This group brings together researchers whose interests encompass multimodality, language and communication in organisations. The group adheres to a broad understanding of organisations (including companies, health organisations, educational institutions and interest groups) as well as a broad understanding of communication (realised as and through language, visuals, technology, architecture, and other meaning-making resources).
Members of the group investigate meaning-making within fields such as health communication, sustainability communication, market communication, management communication and the role of technologies in organisational communication.
The group embraces a high degree of theoretical and methodological diversity, with approaches ranging from the predominantly theoretical to the predominantly empirical.
Members
Nina Nørgaard is an Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics at the Department of Culture and Language, 糖果派对, specialising in multimodal communication. She has a PhD in English stylistics (2002) and a dr.phil. in multimodal stylistics (2020). Her research interests include multimodality, multimodal critical discourse analysis, stylistics, health communication, sustainability communication and the semiotics of typography and architecture.
As a member of Multimodality, Language and Organisation, her research revolves around organisational sustainability communication and sexual health communication from a multimodal perspective. Her recent work in those fields includes multimodal studies of environmental sustainability and social (in)justice in a sports fashion campaign (Nørgaard 2022), the green rebranding of a Danish energy company (Nørgaard 2023), the semiotics of corporate testimonial videos (Dalby Kristiansen and Nørgaard 2023) and Danish health organisations’ contraception information for young adults (Nørgaard and Jepsen 2023).
Nina is the Principal Investigator (PI) of the research project Ignorance and Inequality in Sexual Health – Addressed from a Multimodal Communicative Perspective (2023-2027), funded by the VELUX Foundation. This project addresses ignorance and inequality in sexual health in Denmark through a communication perspective. The project members examine information materials, websites and social media to understand how organisations, health communication professionals and ordinary Danes communicate about sex, gender, diversity, contraception, STIs, consent and menopause, thereby aiming to create a basis for clear communication that can promote knowledge and break down taboos and barriers to equality in sexual health in Denmark.
Together with Theo van Leeuwen, Nina heads the International Sexual Health Promotion Network which researches the use of visual communication in sexual and reproductive health promotion globally. This collaboration has resulted in a special issue of the academic journal Visual Communication on Visuals in Sexual Health Promotion (Nørgaard, Jepsen and van Leeuwen 2023).
Nina teaches a broad range of disciplines in English language and communication, including courses on multimodality and sustainability communication.
Astrid Jensen, PhD in Modern Languages, is an Associate Professor at the Department of Culture and Language, University of Southern Denmark.
Her research focuses on organizational communication, and in particular narratives and counter narratives in the construction of organizational identity, organizational crises, and organizational change. Projects that she currently works on include, crisis communication and social media dynamics, the narrative construction of organizational continuity and change, the use of narratives and metaphors in corporate strategizing.
Astrid teaches Organizational Communication in Practice, Organizational Crisis Communication and Strategic Management Communication. She has actively organized conferences as well as contributed to talks and presentations at international conferences. She is the author or co-author of several international peer-reviewed publications in books and journals such as, Journal of Change Management, Journal of Brand Management, Organization Studies, Culture and Organization, Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management, Sociolinguistica, and English for Specific Purpose.
Cindie Aaen Maagaard is Associate Professor in Language and Communication at the Department of Culture and Language, 糖果派对. Her research interests span a broad range of multimodal and narrative studies with a constant focus on how multimodal and narrative approaches to the analysis of communication can be mutually enhancing and challenging.
As a member of Multimodality, Language and Organization, her research centers on the uses of narratives within organizational and institutional contexts, with an evolving speciality in communication in clinical and organizational settings. She explores health communication in collaborations with the Health Sciences at 糖果派对 and Odense University Hospital in several areas, with a focus on the field of Narrative Medicine.
Cindie is a senior researcher in the research project Ignorance and Inequality in Sexual Health – Addressed from a Multimodal Communicative Perspective (2023-2027), funded by the VELUX Foundation. Her research aims to contribute to understanding representations of diversity in healthcare and health communication in Denmark, as well as to developing theoretical and empirical knowledge about how narrative authority in contexts of health communication is constituted and negotiated across media.
Overall, Cindie’s theoretical and analytical background, developed through her Ph.D. work on literary narrative and her experience with qualitative methods, provides a foundation for the study of narratives as they are used in practice — in the construction of identity, for patients’ sense-making of illness, for communication between health professionals and patients, and for understanding organizational changes.
Cindie is a member of the International Society of the Study of Narrative, the Nordic Network for Narratives in Medicine, and here at 糖果派对, part of the transdisciplinary Human Health research project as well as MLO. Her teaching spans a number of disciplines, including courses in communication, narratives and writing at the BA, MA, and Ph.D. levels across a wide spectrum of degree programs such as the BSc in Medicine and the MSc in Health Professions, International Business Communication, English Studies and Cand. Negot.
Cindie is the editor of publications on narrative medicine and fictionality and has published in numerous international journals. Selected publications include articles in Narrative Inquiry, Discourse,Context and Media,MultimodalCommunication,and the International Journal of Nursing Studies.
Flemming Smedegaard is an Associate Professor and Program Director for the International Business Communication programs at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense. He also has many years of experience as a communication and management consultant for public organizations, private companies, and NGOs. He leads the research network Team Research in Innovation, Leadership, and Organization (TRILO), which includes researchers, students, and practitioners from various companies.
In terms of research, Flemming has published extensively in the fields of business communication, the Danish language, organizational culture, and management. In recent years, he has focused on developing a situational dialectical paradigm within business communication in collaboration with colleagues in TRILO. The term "situational" implies that every situation requires contextually appropriate decisions based on the people involved, the purpose, timing, location, and overall context. "Dialectical" means that there is no single necessary choice; rather, decisions are made among several possible solutions, and in specific situations, alternative choices could always be made. This work has resulted in publications on topics such as Situational Dialectical Leadership, Situational Dialectical Discourse Analysis, Situational Dialectical Communication Planning, Situational Dialectical Cultural Analysis, and Situational Dialectical Philosophy of Science.
Flemming has also been active in university pedagogical research and has published on topics such as student research, the challenges faced by first-generation university students, online teaching, interdisciplinary practice-oriented education, and is currently working on a project focused on developing students’ collaboration competencies.
Heidi Hansen (Ph.D.) is an Associate Professor of Organizational Communication at the Department of Culture and Language, 糖果派对, specializing in branding and strategic communication. Her research focuses on the communicative constitution of brands, organizations, and sustainability. She takes a particular interest in actors, voices, sensemaking and sensegiving, negotiation of meaning, discourses and narratives.
In her research, Heidi seeks to articulate a new theoretical approach to branding, labelled the Communication as Constitutive of Brands (CCB) approach. This approach combines understandings from the CCO (Communication as Constitutive of Organization) perspective with the branding literature. In the CCB approach, a brand is conceptualized as a discursive brand space, grounded in a performative and interactional ontology. Brand discourses are produced in a number of conversational spaces inhabited by both human and non-human actors (Hansen, 2021).
As a member of Multimodality, Language and Organisation, Heidi’s research revolves around branding, sustainability communication, and management. Her recent work includes studies of the fluid boundaries of an organization and its members in relation to CSR communication (Hansen, H.; Jensen, A. & Maagaard, C. 2023), and the brand manager as a practical author (Hansen, H.; Jensen, A. & Maagaard, C. 2022).
Heidi is also a dedicated educator, committed to fostering the next generation of scholars and practitioners in the field of communication and branding. Her dedication to education and mentorship has been recognized through 糖果派对’s Teaching Award (2012) for Excellence in Teaching. Heidi has also published several textbooks for instance Hansen (2024) and Hansen ed. (2025).
Morten Boeriis is an Associate Professor of visual communication at the University of Southern Denmark. He has a PhD in Social Semiotic Multimodality and Moving Images (2009).
Morten’s research interests mainly revolve around the areas of multimodal theory and visual communication. He has done research on multimodal critical discourse analysis, architecture, film, sound design and photography – often within the realm of organisational contexts and organizational communication. He is currently working in the field of Visual AI, prompting and image manipulation. He teaches a variety of courses on visual communication and multimodality at Business Communication studies and Film and Media studies at 糖果派对.
Together with Theo van Leeuwen, Morten is working on the 4th edition of Reading Images. The Grammar of Visual Design.
Among Mortens publications are:
- ‘Det er litt vanskelig å være kritisk til det når man er så vant til å se det’: om ungdomsskoleelevers kritiske refleksjoner over tekster i sosiale medier. Moland Undrun, L. V. & Boeriis, M., Apr 2024, In: Nordic Journal of Literacy Research. 10, 1, p. 80-100
- ‘How multimodal structures constitute organization: The meaning of structure in offline and online shopping environments.’ Boeriis, M., 2023, Organizational Semiotics: Multimodal Perspectives on Organization Studies. Ravelli, L., van Leeuwen, T., Hoellerer, M. & Jancsary, D. (eds.). New York: Routledge, p. 166-189 (Routledge Studies in Multimodality).
- ‘Towards a grammar of manipulated photographs: the social semiotics of digital photo manipulation’ (2023), in: Truthfulness and Truth Claims Across Media. Schirrmacher, B. & Mousavi, N. (red.). Palgrave Macmillan.
- ‘Structural meaning in shopping environments: A social semiotic approach to analysing multimodal structure in designed on- and offline environments’ (2023), in: ORGANIZATIONAL SEMIOTICS: Multimodal perspectives on organization studies. Ravelli, L., van Leeuwen, T. & Hoellerer, M. (red.). Routledge.
- ‘Emotive validity and the eye in the hand: Representing visual reality with digital technology’ (2021), in: Discourse, Context & Media. 41.
- ‘Accelerating semogenesis: an ecosocial approach to photography’ (with Johannessen) (2021), in: Visual Communication.20, 4, p. 527-551.
- (2017) (with Zhao, Björgvall, and Djonov). Taylor & Francis.
- (2015) with Andersen, Maagerø and Tønnessen. Routledge.
- (2015) (with Andersen). University Press of Southern Denmark.
Morten was PI of the NOS-HS project The Remediation of Education (REED) 2017-19 and co-PI of the VELUX funded project The Digital (Re)semiotisation of Buying and Selling Interaction (RESEMINA) 2018-22. In 2018 he was the convener of 9th International Conference on Multimodality which was held at 糖果派对 in Odense.
Morten has a background of working in TV-production and as a freelance photographer.
Rikke Krog Jensen is a research assistant who teaches various topics related to visual communication, multimodal social semiotics, and business communication at the University of Southern Denmark.
Her main research interest is inclusive multimodal business communication, particularly how companies can represent diverse social actors through linguistic, visual, and discursive strategies.
Rikke has an educational background in international business communication and wrote her master’s thesis, Inclusive multimodal communication, in 2023.
Sasja Krogh is a PhD student conducting research on menopause communication in Denmark from a multimodal perspective.
Her work focuses on how menopause is represented in self-help books, medical materials, and through AI and image banks. This includes researching how health organisations and medical companies communicate about menopause.
The Ph.D. project is part of the VELUX-funded research project Ignorance and Inequality in Sexual Health – Addressed from a Multimodal Communicative Perspective (2023-2027).
Sasja has an educational background in international business communication and teaches various topics related to visual communication, multimodal social semiotics, and business communication at the University of Southern Denmark.
Solveig Ilhéa Pees is a Ph.D. candidate researching multimodal communication of sexual consent in Denmark.
Her research examines how sexual consent is communicatively constructed on social media, in film and in educational materials. This includes researching how various organisations communicate about the topic.
The Ph.D. project is part of the VELUX-funded research project Ignorance and Inequality in Sexual Health – Addressed from a Multimodal Communicative Perspective (2023-2027).
With a background in international business communication, Solveig teaches courses on sustainability communication, multimodal social semiotics and language learning at the University of Southern Denmark.
Søren Vigild Poulsen is an Associate Professor in organizational web communication. His research explores several questions about multimodal semiosis, semiotic technology (i.e. technology for making meaning) and multimodal semiotic practice (i.e. socially regulated making-making activity): How do semiotic and social practices change through technology? In what ways are specific technologies designed and utilized to create meaning? How do semiotic and social practices influence the development of these technologies? Who are the designers behind these technologies, and what motivates their creations? How do semiotic practices transform with the introduction of new technologies? What are the histories and genealogies of particular technologies, especially software, and how can we archive and study software effectively? What discourses and narratives surround specific technologies? Finally, how does the study of technology intersect with broader cultural and social processes and structures.
Søren’s publications include journal articles and book chapters on topics such as semiotic technologies and practices for making deepfakes, the history of social media, website design, prompting as semiotic practice, social semiotic and cognitive approaches to multimodal analysis, multimodal semiosis, and the transduction or translation across communication modes. Additionally, he is a co-editor of the journal Visual Communication. His teaching includes courses on digital communication, marketing, web design, culture communication, and human-computer interaction.
Stine Harboe Petersen is an industrial PhD student investigating organisational culture in the construction industry in collaboration with the contractor Enemærke & Petersen A/S.
Stine’s work is grounded in critical realism and explores the relationship between structure, agency and culture (SAC) based on an organisational ethnographic methodology.
In this, one of her focus areas is how construction workers make sense of piecework remuneration, an established social structure and payment practice within the industry, and how this sensemaking affects micro-processes of collaboration in project organisations. Furthermore, she explores the role of leadership in construction management, arguing for a modernisation of how construction workers are perceived and managed in an organisational setting.
Stine is a long-term member of the research network TRILO, just as she is engaged in national networks within research in construction management as well as international networks in critical realism.
Theo van Leeuwen is Professor of Multimodal Communication at the University of Southern Denmark, Emeritus Professor at the University of Technology, Sydney, and Honorary Professor at the University of New South Wales, the Australian Catholic University and the University of Lancaster. Much of his research has focused on developing detailed methodological frameworks for analysing multimodal texts and performances, such as in his book Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual design (3rd ed. 2021, w. G. Kress).
While continuing this work, more recently Theo has focused especially on three main areas. Firstly, the analysis of semiotic technologies as resources for text production and social interaction, resulting in funded research projects on PowerPoint and on Online and Offline Shopping (with Morten Boeriis, Søren Poulsen and Gitte Rasmussen). Secondly, the use of multimodal communication in organizations, working together with colleagues from the Business University in Vienna and the Business School of the University of New South Wales. This work has resulted in several co-authored publications, such as Visual and Multimodal Research in Organization and Management Studies (2019) and Organizational Semiotics (2023). Thirdly, Theo is involved in researching the use of visual communication in sexual and reproductive health promotion in Danish and global contexts (with Nina Nørgaard, Cindie Maagaard, Sasja Krogh and Solveig Ilhéa Pees). One output of this work is a global special issue on Visuals in Sexual Health Promotion (2023).
In addition, Theo has begun to publish monographs on key social issues looked at through the lens of multimodal communication, including, so far, Multimodality and Identity (2022) and Multimodality and Time (forthcoming in 2025).
Thomas Wiben Jensen is Associate Professor in language and communication at the University of Southern Denmark and Head of Danish Studies. He was co-PI on the research project The Ecology of Psychotherapy – Integrating Cognition, Language and Emotion (funded by the VELUX foundation) from 2016-2019 and is now co-chair of the international research network MetNet Scandinavia and a member of the supervisory board of the Danish Language Council. His interdisciplinary research explores the intersections of language, cognition, culture, and social processes, with a particular emphasis on how meaning is constructed through metaphor, metonymy, gesture, images, and narratives in both social interactions and multimodal texts.
Thomas is especially interested in metaphor and metonymy as both linguistic, cognitive, social, and multimodal phenomena. While his work is grounded in the cognitive tradition, focusing on embodiment in relation to metaphor, he seeks to expand this perspective by incorporating ecological dimensions that examine the interplay between individuals and their environments. This approach facilitates a more dialectical understanding of embodied experiences within social and cultural contexts. His theoretical and methodological frameworks include dynamic approaches to metaphor, conceptual metaphor theory, ecological and enactive cognition, and affordance theory. Exploring these research agendas, he has published in a variety of international journals such Metaphor and Symbol, Metaphor and the Social World, Frontiers in Psychology, Psychology of Language and Communication, and Cognitive Semiotics.
A key focus of Thomas’ work is health communication and therapy, including the potential for metaphors to serve as markers of therapeutic progress and as tools for fostering deeper patient-therapist connection. Recently, Thomas has become engaged in the question of the transformation of modern-day fatherhood and how new experiences of fatherhood are expressed and manifested in metaphorical ways in cultural products as well as in everyday narratives.