On February 24, 2012, I spent a day at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. My visit was sponsored by the School of Journalism and Communication, and included a formal presentation entitled “Interactional Resources for the ‘Problem’ of Intercultural Communication,” a lunch with faculty and graduate students, a data session on “Complex Constructions of Social Identity,” and a faculty dinner.
My thanks to Dr. Sean Rintel for organizing the entire event, and to Prof. Cindy Gallois for originally encouraging me to visit Brisbane. I met lots of new scholars, including Dr. Richard Fitzgerald, Dr. Shuang Liu, and Dr. Aparna Hebbani, and reconnected with Dr. Joan Mulholland, who created a quilted banner for the Language and Social Interaction division of the International Communication Association just as the division was being established in the mid-1990s.
One of the unexpected surprises was the extent to which the day’s activities were attended not only by faculty and graduate students from other Schools within UQ but also several from either nearby Griffith University and the Queensland University of Technology, and even a visitor from Linköping University in Sweden who was in town to present at QUT.
Over the weekend, there was time for a tour of the area with Sean Rintel and Cherie Gregoire, including some of the many parks in Brisbane, where the water dragons are so accustomed to humans they let us get very close for photos – this dragon is nearly 3 feet long and only about 2 feet away from me.
Ed Reynolds, a PhD student in the department, videotaped my morning talk. When the video is available, I’ll add a link here.
Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue
Center for Intercultural Dialogue 