Emerging Voices on a Global Stage

This three-minute presentation introduces the doctoral research project Emerging Voices on a Global Stage, developed at the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia. The study explores how MA students across disciplines construct their academic voice in thesis abstracts written in English. Based on a corpus of 900 abstracts in Law, Economics, and Applied Linguistics, the project compares Unimore students with peers from Anglo-American and European universities, alongside expert reference texts. It proposes a three-way comparative framework—core, genre-wide, and context-anchored practices—to move beyond the traditional native/non-native dichotomy. The aim is to identify strategies for successful academic communication and to design pedagogical materials that promote reflection rather than imitation, helping students develop credible and context-sensitive academic voices