June 2022 – Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Dreaming of Words Documentary

Dreaming of Words is a documentary film about Njattyela Sreedharan, a fourth standard [grade] drop-out, who compiled a dictionary connecting four major Dravidian languages in India.

Travelling across four states and doing extensive research, he spent twenty five years making the multilingual dictionary. This unique dictionary offers a comparative study of Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil and Telugu. Dreaming of Words traces Sreedharan’s life, work, love for languages and the struggles to get the dictionary published. The film also explores the linguistic and cultural diversity in India.

Dreaming of Words had its world premiere at the International Mother Language Day Celebrations 2021 organized by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts and the Ministry of Education (India) in partnership with UNESCO. It was an official selection at the DC South Asian Film Festival, RapidLion Film Festival and Micheaux Film Festival. It won the Kerala State Television Award for Best Educational Documentary. It has been screened at the annual convention of the Modern Language Association and the annual conference of the Linguistic Society of America in January 2022.

The film was directed and produced by Nandan. For further information about him and/or the film, find him on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

U Tartu: Expatriate Estonian Visiting Professor’s Scholarship (Estonia)

Expatriate Estonian Visiting Professor’s Scholarship, University of Tartu, Tartu, Estonia. Deadline: 1 October 2022.

Application is open for the scholarship for an expatriate Estonian visiting professor. The scholarship fund aims to make sure that renowned researchers and teaching staff of Estonian descent who work in other countries can take part in the activities of the University of Tartu at least for one year or, as an exception, for one semester. The amount of the scholarship is 50,000 euros for one academic year. It is very important for the university that the visiting professor is ready to be physically present in Tartu; this is one of the main selection criteria.

The scholarship may be applied for by a researcher or teaching staff member of Estonian descent who works at a university or research institution outside Estonia. The application is open until 1 October. Applicants are expected to submit an electronic application with all the required supporting materials on the home page of the University of Tartu Foundation.

Intercultural Yoga Podcasts

Intercultural Yoga Podcasts, Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA. Eight episodes already posted in Season 1.

Intercultural Yoga is provocative conversation, hosted by Robin Kelley, associate chief diversity officer, and created by the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, at Gonzaga University. Yoga means “union” and is a practice to sustain mental and physical harmony with one’s cultural context. In these conversations, host and guests provide an opportunity to breathe into new spaces of knowing, related to the intercultural encounter of “the Other.”

Gonzaga is a Jesuit, Catholic, Humanist university established in 1887. If the term “the Other” is new to you, see Key Concept 39: Otherness and the Other.

Dall-E (AI) Interpretations of Intercultural Concepts

I was curious, given all the current attention being paid to Dall-E and Dall-E Mini, and Craiyon, to see what any of these would come up with if I input concepts related to intercultural dialogue.

Obviously, the very first term I input was intercultural dialogue. You receive 9 images for any text, and most of them were blurred and distorted beyond much use. But I’m attaching the images both Dall-E Mini and Craiyon created. Interestingly, related terms, such as multiculturalism or intercultural competence, look much the same: a group of evidently diverse people – but never two individuals.

Whereas dialogue looks quite different – just speech bubbles. And many of the images created at my request, such as that for peacebuilding, were quite useless (nearly all of the designs for that simply showed a badly distorted vision of the UN logo, for example).

I thought others might find it interesting to see what the results looked like. Clearly, given that these AI programs simply search the internet for relevant text and images, we all need to be posting more content for it to discover that includes both descriptions and visual depictions that come closer to what we think it should find.

For those who are not yet familiar with these programs, Dall-E is a tool to turn words into images using AI, but it is in beta and not yet publicly available. Dall-E mini is the less competent but publicly available version. And that has already morphed into Craiyon. All of them work by looking to see what images are attached to words across the internet, and then editing those images into something new. Apparently, so long as you credit the source, the images are yours to use and post.

If others try any of these systems and obtain interesting results, send them along in an email, and I’ll create a later post to showcase them.

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Queen’s U Belfast: TESOL & Applied Linguistics (Northern Ireland)

Lecturer in TESOL and Applied Linguistics, Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland. Deadline: 11 July 2022.

The School of Social Sciences, Education and Social Work (SSESW) at Queen’s University Belfast, is currently seeking to appoint an exceptional candidate to the post of Lecturer in TESOL & Applied Linguistics.

The successful applicant will undertake research relevant to Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) and Applied Linguistics in line with the school’s research strategy, to teach at postgraduate level, undertake scholarly activity and to contribute to the school’s administration/outreach activity, in the subject area of (TESOL) and Applied Linguistics and particularly in relation to the School’s TESOL, Language Education, and Applied Linguistics courses.

Nazarbayev U: Multilingual Education (Kazakhstan)

Professor/Associate Professor/Assistant Professor in Multilingual Education, Graduate School of Education,
Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan. Deadline: 30 July 2022.

Nazarbayev University was launched in 2010 as a premier national and regional flagship research university, partnering with some of the most internationally recognized names in higher education. The Graduate School of Education (GSE) was launched in 2013 with partners at the University of Cambridge and the University of Pennsylvania. Due to expansion, GSE invites applications for Full Professors, Associate Professors and Assistant Professors for faculty positions beginning in January 2023. They are filling positions at open rank in the area of Multilingual Education.

Essential Qualifications, Skills and Experience:

PhD in an appropriate discipline from an accredited and recognized international university (ABD at time of application will be considered, but PhD must be in hand at the time of appointment, and current PhD holders will be given priority);
A demonstrated record of research and publications appropriate to rank;
Teaching experience at the university level (experience in postgraduate programs will be given a priority);
Experience in developing new courses and program curricula;
Experience and readiness to supervise Master’s and Ph.D. student thesis research
Excellent intercultural communication and collaboration skills;
Commitment to maintaining a collegial and inclusive work environment;
Commitment to making a difference through education to the School, University and wider society.

Responsibilities include teaching, research, and school service. The University offers opportunities for research support. All positions are for a three-year term with the possibility of renewal.

Intercultural Cities: Inter-City Grants 2022

Inter-city grants 2022, Intercultural Cities, Council of Europe. (No deadline; this is an announcement of what has already been awarded.)

“For the third time the Intercultural Cities programme has launched the inter-city grants’ scheme for member cities of the international and national networks. The grants aim to support local innovative projects and methodologies promoting equality, the diversity advantage, and meaningful intercultural interactions in diverse societies. As in the past years, projects involving joint actions of cities have been prioritised with the view to enable peer learning, cross-border or national cooperation across local authorities. The projects aim to test solutions and strategies which can be applied widely across the ICC network in common areas of concern.”

The projects should be of interest to anyone attempting to coordinate activities at a city level, but across city (or country) boundaries.

The Intercultural cities programme (ICC) is sponsored by the Council of Europe; it supports cities in reviewing their policies through an intercultural lens and developing comprehensive intercultural strategies to help them manage diversity positively and realise the diversity advantage.

CFP GLOCAL AFALA 2022 (Kenya)

Call For Abstracts: The Global Council on Anthropological Linguistics (GLOCAL) Conference on African Linguistic Anthropology (AFALA), University of Nairobi, Kenya, 19-22 October 2022. Deadline: 8 July 2022.

The GLOCAL AFALA 2022 theme, “Linguistic Landscapes, Cultural Climates,” “Mazingira Ya Lugha, Hali Ya Hewa Ya Kitamaduni,” well symbolizes the complexity of the complex set of inter-subjective identities throughout African urban and suburban centres. These increasingly complex climates become a highly fertile ground for Linguistic Anthropological scholarly attention, while scholars can draw from a range of peripheral yet pertinent fields to inform work on these geographical and cultural localities.

The GLOCAL AFALA 2022 thus invites work which addresses the complexity of African Linguistic Landscapes and their Cultural Climates. Papers and posters should acknowledge and describe processes of Linguistic complexity at these cultural centres, that is, of African regions, and by those working in African regions.

Call for New Editors, Comparative Migration Studies 2022

Call for New Editors of Comparative Migration Studies (an IMISCOE journal). Deadline: 15 July 2022.

The journal Comparative Migration Studies (CMS) invites applications for several new members of the Editorial Board. In particular, CMS invites non-European scholars working on migration and (migration-related) diversity from various disciplines, including sociology, demography, anthropology, political sciences, law, geography and economics.

Comparative Migration Studies is an international peer-reviewed journal that has been selected for inclusion in the Web of Science. CMS is associated with the IMISCOE Research Network. CMS distinguishes itself as a journal on three elements:

An explicit comparative orientation. They believe that a focus on comparative research can promote the theoretical development of migration studies. This can involve various types of comparative studies (between countries, groups, levels, historical periods).
A wide disciplinary angle. CMS aims to develop a wide disciplinary angle, such as political science, economics, law, history, demography, social geography, sociology, cultural studies, literature, psychology and anthropology.
An open access journal. They believe open access nowadays is the best way to get the widest possible exposure for the work published in our journal. Publishing your articles with CMS means that other scholars will have easy access to your work and will be more likely to actually read it and refer to it. Open access publishing is not without costs.

In order to develop the journal further, and to make sure that all relevant disciplines and methodological traditions are well represented, the editorial board will be expanded. They invite applications from scholars from various disciplines:

working in the field of migration studies
special interest in comparative research
quantitative research background

Being a member of the editorial board means that you will be involved in policymaking regarding the journal and that as editor you will be in charge of reviewing articles that are in your area of expertise (on average, a couple of hours per month).

CFP CALA 2022 (Philippines)

Call for papers: GLOCAL CALA (Conference on Asian Linguistic Anthropology) 2022, University of The Philippines Diliman, Diliman, The Philippines, 2-5 November 2022. Deadline: 15 July 2022.

The SOAS GLOCAL CALA 2022 theme “Symbolism and Society” describes the need for symbolic representation in a rapidly changing Asia. As has been the case throughout a larger global society, Asian societies have sought increasingly rapid change, seeking none less than online spaces to contextualize and to legitimize the effects of this rapid change. Here, recent events have patently mediated the shift to online interaction, a shift which has thus intensified the development, and possibly, the invention, of a range of symbolisms and symbolic clusters that now have a limited use in offline spaces.

Throughout the past decade, and more particularly over the past one year, global changes have elicited these symbolisms of communication, symbolisms which have quickly been exposed to contestation and (re)interpretation, owing to the need to deploy online technologies on such a large scale, and which are now presenting themselves as highly beneficial to anthropological study. Asian language symbolisms have always exposed their potency as representational of their communities and as legitimizing of the worth of these communities in a global society, but never have they shown more significance than in the current era, where their intensified usage online, and their qualities for legitimizing Asian identities, seek investigation.

The Asian symbolism pervades the whole semiotic spectrum of that which is performatively Asian, and which is distinct from the Non-Asian, yet a symbolism which can interlink the colonized with the decolonized, through a multitude of human ideologies. This again becomes more the case now as the boundaries of Asian symbolisms have become blurred through online textual modes, Linguistically and Anthropologically, and beyond.

The GLOCAL CALA 2022 thus calls for renewed awareness and interpretations of Asian symbolisms in this new era, and asks that we seek new perspectives of these Asian complex symbolisms, in their global contexts. These interpretations increase in significance as the use of online virtual world texts and textual modes have now assumed an authoritative stance over the real world, possibly creating new realities and new real worlds that subvert our ideologies of those old real worlds. This shift to symbolisms required to reconceptualize new virtual and old real worlds in this current era, will surely motivate dialogue.

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