Month: January 2013

CFP grounded practical theory

CALL FOR PAPERS

“Building Grounded Practical Theory in Applied Communication Research”
Journal of Applied Communication Research Special Issue
Co-editors: Robert T. Craig and Karen Tracy, University of Colorado Boulder

Submission deadline: June 15, 2013
Anticipated publication: May, 2014

Grounded practical theory (GPT) is a conceptual and methodological approach that aims to develop normative communication theories useful for reflecting on real-world dilemmas and practical possibilities of communication.

Following the initial formulation of GPT by Craig and Tracy in 1995, the approach has been applied to a variety of communicative practices ranging from academic colloquia to crisis negotiations, public meetings, and new forms of organizing. Many of these applications have not only used GPT but have also extended the approach to engage conceptual issues and to employ methods not anticipated in its initial formulation. For this special issue we seek studies that continue this process of challenging, refining, and extending the GPT framework through innovative applications of the approach to address important communication problems in any field of applied communication research.

Manuscripts, limited to 8,000 words, should be prepared for blind review. Please see the Journal of Applied Communication Research for author instructions and guidance on making submissions. Mention in the cover letter that the submission is for consideration in the special issue.

Please contact either special issue co-editor regarding and questions or preliminary ideas:
Robert.Craig AT Colorado.edu
Karen.Tracy AT Colorado.edu

Olga Kozar Profile

ProfilesOlga Kozar is a Ph.D. researcher in Applied Linguistics. She is currently completing her candidature at Macquarie University (Sydney,  Australia).

Her main research interest is private one-on-one ESOL lessons conducted via videoconferencing tools (e.g., Skype) with learners and teachers from different cultural backgrounds. The questions that she addresses in her Ph.D. and a series of related publications are the following: Who teaches and who learns privately via videoconferencing tools? What expectations do private language learners have of their future instructors? What are the discourses and genres of private ESOL lessons conducted via Skype?

Her work can be found in both academic journals (for example, Distance Education, Research in Comparative and International Education) as well as practice-oriented publications such as Modern English Teacher and English-teaching Professional. Olga’s personal website is: www.olgakozar.com

Everett Rogers award

CALL FOR ENTRIES ANNOUNCED FOR THE 2013 EVERETT M. ROGERS AWARD

Honoring achievement in innovation, IT, networks, national development, cross-cultural communication, entertainment education
LOS ANGELES – The Norman Lear Center of the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism at the University of Southern California announces a call for entries for the 2013 Everett M. Rogers Award.

The entry deadline is March 29, 2013.

Everett M. Rogers (1931-2004) was an influential communication scholar and teacher whose Diffusion of Innovations is the second-most cited book in the social sciences.

The Rogers Award was established in 2005 by the USC Annenberg School. In 2013 the award will honor an outstanding scholar, practitioner of communication or independent writer whose own work contributes path-breaking insights in areas of Ev Rogers’s legacy:
•       Diffusion of Innovation: Discovering how new ideas & technologies spread
•       Communication & National Development: Designing interventions that empower people and organizations
•       Historical & Social Evolution of IT: Tracing the growth & impact of information technologies
•       Cross-cultural Communication: Understanding & overcoming boundaries
•       Network Processes & Effects: Analyzing & harnessing the power of networks
•       Entertainment Education: Using storytelling to inform, engage & inspire

The Norman Lear Center invites you to nominate any individual or collaborative team whose work contributes to greater understanding about the kinds of issues close to Ev’s heart. Entries will be evaluated on (1) their relevance to areas of scholarship to which Ev Rogers contributed; (2) their excellence; and (3) their impact on communication practice or scholarship.

There is no requirement concerning a nominee’s institutional affiliation or nationality. Nominators may propose more than one entry. Self-nominations also will be accepted.

ENTRIES SHOULD INCLUDE:
•       Nominee’s resume, biography or c.v.
•       Letter of nomination addressing the Award’s criteria
•       A publication, website, DVD or other material that exemplifies the nominee’s achievement

The winner will receive a prize of $2,500 and present a talk at the USC Annenberg School in Los Angeles in 2013. Transportation and lodging will be provided. E-mail nominations with links are acceptable. Hard copy nominations should be sent by March 29, 2013 to:

The USC Norman Lear Center
8383 Wilshire Boulevard, Suite 650
Beverly Hills, CA 90211

Questions about the award may be sent to: enter AT usc.edu. Information about the Rogers Award can also be found online.

Everett M. Rogers Award Committee: Peter Clarke, Chair • Leo Braudy • Manuel Castells • K.C. Cole • Doe Mayer • Arvind Singhal • Tom Valente

The Norman Lear Center is a multidisciplinary research and public policy center studying and shaping the impact of entertainment and media on society. From its base in the USC Annenberg School, the Lear Center builds bridges between faculty who study aspects of entertainment, media and culture. Beyond campus, it bridges the gap between entertainment industry and academia, and between them and the public.

Located in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California, the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism is a national leader in education and scholarship in the fields of communication, journalism, public diplomacy and public relations. With an enrollment of more than 2,200 students, USC Annenberg offers doctoral, graduate and undergraduate degree programs, as well as continuing development programs for working professionals across a broad scope of academic inquiry. The school’s comprehensive curriculum emphasizes the core skills of leadership, innovation, service and entrepreneurship and draws upon the resources of a networked university located in the media capital of the world.

KAICIID Fellows

KAICIID Fellows Programme

In 2013, King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue, in Vienna, Austria, will launch an international fellowship project. The “KAICIID Fellows” will be people who are planning to become religious functionaries and educators. The programme will run 2-4 times a year, where a Jury, chosen from the Centre’s Advisory Forum, will select five “Fellows” among applicants from the five major world religions. Coming from different regions and different faiths, these students will spend one to four months working and studying together in Vienna to deepen their knowledge about each others’ religions and to strengthen their commitment to interreligious dialogue. As potential future leaders within their respective religious communities, it is hoped that they will become multipliers of KAICIID’s mission for interreligious dialogue once they are back home.

During their stay in Vienna, they will have the possibility to work on their own research project, but they will also be given the opportunity to learn about other religions, both within their own group and by visiting university classes.

The “Fellows” will also contribute to and actively participate in KAICIID‘s activities, thus enhancing their interreligious insight, organisational competence and future leadership presence and impact. Instead of a final report, each participant will be asked to write a book chapter about her or his personal interreligious learning at KAICIID.

Objectives
*Engage students from different faiths, cultures and regions in interreligious dialogue on neutral ground;
*Facilitate a deep, long-lasting dialogue encounter;
*Give future religious leaders the tools, experience, networks and knowledge to pursue interreligious dialogue in their profession;
*Provide KAICIID with young people from different religious backgrounds who will actively participate and contribute to the Centre’s activities and programmes.

KAICIID will also provide a platform for alumni activities for its former “Fellows” to enable them to stay in contact and to reach out to further potential candidates for the programme.

Building bridges through intergroup dialogue

The Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding is offering a practical one-week course for peacebuilding practitioners and educators. Building Bridges through Intergroup Dialogue will be held Feb 25-March 1, 2013 in Washington, D.C.

Many peacebuilders will find themselves engaging with groups who have strained relationships. Intergroup Dialogue is a creative tool practitioners can use to engage alienated groups in safe conversation about their identities with the goal of improving understanding, dismantling perceptions of the “other,” and creating alliances that can help pave the way to greater intergroup cooperation, peaceful coexistence, and equality.

In this course, participants will learn the principles and practice of Intergroup Dialogue through participation in a multiple-session, identity-based dialogue facilitated by the instructors. In addition, participants will learn the fundamentals of facilitating Intergroup Dialogue through presentations by expert dialogue practitioners, course readings, and exercises designed to build facilitation skills.

Course Requirements: Participants are expected to attend the full five days of the course and should be prepared to actively participate in six to seven two-hour dialogue sessions over the length of the course. The topic of the dialogue will depend on the make-up of the participants but will center on experiences of identity (race, ethnicity, nationality, profession, gender, political affiliation, etc.).  Participants will be expected to share and reflect on their own experiences of identity in personal and/or professional life.

The Academy for International Conflict Management and Peacebuilding is the education and training arm of the United States Institute of Peace.

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St Cloud State U job ad

Assistant Professor in Intercultural Communication, Tenure Track Position
St. Cloud State University

Salary:  Commensurate with Experience

Date of appointment:  Fall semester, August 21, 2013.  Vacancies at SCSU are contingent on university budgets and funding.

Description:  The Department of Communication Studies is part of the College of Liberal Arts and School of the Arts, providing a solid foundation in the study of communication, with areas of emphasis in Relational, Intercultural, Rhetoric and Performance Studies, Leadership and Organization Communication and General Communication.

Responsibilities:  The successful candidate will be responsible for teaching intercultural communication, intercultural communication in the global workplace, communication and culture in the U.S. and world regions (the region varies depending upon the expertise of the instructor), and problems in intercultural communication.  All faculty teach the introductory hybrid course (which combines interpersonal, small group, and public communication).  Additional responsibilities such as committee work and advising will be expected.

Tenure and promotion decisions are based on demonstrated ability to:
1.      Teach and/or perform effectively
2.      Scholarly/creative achievement or research
3.      Continued preparation and study
4.      Contribution to student growth and development
5.      Service to the university and community
*Employment for this position is covered by the collective bargaining agreement for the Inter Faculty Organization.

Qualifications and experience:
Required:
*       Ph.D. in Communication Studies or Speech Communication required by August 21, 2013.
*       The ideal candidate will have a broad background in Communication Studies with a concentration in intercultural communication.
*       College/university level teaching experience
*       Evidence of scholarly and/or creative achievement and service to the university or community
*       The successful candidate will have demonstrated ability to teach and work with persons from culturally diverse backgrounds.

Preferred:
Preference will be given to candidates who have coursework and teaching experience in the introductory intercultural communication course, whose focus will complement the existing intercultural communication program’s need for expertise in Asia, Central/South America, or Middle East cultures, and apply knowledge of new media in contemporary intercultural communication.

Application Instructions:
To apply for this position, please continue the process here.

Application must include:
1.      Application letter and curriculum vitae
2.      Evidence of effective teaching.  At minimum, this should include a representative sample(s) of current teaching evaluations and course syllabi
3.      Three to five current letters of recommendation and contact information for three current, professional references.
4.      All graduate transcripts (scanned copies permitted for initial evaluation); if advanced to finalist, official transcripts are required.
5.      Abstract of dissertation and/or research agenda and sample of creative or scholarly achievement
6.      Evidence of commitment to incorporating diversity issues and perspectives.  At a minimum, this should include a narrative describing how the candidate has or will incorporate these perspectives in teaching and professional activities

Screening of application materials will begin on February 18, 2013, and continue until position is filled.  To receive full consideration, apply by this date and note that all requested application materials must be uploaded and attached to the online application.

Contact Information:
Dr. Eddah Mutua, Intercultural Communication Search Committee Chair
Department of Communication Studies
Email:  emmutuakombo AT stcloudstate.edu

St. Cloud State University is committed to excellence and actively supports cultural diversity. To promote this endeavor, we invite individuals who contribute to such diversity to apply, including minorities, women, LGBT, persons with disabilities and veterans. St. Cloud State University is a member of Minnesota State Colleges and Universities System.

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Writing in Liberal Arts postdoc

Writing in the Liberal Arts Postdoctoral Fellow

Davidson College is seeking a person to teach in its College Writing Program, which focuses on the production of intellectual and academic discourses in the public and scholarly spheres. This individual (PhD required in the Sciences, Social Sciences, or Humanities) will annually teach three first-year writing courses designed around issues that are of interest to both disciplinary practitioners and wider readerships, and two writing-attentive courses that examine the traditions of inquiry and modes of scholarly exchange particular to the fellow’s home discipline. The position will be attractive to those interested in undergraduate pedagogy, curricular design, and intellectual life in a select liberal arts setting that values innovation, service, and leadership in its students. The position provides opportunities to examine how discourse informs civic argument, cultural critique, or scientific inquiry in the liberal-educational tradition. The length of appointment is two years.

Applicants should apply online and submit a letter of interest, a CV, and a writing sample (no longer than 10 pages in length).

Davidson College is strongly committed to achieving excellence and cultural diversity, and welcomes applications from women, members of minority groups, and others who would bring additional dimensions to the college’s mission.

Questions should be directed to Dr. Van Hillard at vahillard AT davidson.edu.

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Peacebuilding & Intercultural Dialogue Academy

International Summer Academy on Peacebuilding & Intercultural Dialogue
1-11 September 2013, Vienna, Austria

Project Introduction

Institute for Peace and Dialogue is very glad to call interested participants for its first International Summer Academy in Peacebulding & Intercultural Dialogue, which is going to be held in the middle of Europe, Vienna. Its image as one of the most favourable places for travelling, has made it more interesting to offer an exited and comprehensive programme for our participants. We offer you a 11 day training, with a professional education from our excellent experts, who are professionals with many years of experience in peace and conflict studies.

Nowadays unfortunately several frozen or ongoing conflicts between or within states still exist. Conflicts are different and if we can look to the world mankind facing with many new challenges, but on the same time with new dangerous situations: terrorist acts, non-legal arming of conflict sides, redetermination of borders, establishing new countries in the world map, non-providing territorial integrity, trafficking of arm, drug and human; disputes on implementation of transnational energy projects, democratization and false elections, revolution and internal political conflicts, armed guerilla movements, violation and discrimination by nationalists, world economical crisis, climate change and unsafely biodiversity etc. Conflicts are related and integral part of human beings, as conflicts cause unrespect to human rights, violation and clash of rights.

Existing conflicts weaken every kind of cooperation between nations and states. Without mutual cooperation and understanding, the future prosperity of the region would remain only as a good dream. Taking into consideration of all the mentioned useful thoughts above, we can make a decision on the strict belief, that opportunities for solving conflicts are feasible. Because in every conflict situation and tension forms we consequently face with the below mentioned common situations:

1. Desperate situation and non-solving problems are not eternal;
2. It’s possible to make common decision which both sides;
3. We can find common values, traditions and similar situations among conflict parties;
4. Protracted conflicts on the same time endanger regional development and prosperity;
5. Any mediation and negotiation actions are better than nothing.

MAIN GOAL
The main goal of the summer academy is to support institutional academic peace education and strengthen peacebuilding skills and intercultural dialogue of international society.

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Gerbner conf on Comm, Conflict, Aggression

Call for Papers

The George Gerbner Conference on Communication, Conflict, and Aggression
June 14-15, 2013 in Budapest, Hungary

Inspired by the life and work of Budapest native and renowned Communication and Media scholar Dr. George Gerbner (1919-2005), the Budapest College of Communication, Business and Arts invites scholars, researchers, practitioners, students, and other interested parties to submit paper and panel proposals for presentation at the George Gerbner Conference on Communication, Conflict, and Aggression. This conference will take place from Friday, June 14 to Saturday, June 15, 2013 in Budapest, Hungary. The goal of the conference is to bring together individuals with a common interest in aggressive communication and conflict so as to foster international relationships that lead to research collaboration and knowledge exchange. The inaugural Gerbner Conference, held in May 2010, and the second conference, held in June 2012, featured presentations by scholars from eight countries covering three continents.

This international conference will focus on aggressive communication and behavior, conflict, and other types of antisocial communication and behavior across contexts. Specific topics include, but are not limited to: media violence, media coverage of crime and violence, violence in advertising, political violence, workplace violence and aggression, aggression in instructional settings, war rhetoric, peace and conflict communication, verbal aggression, crime, oppression, injustice, incivility, assertiveness, argumentativeness, disagreement, bullying, indirect aggression, psychological abuse, anger, frustration, hostility, deception, child abuse, spousal abuse, domestic violence, youth violence, school violence, gang violence, sexual violence, discrimination, conflict styles, conflict resolution, the origins, causes, and predictors of aggression, and the management and prevention of aggression.

Interested individuals are invited to submit an abstract (in English) of 200 to 500 words describing their individual presentation or panel idea to Rebecca.Chory AT mail.wvu.edu by March 01, 2013. Decisions regarding the acceptance of papers and panels for presentation at the conference will be made by March 18, 2013. Completed papers should be sent to Rebecca.Chory AT mail.wvu.edu by May 13, 2013. With the authors’ permission, top papers will be published in the journal Kommunikáció, Média, Gazdaság (Communication, Media, Economics), which is published by the Budapest College of Communication, Business and Arts or in an edited book. One scholar will also be honored with the Gerbner Award. The conference registration fee is expected to be approximately 50 Euros.

Co-organizers of the conference are Dr. Jolán Róka, Vice Rector for Research and International Relations at the Budapest College of Communication, Business and Arts, and Dr. Rebecca M. Chory, Professor of Communication Studies at West Virginia University and 2009 Fulbright Scholar at the Budapest College of Communication, Business and Arts. For more information, please contact Jolán Róka at jroka AT bkf.hu; Budapest College of Communication,  Business and Arts or Rebecca M. Chory at Rebecca.Chory AT mail.wvu.edu.

 

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Culture and news translation

Call for papers

Culture and News Translation
special issue of Perspectives: Studies in Translatology

to be edited by Kyle Conway (University of North Dakota, USA)

This special issue will examine the role of culture in news translation.

Interest in news translation, for the most part, is a relatively recent phenomenon. It benefited from the sustained attention it received during the Translation in Global News initiative at the University of Warwick from 2004-2007, although occasional articles on the topic have appeared since the 1970s. In those early articles, scholars were concerned with how political relations between countries affected which stories traveled where. Scholars writing more recently have been more interested in how journalists’ institutional roles within a news organization shape how they construct their stories. In both cases, however, the analysis has been largely structural, concerned with newsroom organization and the political economy of news.

More recent research has raised questions about the role of culture in news translation. For example, in “Bringing the News Back Home” (Language and Intercultural Communication vol. 5, 2005), Susan Bassnett argues that journalists’ approach to translating, as they piece stories together from multiple sources, is inherently acculturating: “However and wherever a text originates, the objective is to represent that text to a specific audience, on their terms.” In Translation in Global News (2009), Esperanca Bielsa, along with Bassnett, expands on that argument by examining power in relation to culture.

In such cases, however, the nature of culture — what exactly it is — has gone largely unexamined, and many questions remain unasked. When journalists factor culture into their reporting, what is it exactly that they are taking into account? To what degree is culture a function of national, ethnic, religious, or linguistic identity? What happens when those categories come into contradiction with each other (for example, in situations where secularized national identities are challenged by the ostentatious display of religious symbols)? In such cases, what do notions of culture, as employed by journalists or by the academics studying them, bring to light or obscure from view? Is a more nuanced notion of culture possible, one that allows us to account for the effects of such contradictions?

The purpose of this issue will be to pose such questions and thereby to develop a more sophisticated understanding of culture and its role in news translation. Articles will explore what the term culture reveals and what it hides. The end goal will be to expand not only our understanding of culture as a theoretical concept but also our understanding of its role in journalists’ day-to-day practice (and the implications of that practice for news consumers’ conceptions of people they see as foreign or “other”). In this way, questions of practice will inform meta-theoretical questions related to the study of news translation, and vice versa.

Potential questions to address:

Related to journalists’ practice:
* How does culture help account for when news translation takes place and, more interestingly, when it does not?
* How do journalists operate in situations of cultural conflict? How do they orient themselves and their texts toward their readers (or listeners or viewers) when their readers are implicated in that conflict?
* How do cultural norms related to translation develop within the newsroom, and how do they shape the work of the journalist-translator?
* How do journalists account for the different culturally inflected, connotative meanings evoked by emotionally or politically charged words?

Related to scholarly study of news translation:
* How do notions of cultural translation supplement notions of linguistic translation? Is the distinction useful, or even tenable?
* What insight does the field of cultural studies, with its emphasis on culture and power, offer with respect to news translation?
* What is the relationship between news translation and ethnography, whose practitioners make similar claims about their ability to represent people belonging to foreign cultures?

Proposals addressing any aspects of culture and news translation (not just the suggestions listed above) are welcome.

Submissions:
Please send an abstract of 400-500 words to the guest editor, Kyle Conway (kyle.conway AT und.edu), as a pdf, odt, rtf, doc, or docx file by Sept. 1, 2013. Full articles (max. 7000 words) will be due in Aug. 2014. See full style guidelines.

Editor contact information:
Dr. Kyle Conway, University of North Dakota, USA, kyle.conway AT und.edu

Timeline:
Deadline for proposals: Sept. 2013
Decision on proposals: Jan. 2014
Deadline for full submissions: Aug. 2014 Distribution of reviewers’ comments: Jan. 2015 Deadline for final versions: Apr. 2015