Bente Ailin Svendsen is Professor of Multilingualism and Second Language Studies. She initiated and co-developed MultiLing Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan, a Center of Excellence funded by the Research Council of Norway (RCN), where she was the Deputy Director 2013-2015 and the Leader of Theme 2 Multilingual Practices 2016-2017. She is Adjunct Professor at the University of South-Eastern Norway (2019-2023), attached to the research group "Linguistic variation and change in society and education". Svendsen has furthered citizen science in sociolinguistics (Svendsen 2018) in one of the recent top cited paper in Journal of Sociolinguistics. She has an extended outreach activity, particularly through her role as the project leader of the language exhibition Oslo says. Language in the City and the Language Lounge at the Oslo City Museum (2016-2018). She has given many public talks, participated in a variety of media channels for a diverse audience, and she has served as expert witness in court involving bilingual development, custody and the Norwegian Child Welfare Service.
Research
Svendsen has carried out research on multilingual socialization, competence and use among children and adults; on linguistic practices and identity constructions among young people in multilingual urban settings, as well as on media representations of minoritized language use and purported language users. Her publications include her PhD thesis on multilingual socialization among Norwegian-Filipino children in Norway (published e.g. in International Journal of Bilingualism, Lanza & Svendsen 2007: "Tell me who your friends are, and I (might) tell you what language(s) you speak. Social network analysis, multilingualism, and identity"), the paper "The dynamics of citizen sociolinguistics" in Journal of Sociolinguistics (2018), the book Language, Youth and Identity in the 21st Century. Linguistic Practices across Urban Spaces (co-edited with J. Nortier, Cambridge UP, 2015), Multilingual Urban Scandinavia: New Linguistic Practices (co-edited with P. Quist, Multilingual Matters, 2010). She is the co-author of the book Multilingualism and ageing (Brill, 2020), as well as the author of papers in European Journal of Applied Linguistics (Svendsen & Marzo 2015) International Journal of Bilingualism (e.g. Svendsen & Røyneland 2008) and in Nordic and Norwegian journals and books. She is the author of the book Multilingualism - a Blessing and a Burden, [in Norwegian: Flerspråklighet - til begeistring og besvær (Gyldendal Academic Press, 302 p.).
Teaching
Svendsen teaches courses on Multilingualism, Second Language Studies, as well as MA courses on Language and Communication in the Multicultural Society.
Projects, dissemination, awards and appointments
Svendsen is the leader of the research group Urban Talk & Text. From 2013-2017, Svendsen was the leader of the project Norwegian Romani. She is the Department's former Research Director (2009-2012). Svendsen was Board member of the RCN program Cultural Conditions underlying Social Change (2011-2018) and Advisory Board member in the Language Council of Norway (2015-2018).
She was a Board member of the SONE-network (Sociolinguistic network) 2011-2016, and editor of the journal Norwegian as a Second Language (NOA. Norsk som andrespråk) 2013-2015.
Svendsen led, developed and produced the language exhibition Oslo says. Language in the city at the Oslo City Museum in collaboration with Ingunn I. Ims, Tommy Sørbø and Tank Design. Open: May 2016-April 2018. Watch a documentary film here.
In 2017, Svendsen was granted the ILN's Dissemination Award 2016 for the language exhibition, and in 2018, she was for the article The dynamics of citizen sociolinguistics and the exhibition Oslo sier. Språk i byen granted the Knowledge Oslo Award 2017. As part of an author collective of the book Multilingualism in School, she won the Language Award in 2009 (ed. Rita Hvistendahl).
Svendsen led the RCN's Research Campaign 2014: Ta tempen på språket! [Taking the temperature of language!] where all students in all grades in Norway were invited to be language researchers.