Andreana Pastena is an Assistant Professor in English Language and Linguistics at the University of the Blearic Islands, in Spain. Previously, she was a Marie Sklodowska Curie Postdoctoral Fellow (EUTOPIA-SIF COFUND) at the Department of Applied Linguistics at the University of Warwick, UK. Her research explores how undergraduate and master’s students navigate universities’ increasing linguistic and cultural diversity. With an interdisciplinary approach, she focuses students’ language biographies and practices and intercultural interactions in internationalised Higher Education, and the impact these experiences have on the development of plurilingual and pluricultural competences. The aim is to put on focus the role of languages and self-reflection in intercultural learning. Andreana completed her undergraduate and master studies in Italy, between Naples and Pisa. Then, she moved to Spain where, in 2022, she received a Ph.D. degree in Humanities (research line: Intercultural spaces, languages, and identities) from the Universitat Pompeu Fabra of Barcelona. In 2020, she was a visiting predoctoral researcher at the Interdisciplinary Solidarity, Societies, Territories Laboratory at the University of Toulouse Jean Jaurès, in France. She has also worked as a foreign languages teacher and an intercultural trainer, and she holds a Postgraduate diploma in active learning pedagogies. Andreana’s research arises from her own plurilingual and cross-cultural practices, and has the long-term goal of understanding how to “live together as equals in multilingual and multicultural societies”.
Presentation from the SIF Final Event: Choose EUTOPIA for Science: MSCA COFUND Science and Innovation Fellowship impact and careers
Live together as equals in multilingual and multicultural societies
The project explored how language biographies, attitudes, and practices influence intercultural interactions and learning among university students in increasingly diverse European higher education settings. While universities invest in language policies, these often overlook languages beyond English and the official ones, and meaningful intercultural contact is not guaranteed.
The study focused on both local and international students at two universities: Warwick (a monolingual context) and Universitat Pompeu Fabra (a bilingual context). Using narrative inquiry, it examines individual and contextual factors shaping intercultural relationships, aiming to uncover the role of languages in fostering mutual understanding.
Data were collected through surveys, interviews, and focus groups. The findings, though not generalizable, offer insights into the linguistic and social dynamics of internationalization, informing future policies and interventions to support both local and international students.
Curriculum Vitae
- Education
2022: Ph.D. in Humanities (research line: Intercultural spaces, languages, and identities), Universitat Pompeu Fabra Barcelona (Spain).
2021: Postgraduate diploma in Active Learning Pedagogies, Universidad de Extremadura (Spain).
2016: MA degree in Linguistics, Università di Pisa (Italy).
2012: BA degree in Humanities, Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II (Italy).
- Experience
May 2018 – April 2022: Predoctoral Researcher, Universitat Pompeu Fabra Barcelona (Spain).
Member of the TRANSLINGUAM-UNI research project (UE-PGC2018-098815-B-I00).
October 2018 – April 2022: Teaching Assistant, Universitat Pompeu Fabra Barcelona (Spain).
BA courses: “Intercultural spaces, languages and identities”, “Discourse analysis”, “English for Humanities”.
January 2020 – March 2020: Visiting Predoctoral Researcher, Interdisciplinary Solidarity, Societies, Territories Laboratory, Université de Toulouse Jean Jaurès (France).
Andreana is an active member of the GREILI-UPF research group and the ICLHE Association. She has also experience as a foreign languages teacher and an intercultural trainer.
- Publications/Research achievement
ORCID; GoogleScholar; ResearchGate
Research Project:
Students’ Narratives in Internationalized Higher Education: Disentangling the Relationship between Language Biographies, Language Practices, and Intercultural interactions
Internationalization of Higher Education is turning universities into spaces of increasing intercultural contact and linguistic diversity. However, official language policies often disregard the use of languages other than the official one(s) and the international lingua franca, English. Likewise, although research has focused on the challenges faced by international students in academic and social integration, much less attention is paid to the role of plurilingual repertoires and identity negotiation in intercultural friendship formation and mutual intercultural learning.
This project explores how students navigate internationalized universities. Specifically, it investigates the relationship between students’ language biography and practices and the development of intercultural interactions at university by means of narrative inquiry. The project combines theoretical perspectives and methodological approaches from applied linguistics, social psychology, and network science, often segregated in current literature. The research takes the form of a case study with several phases of data collection and instruments (i.e. questionnaires, social networks, interviews, and focus groups). Participants are local and international students from two European universities: one located in an officially monolingual country (i.e. Warwick), and the other in a bilingual region (i.e. Universitat Pompeu Fabra).
Adopting an emic perspective, the study aims to explore how students make sense of and engage with their lived intercultural experiences and language practices, while giving them the opportunity to reflect on themselves and their experiences of intercultural learning. As such, results will put the focus on the relevance of self-reflection and ‘critical awareness’ in multilingual and multicultural societies.