Conference 2017, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Watch Srikant’s keynote.
New learning suite: Global Visions
Daniel Weston co-edited a new learning suite in international English for Norwegian upper secondary school, Global Visions. This learning suite includes a textbook, online portals for pupils and teachers, and digital learning resources, and will be released on 28 April.
Symposium presentation: Conversation as a tool for professional practice
On 20 April, Marit Olave Riis-Johansen and Ellen Andenæs presented “Exploring service user involvement: Managing communicative ideals in NAV couselling interviews" at the symposium Conversation as a tool for professional practice – An interdisciplinary CA-symposium on interaction and learning, organized by the University College of Southeast Norway. The presentation is a result of NTNU’s UTVEI project.
New book: Zero Emission Buildings
Nancy Lea Eik-Nes and Anne Grete Hestnes are editors of Zero Emission Buildings, a new book that presents articles from eight years’ worth of research into zero emission buildings. A central part of this research focuses on communication across disciplines and professions at various stages of the process—from planning to finishing and follow-up, including analyses of how humans interact with the finished building.
Plenary lecture at Norskkonferansen 2017
On 5–6 April, Ellen Andenæs gave a lecture entitled “Observere, delta, bidra?” (Observe, participate, contribute?) at Norskkonferansen, the national conference on Norwegian as a second language, organized by Skills Norway. The target audience for this conference is bilingual teachers, as well as teachers and managers working with Norwegian-language training for adult immigrants. Watch a recording of Ellen’s lecture.
Presentation at police seminar
On 23 March, Marit Olave Riis-Johansen gave a presentation at a seminar on violence in close relationships, organized by Trøndelag Police District. The presentation was called Communicative dilemmas in the initial stage of interviews of adult victims. Police officers who attended were given the opportunity to reflect on how they manage the dialogue in interviews.
Disputation: Johan Thomassen Hjulstad
On 03 March 2017, Johan Thomassen Hjulstad defended his doctoral dissertation “Embodied Participation in the Semiotic Ecology of a Visually-Oriented Virtual Classroom”. His dissertation is a microethnographic study of a distance learning programme, where advanced video conferencing technology is used to create a virtual classroom where pupils learn sign language together. This dissertation supplements our understanding of teaching and learning - visually oriented practices, participation and identity work in new, technology-mediated environments.
Regular activities:
Skrivesnakk
Skrivesnakk is a drop-in service for students at NTNU Dragvoll, where students guide other students on academic writing. Bring your assignment and our learning assistant will help you develop your text. Come alone or as a group, if several of you are working on the same assignment.
Skrivepunkt
Skrivenatt
Skrivenatt is an evening event organized once every semester, where students at NTNU Dragvoll get together to get help with their assignments. Writers’ night was last held on 14 March, and the next night will take place in the autumn semester of 2017.
Discourse Seminar
The Discourse Seminar is an interdisciplinary forum for interaction researchers from different NTNU departments.