Author: Center for Intercultural Dialogue

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Crossing Boundaries conference

Crossing Boundaries: Working and Communicating in the Asia Pacific Region
Third Conference of the LSP (Languages for Specific Purposes) and Professional Communication Association for the Asia-Pacific Rim
March 13-15, 2012
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

Keynote Speaker: Vijay Bhatia, City University of Hong Kong
Plenary Speakers: Gail Fairhurst, the University of Cincinnati, OH; Francesca Bargiela-Chiappini, Centre for Applied Linguistics, University of Warwick, UK; Clayton Dube, USC US-China Institute, CA

Call for Papers/posters
The conference aims to bring together researchers and practitioners in Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP) and Professional Communication in the Asia-Pacific Rim and beyond to take part in a dialogue on research and collaboration in academic, professional and workplace contexts. To build a clearer understanding of communication in the workplace it is crucial to have effective collaboration between language experts, trainers and institutions specializing in communication skills. Such collaboration in turn is fundamental to the design and implementation of effective pedagogy, assessment and curricula.

We invite papers and posters on any of the following areas:
•Relationships between LSP theory and workplace practices
•Interconnections between discourse and socio-institutional practices
•Collaboration between language teachers/trainers and institutions/organizations
•Functional variation of language in academic and professional contexts
•Discursive and professional practices of specialists
•Disciplinary, intercultural and cross-cultural variation in professional communication & discourse
•Descriptions of language use in professional contexts
•Workplace communication and curriculum design
Papers focusing on the study of languages other than English are most welcome.

Presentation Guidelines
Papers will be allotted 20 minutes, plus 10 minutes for discussion.

Abstract Submission Guidelines
Abstracts should be between 250-300 words and should be sent via e-mail attachments to
rcwalker@marshall.usc.edu or aritz@marshall.usc.edu

Abstracts should include:
1. The title of the paper
2. A list of 3-5 key words describing the area and focus
3. The name(s) of the author(s) and their affiliation(s)
4. The corresponding author’s e-mail address and contact details
All abstracts will be peer-reviewed by a committee composed of members of the conference organizing committee

Registration Information
To ensure conference rates for the hotel, please register before November 1, 2011. Conference registration will be available on the Association’s website http://www1.english.cityu.edu.hk/aplspca/drupal/  after October 1, 2011.

The conference registration fee includes cost of registration, a conference bag, luncheons, coffee breaks, conference dinner, and a reception.

Abstract Submission Deadline
The deadline for receipt of abstracts is December 15, 2011.
Notification of acceptance will be given by January 1, 2012.

Preconference workshops
Two pre-conference workshops will be held on March 13, 2012 by plenary speakers Gail Fairhurst and Francesca Bargiela-Chiappini. Please refer to the registration form for further details.

Proceedings
A selection of conference papers will be published with an international publisher.

About Asia-Pacific LSP & Professional Communication Association

The Asia-Pacific LSP (Languages for Specific Purposes) and Professional Communication Association is an association of Asia-Pacific researchers, teachers and trainers specializing in the study and teaching of languages for specific purposes and professional and organizational communication, and fostering such activities in a broad range of disciplinary fields. The primary aim of the association is to promote transdisciplinary and collaborative research and practice in academic, professional and workplace contexts.

Website: http://www1.english.cityu.edu.hk/aplspca/drupal/

job ad – U Michigan

Assistant Professor of Communication Studies

The University of Michigan, Department of Communication Studies seeks applicants for tenure track positions.  Expanding department emphasizes interdisciplinary study of the mass media. We seek top scholars to complement current faculty interests and strengths.  We anticipate filling two positions. Anticipated starting date for all positions is September 1, 2012. All areas will be considered, with a special interest in the following areas:

Global Media, Modernity and Modernization.  Areas of particular interest include but are not limited to the relationships between media and economic development; comparative media systems; sociological and/or ethnographic analyses of international and/or global media institutions; comparative analyses of journalistic practices, news organizations and newsworthiness; the impact of traditional and emerging media on democratic institutions and/or protest movements outside of the United States; the impact of emerging media on deliberative processes outside the United States.

Media and the Environment.  Department of Communication Studies and Program in the Environment (PitE) seek applicants for a tenure track/tenured position.  Our units emphasize interdisciplinary study of the mass media and the environment, respectively. Areas of particular interest are how the news media cover environmental issues, including climate change, energy use, sustainability; analyses of public service, corporate, or other persuasive campaigns about the environment, energy, sustainability and climate change; media effects on public knowledge about the environment, energy, sustainability and climate change; the role of new media in promulgating information about and affecting knowledge of the environment, energy, sustainability and climate change.

Completed Ph.D. by September 2012 expected.  All applicants must upload a cover letter, vita, evidence of teaching excellence, a writing sample, a statement of teaching philosophy and experience, a statement of current and future research plans, and three letters of recommendation.  All application materials must be submitted electronically to http://sitemaker.umich.edu/onlinefacultyapplicationsystem

For full consideration, complete applications must be submitted by September 23rd. The University of Michigan is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.  Women and minorities are encouraged to apply.  The University is supportive of the needs of dual career couples.

job ad – Luther college

Assistant Professor of Communication Studies

BEGINNING DATE:  Late August 2012

QUALIFICATIONS: Ph.D. by September 1, 2012 (ABD considered).  The successful candidate should demonstrate a commitment to teaching excellence and to maintaining an active scholarly agenda.

RESPONSIBILITIES: Full-time teaching load:  6 courses divided over fall, January and spring terms.  Teaching load will include Introduction to Interpersonal Communication, Intercultural Communication, Organizational Communication, Communication Theories, electives that complement existing offerings, as well as contributions to the interdisciplinary programs of the college.  Additional duties include advising and committee work.

SALARY: Commensurate with academic qualifications and professional experience.

Luther College, a Phi Beta Kappa institution affiliated with the Lutheran Church (ELCA), is committed to fostering cultural diversity in its faculty, staff, and students, and so we welcome applications from the widest range of candidates who meet the qualifications listed above.  Women and persons of diverse ethnic backgrounds are especially encouraged to apply.  Excellent teaching is of paramount importance.  Additional information about the college is available by visiting the college website:  www.luther.edu.

Review of applications begins September 15, 2011 and continues until position is filled.  The successful applicant will be required to complete Employment Eligibility Verification Form I-9 of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service.  All correspondence, including letter of application, curriculum vitae, evidence of teaching excellence, syllabi, three letters of recommendation, and official graduate and undergraduate transcripts, should be sent to:

Dr. Kimberly Powell, Chair
Department of Communication Studies
Luther College
700 College Drive
Decorah, Iowa 52101
Telephone:  319/387-1362
Fax:  319-387-1336
E-mail: powellki@luther.edu

Media’s toxic knowledge

CFP for a special issue of Interactions: Studies in Communication & Culture

Special Issue topic:  Media’s toxic knowledge: How information (does not) shapes our perception of social uncertainty

Editors: Rita Figueiras, Catholic University of Portugal
Carla Ganito, Catholic University of Portugal

Bravely into the hotbed of uncertainties, as Zygmunt Bauman introduces his 2007 book: ‘Liquid Times. Living in an Age of Uncertainty’, is what this special issue aims to do by discussing social uncertainty and the media. What is here being entitled media’s toxic knowledge is related to what commonly is referred as (mis)information both produced by and circulating in the media. This is the starting point for a three-step approach. First by displacing ‘toxic knowledge’ from the media logic into media social setting; second by approaching social uncertainty as a self-fulfilling prophecy; and third, how this is a matter of democracy understood in its broader sense. In contemporary society, uncertainty has become a mechanism for organizing and understanding social experience (Mythen and Walklate, 2006). According to Giddens (1990), Luhmann (1998) and Bauman (2000), uncertainty, doubt, tension and liquidity are structural in our societies, which find expression through the media that are both an expression of de-contextualization and globalizing tendencies of modernity, as well as instruments of those trends. According to Luhmann (1992: 75), the media have the ‘ability to aggregate and disaggregate the environment’. The novelty and celerity by which themes continuously succeed them, in a ‘communicative network self-dynamically reproduced’, gives continuity to the ‘need for discontinuity’, means that thematization is a set of rules for attention and not for deciding or for taking action (Luhman, 2004). Therefore, the media de-characterization and continuous re-shaping of social problems reflect, first and foremost, modernity’s fluidity. And as Bauman says (2000: 1), descriptions of fluids are all snapshots that need a date at the bottom of the picture. Hence, speed, immediacy and treatment of social problems as de-contextualized epiphenomena, fragmented and rootless seem inevitable.

In this framework, this special issue aims at intertwining a set of diversified researches, regarding different cultural contexts; objects of analysis; news, entertainment, online forums, public opinion survey; media analyzed: radio, television, Internet, mobile phones; and methodological approaches: quantitative and qualitative.
Topics of interest for this special issue include but are not limited to:
–          Media Economy;
–          New Media;
–          Health Communication;
–          Media History;
–          Political Communication
–          Culture & Media

Timing, length, style
Please send articles by the 3rd of October 2011 to ritafigueiras@ucp.pt and carla.ganito@ucp.pt. Articles will be evaluated by the editorial committee and anonymously by external referees. The maximum length is around 6000 words.

About the journal
Interactions recognizes the interdisciplinary nature of the fields of media, communication and cultural studies and we therefore encourage diverse themes, subjects, contexts and approaches; empirical, theoretical and historical. Our objective is to engage readers and contributors from different parts of the world in a critical debate on the myriad interconnections and interactions between communication, culture and society at the outset of the twenty first century.
It is our intention to encourage the development of the widest possible scholarly community, both in terms of geographical location and intellectual scope and we will publish leading articles from both established scholars and those at the beginning of their careers.
Particular interests include, but are not limited to, work related to Popular Culture, Media Audiences, Political Economy, Political Communication, Media Institutions and Practices, Promotional Culture, New Media, Migration and Diasporic Studies.

More information is available at:
http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/page/index,name=journalresources/
http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals/view-journal,id=165/

U Oregon job ad

UNIVERSITY OF OREGON
School of Journalism and Communication
Assistant Professor

The University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication seeks up to three outstanding Assistant Professors to join our faculty, carry out scholarly research, and teach in both our undergraduate and graduate programs. The ideal candidates for these tenure-related positions will have a track record of research and university teaching experience in the field of journalism and communication and share our demonstrated commitment to working effectively with students, faculty and staff from diverse backgrounds.  Professional experience aligned with one or more of our undergraduate majors is preferred.  A Ph.D. in a relevant field is required, though ABD may be considered.

We seek colleagues with strong research and teaching interests in fields such as, but not limited to, media history; media effects; gender, diversity and media; international communication (particularly East Asia); communication technology; communication economics; visual communication; and media management.  Media historians are especially encouraged to apply, as are scholars with success in obtaining external funding for their research.  The new colleagues will teach and advise in one or more of our undergraduate majors (Journalism, Public Relations, Advertising, Communication Studies), as well as contribute to core undergraduate coursework relevant to all majors, such as our cross-disciplinary Gateway courses; Media and Society; Understanding Media; Media History; Gender, Diversity and Media; and/or International Communication.  The colleagues will also teach and advise in our master’s and doctoral programs in Communication and Society.  They will also have opportunities to participate in programs at our George S. Turnbull Center in Portland.

We invite applications from qualified candidates who share our commitment to a diverse learning and work environment.  Employment begins September 16, 2012.  For full consideration, applications must be received by November 1, 2011.  The position will remain open until filled.  Please send a letter of interest, CV and contact information for three references to:

Professor Janet Wasko
School of Journalism and Communication
1275 University of Oregon
Eugene OR  97403

American U Beirut job ad

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF BEIRUT
Media Studies
Assistant/Associate/Full professor

The media studies program at the American University of Beirut (AUB) seeks a media educator at the level of Assistant/Associate/Full Professor. The position is to begin September 15, 2012. Appointment is for an initial period of four years. Applicants should have a Ph.D. in media studies, communication, mass communication, anthropology, sociology, or a related field focused on media studies.

For more information on this position and on how to apply, please visit http://www.aub.edu.lb/fas/

All application materials should be received by November 10, 2011, when review of applications will take place.

Hebrew U job ad

THE HEBREW UNIVERSITY OF JERUSALEM
Department of Communication and Journalism
Tenure-Track Research and Teaching Position

The Noah Mozes Department of Communication and Journalism at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem invites outstanding candidates to apply for a tenure-track position starting Fall, 2012. Applicants should hold a Ph.D., or expect to be awarded a doctoral degree by September 2012. Post-doctoral experience is desirable. We particularly encourage applicants with strong research records in the fields of new media, film studies and political communication, although excellent candidates in all areas of communications are invited to apply. The language of instruction is Hebrew, although English is acceptable for an initial period.

Applications should include:
*Curriculum vitae
*An academic biography (2 pages) outlining research interests and plans
*Details of at least two persons who have been asked to send letters of recommendation
*Copies of selected recent publications
*Brief description of potential courses
*Teaching evaluations (if such exist)

Applicants will compete with candidates of other departments in the Faculty of Social Sciences for academic positions. Application materials and/or inquiries should be directed to:

Prof. Menahem Blondheim, Chair (mblond@huji.ac.il).
Department of Communication and Journalism
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Mount Scopus, Jerusalem 91905, Israel

Letters of recommendation should be sent directly to the above address, or to mblond@huji.ac.il.

Deadline for applications: September 15th 2011.

China and international security

Call for contributors

“China and International Security: History, Strategy, and 21st Century Policy”
The purpose of this three-volume book set is to provide in-depth views of China and its security environment – historically, domestically, and culturally. The set seeks cogent analyses of China and its development as a nation-state, including examinations of the Communist Party of China and the People’s Liberation Army. Academics (especially historians and Sinologists) as well as practitioners (civilian and military) are invited to submit original, unpublished one-page proposals (for 5,000 to 7,000-word chapters) along with brief biographies (including full contact information) for consideration. Proposals are kindly requested by September 1, 2011. First draft deadlines are January 2012.

Chief editor
Donovan C. Chau, Ph.D. < dchau@csusb.edu>
Department of Political Science and M.A. program in National Security Studies
California State University, San Bernardino

Bradley U IMC job ad

The Department of Communication seeks a dynamic and creative professor to join a highly productive team of interdisciplinary colleagues to develop a world-class program in integrated marketing communication.  The ideal candidate will embrace a global perspective, cultural diversity, and an understanding of the new digital age of marketing and advertising.  The ideal candidate will be one that reaches across academic disciplines and institutions to collaborate with colleagues in other departments, universities, and corporate entities.  We seek a candidate who can teach and advise students in an integrated communications environment.  Teaching responsibilities include primarily creative new media, but also writing including copywriting, principles and campaigns courses with knowledge and experience in creative new media advertising.  Preference will be given to candidates with the ability to teach additional communication courses such as communication theory and/or communication research methods.

This position may be either a tenure track or temporary appointment.  A joint appointment with a local advertising company is also a possibility.  Appointment and rank are based upon qualifications.

Advertising is one of six concentrations in the Department of Communication along with journalism, public relations, electronic media, organizational communication and sports communication.  The Department of Communication is housed in the Caterpillar Global Communications Center, a multi-million dollar, state-of-the-art facility with digital audio and video editing facilities, universal videoconferencing technology in every classroom, high-end multimedia equipped classrooms and labs, and Internet2 connectivity.

Tenure-track appointment: An appropriate terminal degree in advertising or related field is required for appointment at the rank of tenure-track assistant professor.  Applicants demonstrating progress toward a terminal degree will be considered, but are only eligible for tenure-track status upon completion of the terminal degree.

Temporary (non-tenure-track) appointment: An appropriate Master’s or Bachelor’s degree with significant professional experience is required for appointment at the rank of temporary instructor.  Appointment is for one year with the possibility of annual renewal.  College-level teaching experience is a plus.  Applicants for this position should indicate interest in a possible joint appointment with a local advertising company.

Salary is commensurate with rank, experience and qualifications.  The anticipated start date is August 2012.

Qualified candidates should submit electronically: a letter of application addressing the qualifications for the position, resume/curriculum vita, three current letters of recommendation and tangible evidence of teaching effectiveness (such as student and/or peer evaluations) to:

Dr. Stephen Banning
Advertising Search Committee
Department of Communication
Bradley University
Peoria, IL  61625
sbanning@bradley.edu

Review of applications will begin with the start of the fall semester 2011 and continue until the position is filled.  Employment with Bradley University is contingent upon satisfactory completion of a background check.

Bradley University, highly rated by U.S. News and World Report, is an independent, comprehensive university enrolling 6,000 students, 5,000 in undergraduate programs.  Founded in 1897, it is among the finest universities in the Midwest. Bradley combines the advantages of larger research universities with those of smaller liberal arts colleges.

The Department of Communication, one of the departments in the Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts, is the largest department in the university with more than 550 students.  Concentrations in advertising, journalism, public relations, electronic media, and organizational communication are offered.  The department is housed in the Caterpillar Global Communications Center, a multi-million dollar, state-of-the-art facility.  The facility includes multimedia computer labs, a videoconference center, Internet2 connectivity, digital audio and video editing bays, and high-end multimedia equipped and videoconferencing enabled classrooms.  Peoria is a metropolitan area of 350,000 people located midway between Chicago and St. Louis.  A locally active arts community includes ballet, opera, symphony, and theater.  The region supports two daily newspapers, several weeklies, six UHF television stations, more than two dozen radio stations and two cable companies.  Peoria is home to several companies with international operations and major medical facilities.

Visit Bradley University online at: www.bradley.edu or the Slane College of Communications and Fine Arts at: http://gcc.bradley.edu/slane
Bradley University is an Equal Opportunity/ Affirmative Action Employer.  The administration, faculty and staff are committed to attracting qualified candidates from underrepresented groups.