The study aims to explore the discourse and cultural and critical literacies associated with academic texts. Engaging with academic texts poses a dual challenge for students from diverse cultural backgrounds. They must navigate a unified English university cultural literacy and distinct literacy cultures within specific disciplines where meaning is negotiated in English. This social, epistemic and linguistic justice study intersects applied linguistics with Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital to illustrate how students’ socioeconomic statuses, school biographies, and geographical locations can contribute to identity, cultural and language-based inequalities when students transition from school to university.

The research questions are:
1) How is Western culture represented in the academic texts and materials used in an EMI university setting?
2) What linguistic and cultural capital would students in transition need to successfully navigate the reading requirements of their course/s?
3) How do students perceive and negotiate the impact of Western cultural representations in academic materials on their sense of belonging, identity formation, and academic integration within the university environment?