Author: Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, the Director of the Center for Intercultural Dialogue, manages this website.

CFP Intercultural comm strategies

“I am putting together a panel for the 2013 WSCA [Western Speech Communication Association] conference. This panel seeks to create space to dialogue about strategies for teaching intercultural communication that will prepare students to understand, respond to, and potentially address emerging ethnic, racial, and religious conflicts manifesting both globally and locally.  I seek teacher-scholars willing to share creative pedagogical and theoretical leaps you are making in your intercultural communication courses to engage students and to equip them to effectively and pragmatically negotiate this 21st century moment that is characterized by instability, conflict, and sociocultural shifts. Interested parties are welcome to submit a 150 word abstract for consideration by August 20, 2012.”

Hannah Oliha, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Communication
Faculty Advisor, WTAMU NAACP College Chapter
West Texas A & M University

U Illinois job ad

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
Assistant Professor of Race and Ethnicity

The Department of Communication at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign seeks a full-time faculty member in race and ethnicity at the rank of tenure-track assistant professor or tenure eligible associate professor. A PhD is required at time of appointment. The target start date is August 16, 2013. Salary level is competitive and commensurate with qualifications and experience.

We seek an outstanding candidate who specializes in any area of race and ethnicity in communication; this may include studying issues of race and/or ethnicity in relation to communication and culture, health, interpersonal/intergroup, mass media, new technology, organizations, or rhetoric. Applicants who incorporate humanistic, qualitative, and/or quantitative approaches to understanding race and/or ethnicity and communication are welcome to apply.

Applicants at the assistant professor level must have or show clear promise of developing a distinguished record of undergraduate and graduate teaching and research. Applicants at the associate professor level must possess a record of publication, teaching, and professional leadership commensurate with that rank.

Successful candidates will join departmental colleagues with varied disciplinary backgrounds in a unit of 22 graduate faculty members. The department supports undergraduate and master’s programs (including a new online MS program in health communication) as well as one of the nation’s oldest and most distinguished doctoral programs.

To apply, create your candidate profile and upload application materials: application letter, curriculum vitae, and teaching materials (including evidence of teaching excellence). Three letters of reference will be required by the committee; please submit the names and contact information for your three references with your online application. Referees will be contacted electronically soon after the submission and completion of the application. To ensure full consideration, applications must be received by October 1, 2012.

For further information please contact John Caughlin, Professor and Search Chair; phone: (217) 333-2683.

Illinois is an Affirmative Action /Equal Opportunity Employer and welcomes individuals with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and ideas who embrace and value diversity and inclusivity.

Grant $ international student research

NSF Student Grants for International Research Experiences-Deadline August 21, 2012

The National Science Foundation (NSF) seeks applications for its International Research Experiences for Students (IRES) program.  The IRES program supports active research participation by students enrolled as undergraduates or graduate students in any area of research funded by the NSF.   The deadline is August 21, 2012.

NSF accepts IRES proposals from U.S.-based academic research institutions, professional societies, or consortia. However, foreign researchers provide the primary research mentorship, but the U.S.-based Principal Investigator (PI) recruits and prepares the U.S. student participants.

IRES proposals must have a unifying research theme that enables a “cohort” experience for participating students. The IRES cohort concept requires that within each IRES project, each participating student must have an individual research project for which he/she is responsible, but these individual projects must also be coordinated to address a unifying research theme. NSF support for these projects runs for three years that will involve support for three separate student cohorts during that time.

NSF anticipates making approximately 12 IRES awards FY 2013, pending quality of proposals and availability of the $2.25 million the agency expects to spend on the program.

The agency recommends that prospective applicants examine an OISE workshop report entitled “Looking Beyond the Borders: A Project Director’s Handbook of Best Practices for International Research Experiences for Undergraduates.”

Fulbright update-Leeds-Hurwitz

A publication resulting from my Fulbright in Portugal this spring has just appeared: Arquitectura pedagógica para a mudança no ensino superior [Pedagogical architecture changes for higher education]. For anyone who reads Portuguese, it’s available as a PDF (there is also a hard copy version). For those who only read English, the longer book version came out in the fall, under the title Learning matters: The transformation of US higher education, published by Editions des Archives Contemporaines in Paris. Both the book and the monograph are co-authored with Peter Sloat Hoff.

Arquitectura pedagógica cover

My thanks to Susan Gonçalves for accepting the manuscript and then seeing it through to publication with a series through the Centro de Inovação e Estudo da Pedagogia no Ensino Superior, which she directs and the host for my stay in Coimbra. Thanks also to all those who worked on various stages of the translation: Steven Pessoa, John Baldwin, Sofia Silva, Dina Soeiro and Susana herself.

CFP Reclaiming Stigma

Call for Manuscripts:  Special Issue of Communication Studies
“Reclaiming Stigma: Alternative Explorations of the Construct”

Guest Editors:  Mike Allen (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)  & Jessica J. Eckstein (Western Connecticut State University)
Submission Deadline:  June 1, 2013

Communication research on identity issues tends to nominally reference seminal works from previous decades and then proceed to study specific, affected groups. Particularly in cases of research on stigmatized identities, scholars tend to cite Goffman (1963). With few exceptions, the nuances of this construct – a subject of potentially great interest to communication scholars – are rarely explored.

Despite the advent of increasingly immediate forms of interpersonal and public communication, the use of labels, interpersonal behaviors, and complicated rhetorical constructions related to stigma have become more taken-for-granted by scholars using methods of social framing and influence. In descending order of typical approaches by Communication scholars, published research has examined (a) if and then who is stigmatized, (b) how it affects that particular group of people, and (c) what can or should be done about it, with the latter technique inclining toward simplistic prescription of a “stop doing it” admonishment. Missing from this discussion is examination of the construction of stigma.

Rather than simplistically labeling a group as “stigmatized” and/or jumping to the assumption that this label is always negative, a more complex examination would search for the underlying mechanisms at play. This special issue of Communication Studies seeks to address this dearth in the field by seeking diverse scholarship to scrutinize the issue and provoke scholarly controversy by exploring the nature of stigma. For example:
*When can stigma be good? In what ways might it be productive to reinforce stigma of particular groups? Perhaps some identities (e.g., Homophobes? Misogynists? Abusers? KKK? Liberals? Conservatives?
Celebrities?) should be stigmatized. What would be the implications of those practices?
*When is stigma bad? What are the communicative implications when using stigma? Do stigmas reflect a shorthand attribution of group membership?
*Can an individual be stigmatized without reference to group membership?
*How has stigma operated, in past or present-day cultures, desirably?
*If we should stigmatize, how would we decide who/what to stigmatize?
*Who, or what, would determine which stigmas to enforce – interpersonally and/or culturally?
*Is stigma really an arbitrary decision made to effect serious, negative consequences (e.g., social exclusion/discrimination, punishment)?
*If stigma is a created and fixable difference, what are actual, feasible means (i.e., applied stigma management tactics – personal and political) to address interpersonal stigma for those affected – interpersonally and societally?

All scholars of Communication embracing diverse theoretical and methodological perspectives are invited. Original works referencing current, societal exemplars are encouraged. Both full-length manuscripts exploring these phenomena (through application of personal research or analyses) and shorter critical thought-pieces are welcome. Whatever the approach, this issue will go beyond simple designation of stigmatized identities to explore the stigma in all its intricacies – standard and contentious.

All manuscripts will be subjected to a process of blind peer-review.
Questions about the appropriateness of a potential submission or for additional information should be directed to Dr. Jessica Eckstein.

Deadline for submissions is June 1, 2013. Manuscripts should be prepared in accordance with the most recent edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association or the Chicago Manual of Style. Submissions should conform to the Instructions for Authors followed by Communication Studies and be sent electronically to the journal via the ScholarOne Manuscripts website. NOTE: All finalized submissions should specify “For Stigma Special Issue” in the online forms (e.g., cover letter, Special Issue checkbox, etc.). If you have any special requests or need additional information on this journal’s submission process, please contact the journal’s editor, Robert Littlefield.

George Washington U job ad

The Communication Program, within the Department of Organizational Sciences and Communication, invites applications for a tenured or a tenure-track position as an Associate or Assistant Professor of Communication to begin in August 2013.  The Communication Program offers a selective admission undergraduate major and two undergraduate minors.  Salary, benefits, and startup funds are highly competitive.

Basic Qualifications: Applicants must have an earned Ph.D. in Communication, with research and teaching interests in Organizational or Intercultural Communication.  Candidates must complete all doctoral degree requirements by August 15, 2013.  Applicants also should have a strong background in research methods, including quantitative approaches, and experience with or interest in teaching core courses such as Communication Theory, Research Methods, and Senior Seminar (requiring a thesis).  Finally, applicants must have a record of research as demonstrated by publications or works in progress.  Rank is dependent on qualifications and experience.

Application Procedures: Review of applications will begin September 1, 2012 and will continue until the position is filled.  To apply, complete the online faculty application and upload curriculum vitae, a statement of research and teaching interests and qualifications, selected reprints, and teaching evaluations summary.  In addition, candidates may be asked to submit three (3) letters of recommendation, which can be sent to:

Communication Faculty Search Committee
The George Washington University
600 21st Street, NW
Washington, DC  20052

For additional information about the Communication Program and the Department of Organizational Sciences and Communication, please visit our web site.

The George Washington University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer

UNCAOC intercultural dialogue games

The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Wants to Foster Innovation through Apps and Games Promoting Intercultural Dialogue

The UNAOC launches Create UNAOC 2012, a global competition organized with MIT Education Arcade and Learning Games Network; International Partners include Global Voices, Fundazione Mondo Digitale, Voice of America, ICT for Peace, John Lennon Educational Tour Bus, Doha Centre for Media Freedom, among others 

NEW YORK, New York, 26 July 2012 — the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations, the MIT Education Arcade, and Learning Games Network today launched Create UNAOC 2012, an international competition for app and game developers to produce apps and mobile games that enable new avenues for intercultural dialogue.

The aim of the project is to identify opportunities through innovative tools that promote intercultural dialogue, drawing on unique cultural resources and experiences of developers around the world. Five finalist apps and games will be selected by an international jury, awarded funds for producers to refine their creations and played by delegates of the 5th Annual UNAOC Forum in Vienna, Austria, 27-28 February 2013. The global competition will accept submissions through the end of November 2012.

“Successful intercultural dialogue is essential to help us navigate the unprecedented challenges of the 21st Century world,” said Marc Scheuer, Director of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations.  “Apps and games afford powerful new tools and experiences to explore the dynamic and challenging processes that enable individuals and groups with different cultural backgrounds to engage in an open and respectful exchange of views, to share experiences and to develop a better understanding of each others’ aspirations and better practices of living together.  We are eager to see what young and new developers can contribute to the global conversation.”

The UNAOC and its organizing partners want to encourage developers to think of ways that new apps and games can be used to support such pursuits as gender equality, youth development, migrant integration, religious pluralism, better understanding among individuals of different cultural and religious backgrounds, biased media representation of cultures and religions, and education.
Apps and games submitted will be reviewed by an international jury and measured on whether: (1)  potential users would be given a novel experience to creatively and thoughtfully share perspectives on intercultural and global issues; (2)  how content and commentary relate to historical or current events, as well as (3) how the apps and games provide new perspectives that support intercultural dialogue.
Registration and Submission Requirements
Developers may register to participate in the competition between 27 July and 30 November 2012 at http://www.CreateUNAOC.org.  Developers may register as an individual or as a team with a maximum of eight (8) collaborators. Registrants must be 13 years of age or older.  A video walk-through (i.e., screen capture) or PowerPoint/Keynote presentation of a working app or game alpha or beta prototype built in HTML5 should be submitted for competition by 30 November 2012.  Note: Developers are not required to submit actual working apps/games on authorized development devices to the UNAOC.
Five (5) apps/games in HTML5 will be selected as finalists by 3 January 2013.  Developers will be notified and awarded $5,000 (US) per app to complete development of a fully functional app/game by 15 February 2013.  Apps/games will be played and rated by participants during the 2013 UNAOC Forum in Vienna, Austria (27-28 February 2013).  A Grand Prize will be awarded.  All apps/games submitted to the challenge competition will be featured on the website before and after the Forum in Vienna.
“We are excited by the global network of creative and technical professionals, scholars, NGOs, media companies, and others, who have come together to inform and promote the Create UNAOC Challenge,” said Jordi Torrent, UNAOC Media Literacy and Education Project Manager.  “As we explore new ways to engage citizens of the world in the UNAOC’s charter work, our jurors and partners help to expand our understanding of new media and reach young people and producers who are pursuing exciting new projects that can be used to effectively support intercultural dialogue.”
International Jury and Outreach Partners
Create UNAOC jurors include: Deborah Bergamini, Member, Council of Europe (Italy), Jan Keulen, General Director, Doha Centre for Media Freedom (Qatar), Sanjana Hattotuwa, Senior Researcher, Centre for Policy Alternatives (Sri Lanka), Eric Klopfer, Professor, MIT (United States), Solana Larsen, Managing Editor, Global Voices (Switzerland), Anthony Lilley, Chief Executive Officer, Magic Lantern (United Kingdom), Alfonso Molina, Fundazione Mondo Digitale (Italy), Savita Nair, Professor, Furman University (United States), Wu Heping, Dean, College of International Exchanges, Northwest Normal University (China).
Initial outreach partners include:
Global Voices (Netherlands), Fundazione Mondo Digitale (Italy), Voice of America (United States), ICT for Peace (Switzerland), John Lennon Educational Tour Bus (United States), Doha Centre for Media Freedom (Qatar).
Media Contact:
Learning Games Network
The United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) aims to improve understanding and cooperative relations among nations and peoples across cultures and religions. It also helps to counter the forces that fuel polarization and extremism. The UNAOC was established in 2005, at the initiative of the Governments of Spain and Turkey, under the auspices of the United Nations.  A High-level Group of experts was formed by former Secretary-General Kofi Annan to explore the roots of polarization between societies and cultures today, and to recommend a practical programme of action to address this issue. The Report of the High-level Group provided analysis and put forward practical recommendations that form the basis for the implementation plan of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations.  On 26 April 2007, former President of Portugal, Jorge Sampaio, was appointed as the High Representative for the UNAOC by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to lead the implementation phase of the Alliance. The UNAOC Secretariat, which is based in New York, works with a global network of partners with States, international and regional organizations, civil society groups, foundations, and the private sector to improve cross-cultural relations between diverse nations and communities. It also works at the grassroots level, promoting innovative projects that build trust, reconciliation and mutual respect.  The Alliance works in four program areas to support such projects: youth, media, education, and migration. 
 
The MIT Education Arcade explores games that promote learning through authentic and engaging play. The program’s research and development projects focus both on the learning that naturally occurs in popular commercial games, and on the design of games that more vigorously address the educational needs of players. Our mission is to demonstrate the social, cultural, and educational potentials of videogames by initiating new game development projects, coordinating interdisciplinary research efforts, and informing public conversations about the broader and sometimes unexpected uses of this emerging art form in education. MIT Education Arcade projects have touched on mathematics, science, history, literacy, and language learning, and have been tailored to a wide range of ages. They have been designed for personal computers, handheld devices and on-line delivery.
 
Learning Games Network
The Learning Games Network, a non-profit spin-off of the MIT Education Arcade and the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Games+Learning+Society Program with studios in Cambridge, MA and Madison, WI, bridges the gap between research and practice in game-based education and is committed to the development and distribution of games informed by research in the learning sciences, creative design, and technical innovation.  

U Penn job ad

Deputy Director for Research and Operations at The Center for Global Communication Studies at The Annenberg School for Communication at The University of Pennsylvania

Responsibilities:

*       This position will serve as the Deputy Director for Research and Operations of the Center for Global Communication Studies (CGCS) at The Annenberg School for Communication, working closely with CGCS’s Director in the development, implementation, and coordination of research, networking and training initiatives globally.  For more information about the center see www.global.asc.upenn.edu;

*       Project management: Manage international research programs, including serving as the point of contact with funding agencies; developing and maintaining relationships with partners; overseeing and managing project progress (identifying and hiring consultants; developing a program workplan and ensuring adherence to timeline and deliverables); working with the CGCS Grants Coordinator and Director to ensure compliance with federal and university regulations, monitor budget and adjust activities as necessary; write and/or edit final programmatic reports;

*       Supervise staff: Serve as Staff Director, including direct supervision of Center administrative staff, Annenberg Research Assistants, student workers, and other temporary staff, and manage all administrative support activities of the Center;

*       Communications, Publications and Outreach: engage in outreach activities with internal Annenberg School/Penn and external constituencies in order to develop partnerships and programs, and to generate knowledge and share resources that advance the missions of the Annenberg School and the University of Pennsylvania. Develop opportunities for graduate students; and encourage and support capacity-building for global communications research and practice among centers and individuals. Outreach activities include assisting with the development of international/comparative media programs and programs related to the offerings of the Annenberg School. Organize, coordinate, and facilitate summer programs, workshops, conferences and other activities related to international or comparative media and communication study, research and scholarship. Coordinate with  media programs in London, Budapest and other elements of a CGCS network; write concept papers, proposals for funding sources and program ideas; travel (both domestic and international) and conduct research as necessary;

*       Fundraising: Participate in fundraising including identifying funding opportunities, and preparing grant proposals;

*       Work closely with the Director on all aspects of the Center’s operations, including developing a budget and annual strategic plan of action for the Center;

Qualifications:

The minimum of a Master’s Degree in International Relations, Communications, Political Science, Law, or other related topic, and 5 to 7 years of relevant program management experience is required. Ph.D. is preferred. Highly functioning, detail-oriented, and analytical candidate who can think strategically about organizational expansion. Must be able to develop a workplan and oversee the plan from beginning to end. Experience in international development and/or having worked in different countries. Grant pre-award experience highly desirable. Excellent research and writing skills desirable. Excellent computer skills. Strong interpersonal skills required. Able to work effectively with people from diverse disciplines and backgrounds. Must be able to work independently and collaboratively to achieve goals.

The University of Pennsylvania is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. Women and minority candidates are strongly encouraged to apply.

CFP Child raising across cultures

Journal of Intercultural Communication Research Call for papers
Child raising across cultures: practices, values and scripts
Special Issue Editor: Jock Wong, National University of Singapore

Anthropologists, psychologists, and sociologists have written a large volume of books and journal articles about parenting in a diverse range of cultures. These studies have contributed immensely to our understanding of the cultural beliefs and values in a variety of cultures. However, most of these studies unintentionally describe these beliefs and values in ethnocentric terms. This is because language and culture are inextricably linked, and when we use a language to describe another language or culture, we run the risk of imposing the categories and values of the metalanguage onto the object of study. For example, when we ask how people in other cultures make “requests”, the question rests on the ethnocentric assumption that every language has a word for request and that every culture shares the values embodied in a request.

An ideal way to avoid ethnocentrism is to use a metalanguage that consists of semantically simple, un-definable words and grammatical structures that are universal. A metalanguage that is proposed to have these characteristics is the natural semantic metalanguage (NSM). A number of studies have shown the main advantage of using such a metalanguage is that it can describe cultural norms with maximal clarity and precision, and minimal ethnocentrism. Potential contributors may want to visit the NSM homepage to find out more about what this approach.

A forum to be published in a special issue of the Journal of Intercultural Communication Research in 2013 will be organized to discuss child raising practices in various cultures. We invite contributions that focus on linguistic aspects of child raising practices and encourage papers that use NSM as the analytic tool, but also welcome all methodologies that expound culture from the inside. We are especially interested in analyses of the culture-specific values and beliefs that influence what parents say to their children in order to mould them into culturally acceptable beings. How, for example, do these values and beliefs: determine what parents teach their children to say; influence how parents say it; guide the ways in which parents express their approval when their child does something considered “good”; result in common sayings about parental roles or good child behaviour? Selected cultural keywords or concepts related to parenting may be explained to give readers a better understanding of the culture described. Selected forms of parenting related verbal behaviour may also be explained in terms of cultural rules that are designed to represent the subconscious cultural values and beliefs held by parents within a given speech community

Each paper should be a maximum of 10 pages in length, double spaced, excluding references, figures, and tables, etc. The deadline for submission is January 14, 2013. All submissions must be submitted via the Manuscript Central System. For style information on the Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, please select ‘Authors and submissions’.

The issue is being guest edited by Jock Wong, National University of Singapore, Centre for English Language Communication. To contact Jock, email him.

 

CFP: Memories of Conflict

Memories of Conflict, Conflicts of Memory
International Conference
13- 14 February, 2013
Senate House, London

Organised by:
Institute of Germanic &  Romance Studies
Faculty Institute of Graduate Studies, University College London
Centre for the Study of Cultural Memory

There are very few facets of public and private life that are not affected by cultural memories of war and conflict. Recent academic scholarship has also been revolutionised as experts on literature, cinema, history, area studies, sociology, anthropology and many others attempt to theorise the memory-narratives of the last century marked by unprecedented totalitarian regimes, coup d’états, military confrontations, popular movements and what Alain Badiou recently called the passion for the real.

This interdisciplinary conference will examine the various ways in which memories of wars and conflicts of the twentieth century are constructed, resisted, appropriated and debated in contemporary culture. The conference will provide a space for dialogue and interchange of ideas among scholars researching on memory issues related to different regions of the globe. In particular, we are interested in discussing the tensions between local and transnational memory-narratives, official and subversive forms of commemoration, hegemonic and alternative conceptions of remembering.

Questions we hope to address:
*       What benefits and risks are involved when using theories, terms and concepts coined for specific conflicts when dealing with problems relating to other regions?
*       To what extent has current research on memory of war and conflict in different parts of the world influenced the wider field of memory studies?
*       What power and/or knowledge relations are established between academic researchers and the victims of such conflicts?
*       What motivations lie behind our decision to research memory issues?

The conference will draw together cutting-edge research from theorists and practitioners and we invite proposals from people working in literature, cinema, history, area studies, sociology, anthropology, cultural studies, religious studies, media studies, political theory, law, international relations and all other relevant fields.

Themes to be addressed in the conference include, but are not limited to:
*       Official commemoration
*       Gendered memory
*       Cultural memory and communicative memory
*       Memory, history and law
*       Contested memories
*       Memory, migration, exile and displacement
*       Second witnessing and generational transmission
*       Fictions of memory and performing memory
*       Sites of memory, testimony and archives

Please submit a 250-word abstract and a short biographical note to the organisers Jordana.Blejmar@sas.ac.uk and a.raychaudhuri@ucl.ac.uk by 1 November, 2012.

Convenors: Jordana Blejmar (IGRS) and Anindya Raychaudhuri (UCL)