Lauren Mark is a doctoral student and Graduate Teaching Associate at the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University. Lauren is currently researching the possibility of bringing Asian epistemologies to Western contexts.
She is a certified Civil Dialogue Facilitator and holds an M.Ed in Educational Organization, Leadership and Policy, an M.A. in Dance, and a B.A. in English Literature and French. Prior to joining Hugh Downs, Lauren worked as a co-founder and project manager of two cross-cultural learning organizations in Taipei, Taiwan – Becoming, 緣創an intercultural development platform, and the East West Culture Project. Lauren has also worked as a translator and interpreter in Taiwan and Israel across a variety of business and artistic sectors.Rooted in her experiences in the field, Lauren’s general research interests focus on identity shifts in acculturation. Her studies focus on the intersection of ethnic, linguistic and performative factors in acculturation, as well as how local cultures influence people’s ways of being.
Pedagogically, Lauren explores innovative means to bring embodied self-reflexivity to classroom contexts, within courses such as Communication and Creativity, Intercultural Communication, and Identity, Performance, and Communication. Her work in this arena began with her thesis work, Visible Histories, in which she explored how the sharing of embodied reminiscence and the collective physical reconstruction of memories served as a meeting ground for multiple generations exploring the art of dance. Lauren continues to experiment with ways that purposeful nonverbal communication can enhance reflexivity and promote collective care. This is an extension of her previous work in Taiwan, where she managed creative interdisciplinary labs and choreographed works that tested the boundaries between audience and performers.
Publications:
Mark, L. (2019). An Exploratory study of part time minorities: Finding home as a minority member. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 3. doi: 10.1080/17475759.2019.1602071
Wells, T., Mark, L., and Sandoval, J. (2019). Affect, space and the everyday: A reconsideration of waste in academic inquiry. Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education. Special Ed. Waste. [Manuscript accepted].
Ray, C. D., Floyd, K., Mongeau, P. A., Mark, L., Shufford, K. N., & Niess, L. C. (2019). Planning improves vocal fluency and appearance of concern when communicating emotional support. Communication Research Reports, 36, 57-66. doi: 10.1080/08824096.2018.1560251
Brezis, R. S., Singhal, N., Daley, T., Barua, M., Piggot, J., Chollera, S., Mark, L., & Weisner, T. (2016). Self- and other-descriptions by individuals with autism spectrum disorder in Los Angeles and New Delhi: Bridging cross-cultural psychology and neurodiversity. Culture and Brain, 4(2), 113-133.
Work for CID:
Lauren Mark wrote Constructing Intercultural Dialogues #7: When the East Meets the Middle East.
Center for Intercultural Dialogue 