Director’s activities – Page 3 – Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Roundtable on Intercultural Dialogue in Asia (Macau)

Roundtable portrait — Left to right, front row: Croucher, Sandel, Leeds-Hurwitz, L. Chen; middle row: V. Chen, Dawis, Lijadi, P. Lu, Huang, Jiang; back row: Buttny, Corbett, Witteborn, Young

The Roundtable on Intercultural Dialogue in Asia was held at the University of Macau on March 28-30, 2014. The organizers were Todd Sandel (Communication, University of Macau), John Corbett (English, University of Macau) and Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz (Center for Intercultural Dialogue). By design, this was a small event, designed to answer the question of whether, and in what ways, intercultural dialogue might be a useful term for discussing intercultural interactions in Asia. Sessions focused on such topics as what concepts aid in the study of intercultural dialogue, how intercultural competence fits with intercultural dialogue, and what needs to happen next, and various publication outlets. At least one special journal issue will result.

Martin Montgomery (Dean, Faculty of Arts and Humanities) officially welcomed participants on behalf of the University of Macau. Participants included Saskia Witteborn (Chinese University of Hong Kong), Richard Buttny (Syracuse University, currently doing research in Malaysia), Stephen Croucher (University of Jyväskylä, Finland), Ling Chen (Hong Kong Baptist University), Jiang Fei (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences), Huang Kuo (International Publishing Group, Beijing), Aimee Dawis (University of Indonesia), Vivian Hsueh Hua Chen (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, and University of Tasmania-Launceston, Australia), Peih-ying (Peggy) Lu (Kaohsiung Medical University, Taiwan), Melody Lu (Sociology, University of Macau), Priscilla Young (Peking University HSBC Business School, Shenzhen), and Anastasia Aldelina Lijadi (Psychology, University of Macau). Multiple masters and doctoral students in both Communication (Julie Zhong, Fiona Ng, Hazel Wan) and English (Carl, Dai Guangrong and Betty, Liu Suiling) managed some of the logistics, helping international visitors get around the city, picking up lunches, and serving as photographers and videographers. Administrative Staff, Barbara Chin (Communication) and Tina Chao (English) also spent many hours preparing documents and making travel, hotel, and other arrangements.

The highlight of the conference (at least for me) was gaining a sense of intercultural issues across Macau, Hong Kong, Taiwan, mainland China, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, and simultaneously across disciplinary, theoretical and methodological boundaries. Since this was a small group, there were lots of opportunities for participants to connect, and at least one journal special issue and several new research collaborations are being planned, as well as a future conference. Most immediately, researcher profiles for more of the roundtable participants already are being posted to this website, and half a dozen have committed to writing Key Concepts in Intercultural Dialogue, to be posted over the next few weeks and months.

A short highlights video was prepared and is readily available. In addition, Aimee Dawis sent in a photo of coverage about the Roundtable in the International Daily News, a Chinese newspaper with the highest circulation in Indonesia:

Thanks to Aimee for arranging for this article, and to the University of Macau for being such a wonderful host institution for this event.

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

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University of Otago 2014

On March 21, 2014 I presented “Constructing frames: Goffman, Bateson, and frame analysis as a neglected part of social construction theory” at the University of Otago, in Dunedin, New Zealand. This was my second talk at Otago (description of the first was posted in 2012). Last time I was hosted by the Department of Languages and Cultures; this time by Media, Film and Communication.

Despite meeting late on a Friday afternoon, there was a large crowd, so local dedication to scholarly conversations is impressive. A personal first for me was having someone, in this case Rosemary Overell, tweet about my talk as it was occurring.

The fact that faculty and graduate students from across the campus attended on a Friday afternoon was even more impressive. In addition to multiple members of the Media, Film and Communication department, I talked to people from Theatre Studies, Sociology, Anthropology, Tourism, German, the Higher Education Development Centre, Applied Sciences, the Centre for Science Communication, and several other parts of the university.

Leeds-Hurwitz, Bourk — Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz and Michael Bourk

My thanks to my host, Michael Bourk, who organized the event, to Vijay Devadas, Head of Department, who supported it with a generous reception and dinner, and to department staff members Maureen and Paulette for managing the details. In the days before and after the talk, I met with several graduate students and faculty members about a variety of other subjects, ranging from intercultural communication to ethnographic methods. I look forward to continued conversations on these and other topics, and hope to have the chance to visit the University of Otago again in the future.

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Sydney 2014

On the way between the US and New Zealand, I was able to stop in Sydney, Australia for a week. Being there permitted me to connect with two people I’d never met but only talked to via email, and one I had not seen in over a decade. Between the three, there was a wide range of interests and career stages.

Lily A. Arasaratnam is Senior Lecturer in Intercultural Communication and Program Director for an MA program at Alphacrucis College in Parramatta, just outside Sydney. I “met” Lily when we both participated in an online dialogue about intercultural communication for the Journal of International and Intercultural Communication which will shortly be published. Her primary research specialization is intercultural communication competence. She is an intercultural expert both because of her PhD and her personal experience: born in Sri Lanka, raised in the Maldives, with US degrees, and now living in Australia, she lives many of the dualities others only try to understand.

Olga Kozar is currently completing her PhD in Applied Linguistics at Macquarie University in Sydney. Her research is on private one-on-one English as a second language lessons conducted via videoconferencing tools such as Skype, especially when learners and teachers have different cultural backgrounds. In her spare time she runs such a language school – with about 1000 students! She was quite helpful in providing technology-related ideas, given that she’s become such an expert. I was delighted to discover that she and Christine Develotte, a colleague from Lyon, France, who does similar work with teaching French online and who I introduced her to via email, have now met in person as well.

Penman, Leeds-Hurwitz — Robyn Penman, Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz

I was introduced to Robyn Penman by Barnett Pearce so long ago we don’t remember when it would have been; it was a pleasure to have a chance to catch up on the past decade. Currently active with the CMM Institute, formerly with the Communication Research Institute of Australia, Robyn is a pioneering communication scholar, widely respected both for her ability to state theory clearly (as in her early Communication Processes and Relationships, or the more recent Reconstructing Communication) and to apply that theory to practical communication problems (as in Designing Information for People, a co-edited volume). Robyn suggested that, given my current efforts to connect international scholars, my name should now be changed to Ariadne, for her association with webs and weaving.

I look forward to continuing the conversations with all these scholars.

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

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Harron Chair talk: Intercultural Dialogue

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YSQPcEFp48%20

On November 11, 2013, I presented the Harron Family Endowed Chair Lecture entitled “Intercultural Dialogue: Who Needs It? Who Promotes It? Who Studies It?” This is the one public lecture expected of the Harron Chair at Villanova University, and this semester I serve in that position. College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean Jean Ann Linney provided a brief history of the Harron Family Endowed Chair for the audience, and Dr. Maurice Hall, Communication Department Chair, introduced me. There was a large crowd (more than expected, about 75 – sorry about the lack of chairs for the last dozen to come!) and good questions from not only faculty members but also students. Thanks to Chad Fahs for videotaping, and Minh Cao who set up a new YouTube channel for the Center (more about that in a separate post), you can see an excerpt of the talk (above).

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

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University at Albany

On October 18, 2013 I gave a talk at the University at Albany, State University of New York, entitled “Intercultural Dialogue: Who Needs it? Who Promotes it? Who Studies it?”

My thanks to Prof. Teresa Harrison for organizing the event, and to Dr. Mihye Seo for integrating my talk into her Proseminar. While there I was able to catch up with several colleagues who I have known for many years (including Profs. Anita Pomerantz, Robert Sanders and Annis Golden) as well as meet several I had not yet met (Drs. Emilie Gould, Matthew Matsaganis).

I also had the chance to talk with some of the graduate students, including Erting “Sa Sa” Sa and Sunny Zhao, below.

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz
Director, Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Villanova University – Harron Chair in Comm

For the fall semester 2013, I will be the Harron Family Endowed Chair in Communication at Villanova University, outside Philadelphia, PA. I will teach an undergraduate seminar on Socialization to Cultural Identity, and a graduate seminar on Social Construction Theory. I will also give a public lecture during the semester on intercultural dialogue. I will remain Director of the Center for Intercultural Dialogue simultaneously, as this is a temporary assignment.

This endowed chair rotates, so that a different senior faculty member in Communication is appointed each year for fall semester. Dr. Raka Shome held the position in 2011, and Dr. Yves Winkin held it in 2012; I will be the third to serve in this position. Those interested in applying in future should look for a call for applications, typically issued in August or September for the following year.

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Erving Goffman book-collaborative project

One of the international collaborative projects that developed as a result of my 2009 stay at the Collegium de Lyon (France) was a book on Erving Goffman with Prof. Yves Winkin, of the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, that has been in process for several years. That book has just been published.

Winkin, Y., & Leeds-Hurwitz, W. (2013). Erving Goffman: A critical introduction to media and communication theory. New York: Peter Lang.

My thanks to Yves Winkin for inviting me to co-author the book; to Dave Park, the series editor, for considering Goffman an essential communication theorist; and to all the editorial staff at Peter Lang, who were quite efficient once we submitted the manuscript.

Although Erving Goffman never claimed to be a media or communication scholar, his work is definitely relevant to, and has already served as a substantial resource for, those who are. This is the first detailed presentation and analysis of his life and work intended specifically for a communication audience. While primarily an introduction to Goffman’s work, those already familiar with his ideas will also learn something new. In addition to summarizing Goffman’s major concepts and his influence on other scholars, the book includes an intellectual biography, explication of his methods, and an example of how to extend his ideas. Readers are invited to consider Goffman as a lens through which to view much of the pattern evident in the social world. Goffman’s work always appealed to the general public (several of his books became bestsellers), and so this book has implications for those who are interested in the role of media or communication in their own lives as well as those who study it professionally.

For those interested, the book is available either directly from Peter Lang, or from Amazon.

ICA 2013

On June 17, 2013, I was one of three co-authors of a paper entitled “Robert E. Park’s contribution to the history of intercultural communication” for the New Histories of Communication Study Preconference, at the International Communication Association convention in London. My co-authors were Filipa Subtil and José Luis Garcia, who I met last year while in Portugal. Dave Park, Peter Simonson and Philip Lodge did a great job of organizing the preconference. A group photo of 60 of the 80 participants is available here.

And after the preconference came the conference proper. ICA has really worked on becoming a more truly international organization (it’s now up to about 45% international members). As a result, this conference was the perfect ending for the last six months of travel because I connected again with other scholars I had last met in the countries where they live and work: China (Jiang Fei and Kuo Huang), Saila Poutiainen (Finland), John Wilson (Northern Ireland), Saskia Witteborn and Ling Chen (Hong Kong), Todd Sandel (Macau), Tamar Katriel, Esther Schely-Newman and Ifat Maoz (Israel), Cindy Gallois and Jeff Pittam (Australia). And Casey Lum, who I last met in Hong Kong, though he lives in the US. Of course, I also met a variety of friends and colleagues, both international and from the US (Richard Buttny, Theresa Castor, Don Ellis, Larry Gross, Beth Haslett, Evelyn Ho, Klaus Krippendorff, Dave Park, Jeff Pooley, Jeff Robinson, Karen Tracy and Bob Craig, Steve Wilson, Cynthia Stohl, Bill Eadie, Natasha Shrikant, François Cooren (Canada), Akiba Cohen (Israel), Olga Ivanovna Matyash (Russia), among many others – sorry not to be able to name everyone!), as well as several directly connected with this Center or the Council that is its parent organization (Linda Steiner, Brenda Berkelaar, Michael Haley). And I was glad to discover new international colleagues (Sheila Lodge, UK; Marion Wrenn, now at Princeton, but shortly to be in Abu Dhabi; John Laprise, Qatar; Zrinjka Peruško, Croatia; Boguslawa Dobek-Ostrowska, Poland; Raul Fuentes Navarro, Mexico; Peter Putnis, Australia, among others). As a result, some new researcher profiles and guest posts will be appearing on this site over the next month or so. Some of the conversations were about the possibilities permitted by social media and new publishing choices, so stay tuned for additions to this site as a result.

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

IUFM d’Auvergne

I have just spent a delightful week at the Institut Université Formation des Maîtres (IUFM) d’Auvergne, part of the Université Blaise Pascal de Clermont-Ferrand, in France. While there, I worked with three different groups. On June 4, 2013, I gave a talk and workshop for a general audience of faculty and graduate students entitled “If Learning Matters, How do I Teach Differently?” On June 5, I first worked with the faculty involved with the new diplôme enseigner dans le supérieur (diploma for higher education pedagogy, the equivalent of a certificate in the US), and then presented a talk entitled “The Transformation of US Higher Education Pedagogy” to the students in that diploma. The talks were related to the book co-authored as a result of a stay at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, published last fall, entitled Learning Matters. My focus was on the ways in which the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) has changed teaching and learning in the US, and what implications these changes have for France. Given the new diploma at IUFM, there was interest in learning about the various techniques of student centered learning.

My thanks especially to Prof. Didier Jourdan, the Director of IUFM d’Auvergne, for inviting me, and to Dr. Nathalie Younès, Maître de conférences, the responsable (person in charge of) the new diploma, for organizing the events.

WLH at UBP — Younès, Leeds-Hurwitz, Raphael Coudert, Jourdan

Since I was in Clermont-Ferrand for a week, there was also time to see some of the attractions in the area, including not only small medieval villages, but also lakes, and a row of mostly dormant volcanoes (especially Puy-de-Dôme, the tallest) and the town of Royat (a spa town with thermal springs, due to the volcanoes, and also an excellent restaurant, Le Paradis, with a great view of the region).

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

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