NIC2024: Intercultural Communication and Professional Practice

The Nordic Network for Intercultural Communication (NIC) annual conference took place from 27 to 29 November 2024 at the VID Specialized University campus in Stavanger, Norway, marking the organisation's thirtieth anniversary. The conference theme was Intercultural Communication and Professional Practice. Alongside academic panels on various aspects of intercultural communication, the programme included workshops discussing how intercultural competencies intersect with diversity and inclusion, citizenship education, sustainability, environmental issues, and justice.

Sofiya Zahova, director of the Vigdís International Centre for Multilingualism and Intercultural Understanding, gave a talk on aspects of intercultural communication in Swedish Romani literature. At the Annual Assembly of the NIC, Zahova and Kristín Ingvarsdóttir, Assistant Professor at the University of Iceland and Chair of the Japanese Studies Programme, were appointed as Iceland’s representatives to the Board of the organisation. As NIC Board members, they plan to establish a collaboration group, uniting academics who are researching and teaching various aspects of intercultural communication at the University of Iceland and are interested in Nordic cooperation.

Zahova also presented the ongoing work and priorities of the Vigdís International Centre at the VIC’s Board meeting. She discussed possibilities for collaboration with Vebjørn L. Horsfjord, Dean of the Faculty of Theology and Social Sciences, and Anne Brit Hatleskog, Director of the Centre for Intercultural Communication at VID Stavanger.

Sámi graduate of VID performed joik at the opening.

The closing panel with Øyvind Dahl, Jens Allwood, and Tone Linge.