Following on from our profile about recently appointed Lecturer, Dr Chris Leyland, here is some further information about Dr Alina Schartner, who also joined us as Lecturer in Applied Linguistics in early June. Alina kindly answered a few quick questions recently…
So, what brings you to Newcastle? What work has led to you being appointed as Lecturer in Applied Linguistics here?
After a BSc in Political Science at the University of Salzburg in Austria, and a couple of years working in various places (marketing, local government, and ice cream shops), I came to Newcastle University to do an MA in Cross-Cultural Communication and Education in 2009. During this year I got my first taste of academia in the UK and started toying with the idea of becoming an academic myself. I subsequently began a PhD in ECLS in 2010, investigating the cross-cultural adjustment and adaptation of international students in the UK. During my time as a PhD student I became an active member of the research community in ECLS and got the opportunity to contribute to the teaching on both the MA CCC and the MA Applied Linguistics and TESOL. This ‘academic apprenticeship’ was invaluable for my professional development and, I’m sure, contributed heavily to my appointment as Research Associate in March 2014 and, latterly, to my appointment as Lecturer in Applied Linguistics in June 2015. Since I finished my PhD I have published papers in several journals, including Higher Education, the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, the Journal of Research in International Education, and the European Journal of Higher Education. Most of these were related, broadly, to intercultural communication in the context of the internationalisation of higher education.
What work are you doing in your first year here?
I am currently involved in a number of collaborative research bids to national and European funders. Most recently this includes a bid to the Leverhulme International Networks scheme with partners in Japan, China, Thailand, Brazil, and South Africa. Over the summer I have been working on a project on staff and student perceptions of the ‘international university’, funded by the HASS Faculty Research Fund. I will present this data at the upcoming conference of the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL) in September 2015. I am presently also co-editing a special issue for the Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development entitled ‘The internationalised university – an intercultural endeavour?’ My teaching in 2015-16 includes the module Professional Communication Skills as well as contributions to the Research Methods modules in the Section. I am also leading the module ‘Internationalising University Experience’ for the new BA Education which I am keen to offer to MA students in the Applied Linguistics section in 2016-17.
What are your future plans and aspirations?
Over the next year or two, I am hoping to contribute to several ‘big’ collaborative research bids. Over the next few months, this will include a bid on ‘Englishization’ in higher education for the 2016 Erasmus+ call. I am also planning to further develop a conceptual model of international student adjustment and adaptation (developed as part of my PhD), and I am in the process of setting up a collaboration around this with colleagues at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. Aside from my own research, I look forward to help expand the module offer on the MA CCC and MA TESOL.