STUDIES DIG AT THE INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE “FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING AND INTERCULTURAL COMMUNICATION IN THE CONTEXT OF INTERNATIONALIZATION IN THE CONTEMPORARY ERA”
As part of research and networking activities, researchers from the STUDIES-DIG project participated in an international conference on Foreign language teaching and intercultural communication in the context of internationalization in the contemporary era, organized by the Department of Foreign Languages and Applied Linguistics at UNWE in Sofia on June 27th, 2025. The conference was also dedicated to the jubilee of Prof. Daniela Koch-Kozhuharova, who has been the department chair for many years and has been involved as a member of the UNWE research team in the frame of the STUDIES-DIG project.
The scientific forum brought together researchers and practitioners in different fields from Bulgarian and foreign universities to discuss foreign language teaching and intercultural communication in the context of the increasing global processes of migration and digitalization, and to determine the role of culture and language concerning digitalization. Participants from the UNWE, Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, New Bulgarian University, the University of Library Science and Information Technologies, Plovdiv University “Paisii Hilendarski”, and representatives of universities from Cyprus, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Romania, and Croatia took part in the conference. The opening session was attended by the Rector, the Vice-Rector for institutional and Business Cooperation and Student Policies, the Dean of the Faculty of International Economics and Politics, representatives of the diplomatic missions of Argentina and Spain in Bulgaria, as well as members of the academic staff at UNWE. The plenary session was opened with a presentation by Prof. Daniela Koch-Kozhuharova on Internationalization, intercultural communication, and language in the era of Alexander the Great, drawing a parallel between internationalization in that period and today and emphasizing that language is the one that follows politics and economics, and not vice versa.
The international conference provided an excellent opportunity to present papers connected with the STUDIES-DIG research activities in the frame of the project WP2 focused on culture, language, and socio-economic factors to digitalization, as well as to create new partnerships and to enlarge the consortium network. The conference program included paper presentations of the STUDIES-DIG research team from Bulgaria and Portugal.
