The Institute of Culture, Discourse and Communication (ICDC) is grounded in collaborative, trans-disciplinary research projects. The Institute is committed to engaging with contemporary cultural issues, while analysing the social, economic and political discourses and communicative practices that shape meaning around these.

In recent years, work at the Institute has focused on the key concerns of culture, discourse and communication. Scholars from various disciplines have come together on projects spanning language use, media such as the internet and television and national identity.

Projects include research on the animated series bro’Town, PhD investigations into the online world Second Life and partnership in an international collaborative survey with the World Internet Project. ICDC is home to the Journal of Sociolinguistics and fosters an active intellectual community with the Internet Research Group and the Discourse Research Group. The Institute also hosts visiting international academics and the New Zealand Discourse Conference.

These initiatives have included an unpacking of the discursive constructions of culture and identity in New Zealand and globally, and highlighted the dialectic between micro-level, interpersonal interactions and broader, global dynamics.