Internationalization of Universities and the National Language

Hermann Giliomee was professor of Political Studies at the University of Cape Town. He has been a fellow at Yale University, the University of Cambridge and the Woodrow Wilson Centre for International Scholars in Washington. From 1995 to 1997, he was president of the South African Institute of Race Relations. He is currently extraordinary professor of History at Stellenbosch University. Professor Giliomee often writes about South African history and contemporary politics. Fifteen books have seen the light under his name, among others: The Shaping of South African Society: From Apartheid to Nation-building (1989, with Lawrence Schlemmer) and The Awkward Embrace: One-Party Domination and Democracy (1999, with Charles Simkins). His The Afrikaners: Biography of a People (2003, published in Afrikaans as Die Afrikaners: ‘n Biografie) was listed in The Economist as one of their Books of the Year in 2003.

Frans Gregersen was professor of Danish language at the University of Copenhagen from 1996 until the end of 2018. From 2005 to 2015 he was the director of the Danish National Research Foundation Center of Excellence, LANCHART, focusing on sociolinguistic studies of language change in real time. He was the chairman and convener of the group of experts working on parallel language policies for the Nordic Council of Ministers (2014−17). Currently, he is active in a project on the history of Danish structuralism.

Monika Kalin Golob is professor of Slovenian Language and Stylistics at the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Social Sciences. She studied Slovenian Language and Literature (as major) and Comparative Literature (as minor) at the university’s Faculty of Arts. She was a postdoctoral fellow on invitation of the Bavarian Government in Munich, an invited professor at the Department of Czech language at Charles University, and invited professor at the Faculty of Arts at the University of Zagreb. Her research fields are language culture, stylistics of journalism, PR and advertising, language planning and language policy. She published over 300 articles, book chapters and books on these topics. She was vice dean for Study and Student Affairs (2005−11, 2015−17) and from 2017 she is dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Ljubljana.

Birute Klaas-Lang is professor of Estonian as a Foreign Language at the University of Tartu and the head of the Department for Applied Linguistics. Her research centers on language contacts, areal linguistics, typology, and language policy and planning. She was vice rector of the University of Tartu from 2005 to 2010, and visiting professor of Estonian at the University of Helsinki from 2012 to 2016. Professor Klaas-Lang was the head of the Estonian Language Council from 2005 to 2016 and resumed these responsibilities from 2019. She is one of the authors of the Estonian Language Development Strategy 2004−10 and 2011−17.

Helle Metslang is professor of Modern Estonian of the University of Tartu and head of the Department of Estonian. She is also adjunct professor of the University of Helsinki and of the University of Oulu. She was professor of Estonian at Tallinn University (2000−06) and visiting professor of Estonian at the University of Helsinki (2004−07). Her research centers on morphosyntax, language variation, language typology, historical sociolinguistics, and language policy. Professor Metslang is Chair of the Mother Tongue Society and member of Academia Europaea and AcademiaNet. She is member of the Estonian Language Council and one of the authors of the Estonian Language Development Strategy 2004−10 and 2011−17.

Eric Mijts studied Linguistics and Literature at the University of Antwerp and is specialised in sociolinguistics. In 2000, he joined the University of Aruba where he works as a researcher and lecturer in skills and linguistics as well as an initiator of educational innovation and multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary research programmes. As a researcher he is affiliated with the University of Antwerp and Ghent University. He coordinates the Academic Foundation Year and the UAUCU student research exchange and he is a founding member of the SISSTEM programme (Sustainable Island Solutions through Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). His research and publications focus on multilingualism, language policy and planning, education for sustainable development, and inclusion/exclusion processes.