Theoretical fields of interest
Intercultural Studies focus on the problematics of cultural encounters in both Denmark and elsewhere. It carries out research in (the intersections between) ethnicity, nationality, language, religion, race, gender and class, focussing on cultural representation, subject formation, identity construction and identity politics. A central concern is the attempt to understand the power dimension in the different and unequal social and cultural backgrounds, and this concern privileges minority and majority studies, studies in inclusion and exclusion, hierarchy formation and othering, ethnicism and racism. The analytical approach will normally include an actor perspective as well. This takes the form of an emphasis on the cultural and aesthetic practices of individuals, groups and the media, and on intercultural learning and intercultural competences in relation to education and work-places. These practices and processes are analysed from a social, global and post-colonial perspective, and this includes an interest in cosmopolitanism, diaspora and other transnational conditions with relevance for identity formation, including different kinds of transnational migration and migration biographies.

Thematic areas
Within Intercultural Studies three thematic areas can be identified: The perspective of  the cultural encounter, postcolonial studies, and studies of multilingulism and the language-culture relation.

 The perspective of the cultural encounter raises a number of theoretical and methodological questions across otherwise separate fields of research, incl. studies of migration and minorities, postcolonial studies and studies of multilingualism. This focus is characterized by the inclusion of perspectives, theories and methodological reflections covering a spectrum of types of sources, disciplinary approaches and theoretical paradigms with special reference to analytical applicability. Within this perspective, as well as within the other two, special emphasis is put on the study of differentiations, otherizations and hierarchizations across a range of parametres (and their intersections) such as ethnicity, gender, language, race.

Postcolonial studies at Intercultural Studies transgress a number of boundaries: First, the literary approach is supplemented with approaches from other parts of cultural and social studies, second, the research interests cut across different language areas, third, there is a focus on global South-South relations as a theoretical and empirical alternative to traditional North-South thinking, and fourth, the Danish and Nordic colonial and postcolonial reality constitutes an important new area of research which also includes migration.

Studies of multilingualism and the language-culture relation at Intercultural Studies constitute a rethinking of the relationship between language and culture in a transnational and global perspective, integrating theories from sociolinguistics, the sociology of language, social anthropology, sociology, theory of learning, ethnomethodology and discursive psychology. Studies of multilingualism and cultural heterogeneity include studies of the production and reproduction of a number of communities of meaning and practice that relate to different social identities, categories, representations and contexts. 

Regions in a global perspective
In principle, Intercultural Studies take an interest in cultural encounter problematics everywhere in the world, and there is or has been research in relation to Denmark, Danish colonial history and present situation as coloniser of The Faroese Islands and Greenland, the Baltic Sea region, Germany, France and Europe as a whole, Anglophone Africa, the Black Atlantic, the Middle East, Colombia and Latin America as a whole, Australia, New Zealand and South and South East Asia.

The staff at Intercultural Studies has or has had knowledge (ranging from native competence to elementary conversation or reading skills) of a number of languages and thereby access to many different cultures (such as Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Farsi, French, Faeroese, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Kurdish, Modern Greek, Norwegian, Portuguese, Potohari, Punjabi, Russian, Saraiki, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish and Urdu). Intercultural Studies has close collaboration with the international research network CALPIU (based at the Department of Culture and Identity): Cultural and Linguistic Practices in the International University.

Common working languages in Intercultural Studies
Danish and English

KULT
Intercultural Studies edits the series KULT with articles in Danish, English and occasionally other languages. See www.postkolonial.dk

PhD Program
In connection with the research group there is a PhD program with the same name: Intercultural Studies

Bachelor's and Master's programs
In connection with Intercultural Studies there are Bachelor’s and Master’s programs in Cultural Encounters. It should be added that Roskilde University is famous for its interdisciplinary approach and its pedagogical methods, as studies are problem-based, project-organized and organized in groups.