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Personal Names in Swedish Academia

Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Engaging with foreign-sounding personal names is an everyday reality in collegial interactions within contemporary Swedish academia. While encounters with difference are ever-present, dynamics of address often resist straightforward alignment within conventional hierarchies. The interview-based empirical material challenges overly simplistic analytical assumptions that rely on binaries such as native versus non-native or domestic versus international academics. Within this context, the analytical perspective of postmigration enables a closer examination of how the deeply personal character of names affects negotiations of difference, positionings and heritage. Moreover, postmigration highlights the emergence of subtle emotional labour within academic workplaces – grounded in practices that outmanoeuvre binary frameworks of thinking about difference and embrace humility and humour.
Language: English
Subfield: Communication
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W7164888090
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