Month: August 2023

CFP ICA 2024: Communication & Global Human Rights (Australia)

ConferencesCall for proposals: Theme call for papers: Communication and Global Human Rights, International Communication Association, 22-24 June 2024, Gold Coast, Australia. Deadline: 1 November 2023.

The purpose of this year’s theme, Communication and global human rights is threefold: to take stock of the contributions of communication scholarship to the study of human rights; to foreground current research and practice; and to  outline promising directions for communication studies.

Human rights is a global priority. It is a political and moral language, grounded on the notion that all human beings share universal attributes and deserve recognition and support. It is a normative horizon for making our world more humane and just. It is central to the cosmopolitan imaginary that posits the existence of a moral and political order above nation-states. It is woven into fundamental questions of our times, such as overlapping crises (e.g., climate/environment, health, migration, food insecurity), entrenched global inequalities, armed conflicts, threats to public safety, and social exclusion and hate.

Communication is central to contemporary global human rights in many ways. It is manifest in public debates spurred by the mobilization of “rights” movements as well as political/cultural backlash; efforts to raise public awareness about the significance of rights, especially given continuous violations of human rights and the tragic failure of inter-government institutions, states, and other actors to enforce rights; the evidentiary claims of human rights reporting, based on both standardized and contested communication practices; the use and critique of human rights as a discourse; conflicts over the balance between speech rights with other rights such as privacy and safety; debates over whether human rights is a universalist project embedded in Western principles and globalist projects, or an inspiring political, moral and legal framework sensitive to difference, inclusivity, localization, and reappropriation.

As a research topic, human rights cuts across the vast landscape of communication studies. Several areas of specialization explore theoretical and empirical questions situated at the intersection of communication and human rights: linguistic, historical, legal, epistemological, and political dimensions; rights movements and counter-movements; narrative about rights violation and repair; large-scale persuasion and information campaigns; institutionalization and enforcement of rights in communication and media policies. Altogether, these lines of inquiry lay out wide-ranging research agendas, as well as theoretical and empirical questions and arguments, with significant implications for scholarship, education, and public engagement.

CFP Dialogue and Medicine

“PublicationCFP Dialogue and Medicine. Deadline for abstracts: 15 October 2023.

Book Editor: Mariaelena Bartesaghi, University of South Florida, USA.

The notion of dialogue in medicine is institutionalized as an ideal, effective, and skillful interaction between provider and patient. Dialogue is in vogue in health professions education (e.g., medical humanities, narrative medicine, communication skills training, etc.) and incorporated into medical licensing, as well. The institutionalization of dialogue in medicine reflects commitments to industrialization and capitalism with the construction of the need for medical services being entangled with social and financial gain. This anthology is born out of empirical work in clinical settings, personal illness experiences, and the pursuit of a livable philosophy of dialogue.

Is dialogue a state to be achieved or a goal to be obtained? Can dialogue be planned for? Are there certain positionalities one might foster to encourage an organic unfolding of dialogue? Or must dialogue be entirely spontaneous? What does it mean to know it is happening?

As the editor sees it, dialogue in everyday communicative practice extends beyond oral exchanges to encompass multimodal and multigeneric practices. The medicalization of society extends dialogue to contexts beyond the conventional clinic, including technology, therapy, education, and more. We hope to include work that examines medical encounters, discourses of medicalization, philosophical inquiries of dialogue, and medicine more broadly conceived, including allopathic and alternative medicine, veterinary medicine, mental health counseling, speech language pathology, etc.

Asked whether the volume is open to those examining specifically intercultural dialogue and medicine, the editor’s response was: “Of course intercultural dialogue is dialogue!”

Howard U: Rangel Fellowships in Foreign Service for 2024 (USA)

FellowshipsGraduate Fellowships in Foreign Service, Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Program, U.S. Department of State, Washington, D.C., USA. Deadline: 28 September, 2023.

The Rangel Graduate Fellowship is a program that aims to attract and prepare outstanding young people for careers in the Foreign Service of the U.S. Department of State in which they can help formulate, represent, and implement U.S. foreign policy. The Rangel Program selects outstanding Rangel Fellows annually in a highly competitive nationwide process and supports them through two years of graduate study, internships, mentoring, and professional development activities. This program encourages the application of members of minority groups historically underrepresented in the Foreign Service, women, and those with financial need. Fellows who successfully complete the program and Foreign Service entry requirements will receive appointments as Foreign Service Officers, in accordance with applicable law and State Department policy, one of the most exciting and rewarding careers available.

Dollar Street: Starting Intercultural Dialogues by Sharing Images

Intercultural Pedagogy

Dollar Street is a carefully organized set of photographs and videos turned into a game and tool created by Anna Rosling Rönnlund of Gapminder. It can serve as one way to start intercultural dialogues, whether you have a diverse, international group of students, or a more homogeneous set.

“People in other cultures are often portrayed as scary or exotic.” Anna explains: “This has to change. We want to show how people really live. It seemed natural to use photos as data so people can see for themselves what life looks like on different income levels. Dollar Street lets you visit many, many homes all over the world. Without travelling.”

Dollar Street is a Gapminder project – free for anyone to use. Today the database features 457 families in 66 countries, with 43,969 photos and 8,065 videos and counting!

King’s College London: Global Mobility Officer (UK)

“Job

Global Mobility Officer, King’s College London, London, UK. Deadline: 3 September 2023.

King’s College is seeking to recruit a proactive and flexible team-player with excellent administration skills and an intercultural sensibility to support our international partnerships worldwide and the student opportunities enabled through them. The role-holder will work with various professional services teams to provide guidance, support and direction to staff at King’s and with partners negotiating, managing and implementing mobility partnership agreements.

The role combines programme administration, day to day student support and international relationship liaison as well as some contractual negotiation and writing. Although there are no direct line-report responsibilities, the role-holder is responsible for delegating relevant tasks to Global Mobility Peer Advisors. These are a small group of students returning from abroad who work with our team to support other students.

This is an exciting opportunity for candidates looking to apply skills and knowledge of student travel and university-to-university partnerships, and who wish to utilise their skills and expertise in support of the international student experience. They encourage applications from candidates who have experience from both within and outside of the Higher Education sector where they can demonstrate the skills needed to succeed in this role.

NCA: Chief Diversity Officer (USA)

“JobChief Diversity Officer, National Communication Association, Washington, DC, USA. Deadline: open until filled; posted 9 August 2023.

The Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) leads and implements a transformational agenda that infuses – throughout the National Communication Association (NCA) and in all of its work – a focus on and commitment to inclusion, diversity, equity, and accessibility (IDEA) to promote NCA’s mission to advance communication scholarship, teaching, and practice to foster a better world.

While IDEA is the priority and responsibility of the entire Association, the CDO will play a leading role in interpreting, communicating, and promulgating NCA’s IDEA Framework, which guides and supports the ongoing development, implementation, and evaluation of IDEA-related goals. The CDO will steer the development, execution, and assessment of these goals related to three broad areas – (1) the Association itself, (2) the field of communication, and (3) the benefits of communication for society – and ensure that these goals are woven into the fabric the organization. The CDO’s scope of work will also be informed by the IDEA strategic plan and goals and the NCA’s strategic priorities. This position will report directly to the Executive Director, serve as a member of the Senior Team, and work closely with NCA’s Executive Committee and governance groups.

U Oslo: Postdoctoral Fellow in Multilingualism (Norway)

PostdocsPostdoctoral Research Fellowship in Multilingualism, Department of Linguistics and Scandinavian Studies, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. Deadline: 15 September 2023.

This Postdoctoral Research Fellowship is funded by the Norwegian Research Council and is associated with the project Indigenous Language Resilience: From learners to speakers (SPEAKERS). Applicants are expected to propose a research project closely connected to the main project. Through a comparative analysis of Sápmi and three additional cases, the SPEAKERS project investigates why and how some learners transition from learners to speakers of Indigenous or minoritized languages. In many Indigenous contexts schools are key arenas for language revitalisation; the goal of SPEAKERS is to gain a deeper understanding of what happens after students leave school. The project aims to identify and investigate key life moments or mudes that facilitate or trigger the transition from learner to speaker, compare the impact and interaction of key social environmental factors on speaker resilience, and investigate inherent tensions in language reclamation processes and how learners and speakers attempt to solve such tensions.

The postdoctoral fellow will lead one of the comparative cases, and work with other project team members on cross-case comparative analysis. The location of this case is open, and the postdoctoral fellow is encouraged to propose an individual project that builds on their previous work, while also contributing to the larger comparative project. They will consider cases relating to any minoritized language, but the project proposal must make clear how this case could inform the SPEAKERS project as a whole. The applicant must have expertise in one or more of the following disciplines: sociolinguistics, linguistics, linguistic or social anthropology, applied linguistics, education, multilingualism, and/ or Indigenous studies. Experience with fieldwork is highly desirable.

CFP: CCSA Intercultural Interest Group (USA)

Conferences

Call for papers: Intercultural Communication Interest Group, Central States Communication Association, Grand Rapids, MI, USA. Deadline: 7 October 2023.

The Intercultural Communication Interest Group OF CSCA invites submission of competitive individual papers, panel proposals, and creative/interactive sessions. The purpose of ICIG is to promote the scholarship and practice of communication between, among, and within cultural groups. THEY welcome all forms of scholarship and research methodology in addressing this year’s theme: Incoherence: Failure, Futures, and Forgotten Messages.

Within intercultural communication, incoherence is inevitable and often embodied by “the stranger” since strangers can be near in proximity yet far in terms of in-group status. Organizers are excited for submissions that explore how these tensions between farness and nearness, identity dispersion and synthesis, “us” and “them” can be felt, negotiated, and examined across many cultural contexts, for instance, at borderlands, in transnational spaces, in neighborhoods as well as within digital spaces and other forms of mediated communication. The theme of incoherence offers us meaningful space to consider future directions of IC scholarship, mentorship, and curriculum programming. Inviting us to ask (among other possible inquiries):

How is incoherence embodied by being, or interacting with, the stranger, the sojourner, the other? How is incoherence implicated in studies of diaspora, immigration, statelessness, or refugee groups?

How does incoherence open avenues to understand environmental justice and environmental racism?

How does a focus on disjointedness allow us to examine perceptions of hope, place, and safe community within an increasingly diverse and polarized U.S. society?

How does the theme of incoherence apply in addressing what it means to identify as an intercultural scholar today? How can exploring incoherence contribute to (re)building curricula that meet the needs of the next generation of intercultural scholars?

How can incoherence illuminate critical/intersectional paths that complicate static, certain, or transpicuous notions of culture? How does incoherence inform the ways in which people negotiate multiracial identities in an increasingly transnational world?

CFP Communicating Scotland Through Food

“PublicationCFP Communicating Scotland Through Food: From Devolution to Possible Futures. Deadline for abstract and bio: 15 October 2023.

Editors: Ashli Q. Stokes, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, USA; and Ana Tominc, Queen Margaret University, Scotland

In this call, the editors are looking for abstracts for chapters that address the question of Scottish representation through and around food from devolution (1999) to contemporary and current visions of the future. As Scotland increasingly differentiates itself politically and economically, we ask what foods define Scotland as a UK “sub-nation,” and how this communicative work helps distinguish it from England, the rest of the UK, and Europe. This volume specifically focus on the role of media, language, and communication broadly in shaping Scotland’s vision about itself and others, addressing a notable gap in discussions around Scotland’s relationship to food. The discussion is designed to contribute to the growing understanding of the role food plays in Scotland’s past, present, and future. The book offers a perspective that may help shape future discussions around the important connection between food and the question of “national” identity in health, political, economic, and other communication.

Submission Deadlines:
Abstract and Bio: October 15, 2023
Notification of Abstract Acceptance: November 1, 2023
Papers Due to Book Editors: April 2024
Final Version Due to Editors: June 2024

Those unfamiliar with the topic of food as related to intercultural matters might want to read the prior post on Urban Foodways and Communication.

Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies Fellowships 2023-4 (Finland)

FellowshipsCore fellowships, Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, Helsinki, Finland. Deadline: 14 September 2023.

The Core Fellowship Program is the basis of all Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies (HCAS) activities and the majority of fellows are appointed through it. In 2023, the application period begins on 22 August and closes on 14 September. Open to researchers from the humanities, social sciences, behavioral sciences, theology and law, as well as to researchers in other fields who focus on topics related to the human sciences. These prefixed-term appointments for 6 months to 3 years, for all career levels beyond the doctorate (post-docs, mid-career researchers, and full professors). The usual number of appointments is 8–14 per year, with no fixed career stage or discipline quotas. These are salaried positions with associated benefits (paid family and sick leave, pension benefits and occupational health care), as well as relocation assistance for international fellows. In addition, there is a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Arts.