In 2012 Henning Nølke, Professor of French at the Department of Aesthetics and Communication, was invited by UFRN to take part in a conference and present his research into text linguistics with particular emphasis on linguistic polyphony – in other words, the way in which a variety of voices are expressed in texts and discourses:

“It was like a bolt from the blue. I was really surprised to learn that my linguistic theory and research was so popular in Brazil. I knew it was widely used around the world, but I had absolutely no idea that the Brazilians were so interested in it,” says Nølke.

Brazilian translation

The truth is that the linguists from UFRN are so interested in his linguistic theory that they are going to translate his book on ScaPoline (La théorie SCAndinave de la POlyphonie LINguistiquE) into Brazilian.

The first tangible result of the new agreement is that PhD student Adriana Jales has now started a six-month period working in Aarhus under Nølke’s supervision.

Nølke has also been invited to return to Natal several times during the coming year, and UFRN also want him and Associate Professor Merete Birkelund to join an international network focusing on research into legal language.

Professor Ângela Maria Paiva Cruz (the President of UFRN) and Dean Mette Thunø signed the formal cooperation agreement on Monday 21 October in connection with a three-day visit to AU by a Brazilian delegation.

New opportunities for students of Brazilian

Vinicius Mariano de Carvalho is Associate Professor of Brazilian at AU. He has helped to finalise the agreement, and while the Brazilian delegation were in Aarhus he had the chance to present AU’s Brazilian degree programmes. He thinks the new agreement has great potential:

“I think our knowledge of Brazil helped the visit to go well, and we also got the chance to expand our network of universities in Brazil. UFRN has a really good academic reputation, and we’re sending our first exchange students to them in January,” explains de Carvalho.

So the interest in Henning Nølke’s research has paved the way leading to greater cooperation between AU and UFRN. The new agreement is a framework agreement which will lead to concrete agreements involving not only the Faculty of Arts but also the rest of AU. For instance, UFRN is now discussing a variety of partnership options with the Department of Geoscience.

From left to right: Professor Henning Nølke, Vice-Dean Jan Ifversen, Maria das Graças Soares Rodrigues, Dean Mette Thunø, President of UFRN Ângela Maria Paiva Cruz, and Associate Professor Vinicius Mariano de Carvalho.