Category: Profiles

Li Li Profile

ProfilesLi Li (Ph.D., Ohio University) is an assistant professor in the Department of Communication and Journalism at University of Wyoming.

Her areas of interest include various aspects of instructional communication and intercultural communication. Specifically, She is dedicated to contributing to the theoretical and empirical understanding of how teachers, especially diverse teachers, plan their communication to enhance various types of student learning in different settings.

 

Recent publications:

Qian, Y., & Li, L. (2017). Student off-task electronic multitasking predictors: Scale development and validation. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 17 (2), 53-73.

Chen, Y. W., Li, L., & Lou, S. (2016). “The superhero in our hearts is Chairman Mao”: The structurating of Chinese sojourners’ conceptualizations of (super)heroes identities. The Howard Journal of Communications, 27 (3), 218-235.

Jia, M., Li, L., & Titsworth, S. (2015). Teaching as emotional work: Instructor’s empathy and students’ motives to communicate out of class. The Electronic Journal of Communication, 25 (3-4).

Li, L., & Titsworth, S. (2015). Student misbehaviors in online classrooms: Scale development and validation. The American Journal of Distance Education, 29, 41-55.

Li, L., Chen, Y. W., & Nakazawa, M. (2013). Voices of Chinese Web-TV audiences: A case of applying Uses and Gratifications theory to examine popularity of Prison Break in China. China Media Research, 9, 63-74.

Li, L., Mazer, J., & Ju, R. (2011). Resolving international teaching assistant language inadequacy through dialogue: Challenges and opportunities for clarity and credibility. Communication Education, 60, 461-478.

Work for CID:
Li Li has served as a reviewer for Simplified Chinese translations.

Roxanna Senyshyn Profile

ProfilesRoxanna Senyshyn is Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics and Communication Arts and Sciences at Pennsylvania State University, Abington College.

Roxanna SenyshynHer teaching and research focus on intercultural communication and second language learning and teaching. Specifically, her research interests include intercultural and transformative learning in teacher education, intercultural competencies for academic and professional purposes, and ESL pedagogy and assessment with a focus on academic writing.

One strand of Dr. Senyshyn’s research examines the need to prepare both preservice and inservice teachers for working with English language learners in multilingual and multicultural classroom settings.  Through community-based scholarship, she investigates the impact of intercultural engagement and learning on different constituents. From the student perspective, she has studied the impact of intercultural learning through engagement of domestic students with their international peers in semester long projects. She has studied this influence through the lens of Mezirow’s transformative learning theory, which encourages critical reflection and examination of personal beliefs and actions to allow for a change in perspectives and behavior. She has also used transformative learning framework in a faculty professional development context as an assessment tool to investigate the impact of professional development on faculty practices surrounding teaching and learning in a linguistically and culturally diverse college classroom.

The other strand of Dr. Senyshyn’s research focuses on intercultural learning and intercultural competence development to aid in the process of adjustment and acculturation of international students. The primary focus for this scholarship has been on identifying challenges that international students experience when adjusting to both academic and social demands in U.S. colleges and universities and assessing academic support to aid these students in their successful transition. In one of her recent projects, she examined the impact of first-year seminar experience and out-of-class engagement with domestic students on international students’ intercultural competence development.

In addition to her experience in academia, Dr. Senyshyn has been a consultant for BGRS Intercultural and Language Training doing training and coaching for inbound and outbound expatriates and their families in the greater Philadelphia area (Pennsylvania, U.S.).

Selected publications:

Senyshyn, R. with Lypka, A. (2024). Voices of courage and vulnerability: Teaching English in a society at war (Ukraine 2022-2023). Sunshine TESOL Press.

Senyshyn, R. (2024). Humanizing and amplifying voices of displaced children: A narrative of an eight-year-old’s journey and integration. In T.M. Shah (Ed.), Children and youth as ‘sites of resistance’ in armed conflict (pp. 35-54). London, UK: Emerald Publishing.

Han, S. & Senyshyn, R. (2024). Dynamic intercultural learning and collaboration: transforming language teacher perspectives and practices. Journal for Multicultural Education, 18(4), 1-19.

Senyshyn, R.M. (2024). Immigrant families and communities as agents of interculturality in pre-service teacher education. In A.F. Selvi & C. Kocaman (Eds.), International perspectives on critical English language teacher education: Theory and practice (pp. 229-235). New York, NY: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Senyshyn, R. M. (2023). Translanguaging as transformation: The collaborative construction of new linguistic realities. Language and Intercultural Communication, 23(1), 140-142.

Senyshyn, R. M. (2021). Navigating linguistic and cultural identities: (Re)positioning oneself through critical awareness. In A. F. Selvi & B. Yazan (Eds.), Language teacher education for Global Englishes: A practical resource book (pp. 188-196). New York, NY: Routledge.

Senyshyn, R.M. & Martinelli, A. (2021). Learning to support and sustain cultural (and linguistic) diversity: Perspectives of preservice teachers. Journal for Multicultural Education, 15(1). 20-37.

Senyshyn, R. M. (2020). Transformative intercultural learning: Research to practice in teacher education. In C.E. Poteau (Ed.), Pedagogical approaches to intercultural competence development (151-173). Newcastle upon Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.

Senyshyn, R. M. (2019). A first-year seminar course that supports the transition of international students to higher education and fosters the development of intercultural communication competence. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 48(2), 150–170.

Senyshyn, R. M., & Smith, P. (2019). Global awareness dialogue project: Exploring potential for faculty transformation through professional development. Journal of Transformative Education, 17(4), 318–336.

Senyshyn, R.M. (2019). A first-year seminar course that supports the transition of international students to higher education and fosters the development of intercultural communication competence. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 48(2), 150-170.

Senyshyn, R.M. (2019). Facilitating transformative intercultural learning. TESOL Connections, February 2019.

Senyshyn, R.M. (2018). Teaching for transformation: Converting intercultural experience of preservice teachers into intercultural learning. Intercultural Education, 29(2), 163-184.

Senyshyn, R.M. (2018). Facilitating preservice teachers’ transformation through intercultural learning: Reflections from a self-study. In J. Sharkey & M. M. Peercy (Eds.), Self-study of language and literacy teacher education practices: Culturally and linguistically diverse contexts (pp.167-184). London, UK: Emerald Group Publishing.

Chamberlin-Quinlisk, C. R. & Senyshyn, R. (2012). Language teaching and intercultural education: Making critical connections. Intercultural Education, 23, 15-23.

Senyshyn, R.M. & Chamberlin-Quinlisk, C.R. (2009).  Assessing effective partnerships in intercultural education: Transformative learning as a tool for evaluation. Communication Teacher, 23 (4), 167-178.

Senyshyn, R.M.  (2001).  Learning cross-cultural competencies: Implications for international management education.  Perspectives in Higher Education Reform.  Proceedings of the 11th Annual International Conference of Alliance of Universities for Democracy, Volume 10, Sofia, Bulgaria.

Senyshyn, R.M., Warford, M., & Zhan, J.  (2000).  Academic and non-academic issues of adjustment to American higher education.  Journal of International Education, 30(1) 17-35.

Work for CID:
Roxanna Senyshyn translated KC3: Intercultural Competence, KC5: Intercultural Communication, and KC19: Multiculturalism into Ukrainian. She also has served as a reviewer of Ukrainian translations. She will also be participating in an expert group organized by the Center.

Kenneth Baxter Wolf Profile

ProfilesKenneth Baxter Wolf is the John Sutton Miner Professor of History and Professor of Classics at Pomona College. He is also the creator and coordinator of the Late Antique-Medieval Studies (LAMS) program.

Kenneth WolfHe specializes in the history of the medieval Mediterranean, with particular interest in two areas: Christian sanctity and early Christian views of Islam. Among his publications are: Christian Martyrs in Muslim Spain (Cambridge, 1988); Making History: The Normans and their Historians in Eleventh-century Italy (Pennsylvania, 1995); and The Poverty of Riches: St. Francis Reconsidered (Oxford, 2003). He has also produced four book-length translations (from Latin): Conquerors and Chroniclers of Early Medieval Spain (Liverpool University Press, 1990; rev. 1999); The Deeds of Count Roger of Calabria and Sicily and of His Brother Duke Robert Guiscard (University of Michigan Press, 2005); The Life and Afterlife of St. Elizabeth of Hungary: Testimony from her Canonization Hearings (Oxford University Press, 2011); and The Eulogius Corpus (Liverpool University Press, 2019).

Work for CID:
Kenneth Baxter Wolf wrote KC82: Convivencia.

Yan Sun Profile

ProfilesYan Sun gained her Ph.D. in English Literature at Shanghai International Studies University. She is a Judicial Master at the Law School of Fudan University.

Yan Sun

In 2007-2008 she was Fulbright visiting scholar at Mississippi Valley State University, and in 2014-2015 visiting scholar at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, City University of New York.  She is a certified Standard Chinese Test Examiner at China Language Test Center (Shanghai). Her research interests focus on law, literature and legal history.

Recent Publications:

Sun, Y. (2015).  Britain and Western Africa ［殖民与后殖民时期英国与英属西非各国之间的关系]. In Cao & Deming (Eds.), EU and Africa from Historical and Cultural Perspectives（pp. 160-168).  Shanghai:  Shanghai Foreign Education Press.

Sun, Y. (2015). Judicial realism and William Brown’s Clotel. English and American Literary Studies (英美文学论丛), 252-263.

Sun, Y. (2015). Afanti and his family series (Translated, 4 books). Shanghai: Shanghai Foreign Education Press.

Sun, Y. (2015 ) Afanti and Little Donkey Series (Authored, 3 books). Sudan: Fudan University Press.

Sun, Y. (2014). Little Cricket Gery series (Translated, 12 books). China Technology Press.

Sun, Y. (2008). Southern American culture series [美国南方文化]. Teach Yourself English［英语自学], Issues 7-12, pp. 19-21; 18-19; 20-21; 17-18; 20-21; 17-19.

Work for CID:

Yan Sun has translated KC75: Sulh-i-kul, KC76: Intercultural Sustainability, KC77: Negotiation, KC78: Language and Intercultural Communication, KC79: Social Cohesion, KC80: Cultural Discourse Analysis, and KC81: Dialogue as a Space of Relationship into Simplified Chinese.

Akari Takenishi Profile

ProfilesAkari Takenishi has recently completed a Master’s degree in International and Intercultural Communication at Royal Roads University in Canada.

Akari Takanishi photoShe earned her Bachelor’s degree in Geography, focusing on the cultural and social aspects of Geography at the University of Victoria. She is interested in studying multiculturalism in Canada. Examining her personal experiences as an international student from Japan, she wrote about the influences of multiculturalism on self-representation of identity in society. While completing her Master’s, she also served as research assistant for a study examining the impacts of social media on higher education.

Akari has served as an interpreter and translator, believing that the power of knowledge is limitless and translation is one of the most influential ways to make knowledge reach a greater audience. She has translated several TED talks into Japanese, including:

  • “You don’t need an app for that” By Toby Shapshak
  • “Don’t insist on English” By Patricia Ryan
  • “How to air-condition outdoor spaces” By Wolfgang Kessling
  • “Learning from Sherman the shark” by Jim Toomey
  • “The economic injustice of plastic” by Van Jones

Having grown up in a small village in Japan, she appreciates nature and enjoys growing plants. She became involved in her family tea farm as a distributor dealing with a local tea shop in Canada. Her life has brought her unexpected opportunities and excitement and she feels fortunate to be surrounded by friends, family and mentors who support her personal life as well as academic pursuits. Her academic interests include:

  • Designing a platform where small farmers around the world can share their knowledge and experience with sustainable farming methods, resource management, and reliable market building.
  • Investigating the role of eco-politics in international relations and how it challenges international relations theory in global environmental conflicts.
  • Investigating the academic language proficiency of international graduate students studying in North America and the accuracy of scores of English proficiency tests in portraying academic language skills.

Akari is currently increasing her translation skills, focusing on articles and journals related to intercultural communication and competence. She would like to connect with any individuals or groups who share similar academic interests to discuss future projects and opportunities. As a recent graduate, she is excited to share her knowledge and skills, and learn more from others, hoping that she can be a part of a positive change for a socially and environmentally sustainable future.

Work for CID:
Akari Takenishi wrote KC92: Kintsugi, and also translated it into Japanese.

Yan Qiu Profile

ProfilesYan Qiu holds an M.A. in Intercultural and International Communication from Royal Roads University, and is currently a Ph.D. student in the Department of Sociology and Legal Studies at the University of Waterloo, both in Canada. She has a solid academic foundation in intercultural communication, media studies, and cultural theory.

Currently, Yan applies her expertise as a Graphic Design Consultant, creating visual content for academic dissemination. In addition, she works as an AI Writing Expert, providing linguistic and cultural insights to help develop AI language models.

Yan utilizes social media to craft engaging narratives that foster audience connection and enhance brand visibility, using digital platforms as a tool for meaningful interaction and community building. Yan is also a member of the Certified Management Accountant Association, leveraging her knowledge in financial management and analysis to bring an interdisciplinary perspective to her academic and professional work.

Previously, as a research assistant at Royal Roads University, Yan worked on projects related to Chinese media history, literature, and industry practices, her research has been integrated into academic course materials.

Yan has travelled extensively, exploring numerous countries and cities, and immersing herself in diverse cultures, languages, and cuisines. These journeys have enriched her academic research and helped her develop a deeper understanding of how media and communication intersect with cultural identities.

Work for CID:

Yan Qiu has translated KC1: Intercultural Dialogue, KC5: Intercultural Communication, KC10: Cross-Cultural Dialogue, KC11: Intercultural Discourse and Communication, KC17: Multilingualism, KC19: Multiculturalism, KC22: Cultural Identity, KC25: Metacommunication, KC95: Transnational Media, KC99: Translanguaging, and KC100: Transcultural Communication into Simplified Chinese. Starting in 2024, she took on a role as the Center’s graphic design consultant, and has done the necessary work to revise the original designs for the French, German, and Italian translations of the CID Posters.

Inga Milēviča Profile

Profiles

Inga Milēviča was born and lives in Latvia. She has a Ph.D. in contrastive and comparative linguistics.

Inga Milevica

She currently serves as Docent at Alberta College, The University College of Economics and Culture, and Riga Technical University (academic courses: Rhetoric and Presentation Skills, Introduction into Communication Theory, Business Ethics, Corporate Culture, Business Communication and professional Ethics, Stylistics, and Culture of Latvian Language), and has been Guest Lecturer at Comenius University (Bratislava, Slovakia); Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest (Hungary); Eurasian National University (Astana, Kazakhstan); Uniwersytet Łódzki, (Lodz, Poland); Universidade do Minho, (Braga, Portugal). Since 2014 she has been a member of the Association for Business Communication (ABC); since 2016 she has been a member of the Liaison Committee of ABC. In 2014 she received one of the CID Micro-grants funded by ABC, for travel to a conference in Japan.

Milevica is the author of 3 monographs and more than 100 articles in comparative linguistics, cinematic text and translation and gender journalism. Some of her published papers include:

Milevica, I. (2014). Cinematic text and translations: Film adaptations. British Journal of Science, Education and Culture, 1(5), 8-15.

Milēviča, I. (2017). American cinematic text and translation. European Journal of Literature and Linguistics, 38-44.

Milēviča, I. (2018). Study tours and generation Y: Opportunities and challenges. Евразийский Союз Ученых, 11 (56), 3-6.

Milēviča, I. (2018) Power point presentation and the image of high school teacher. Proceedings of Academics World International Conference, Tashkent, 1-7.

Work for CID:

Inga Milēviča wrote Constructing Intercultural Dialogues #8: A Flying Miracle. She has also translated KC5: Intercultural Communication and KC55: Stereotypes into Russian, and KC5: Intercultural Communication and KC55: Stereotypes into Latvian. She received a micro-grant for travel to Japan from CID, funded by the Association for Business Communication.

Marika Preziuso Profile

Profiles Marika Preziuso is Associate Professor of World Literature at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She holds a Ph.D. in Literature from the Caribbean Diaspora and an M.A. in Gender, Society and Culture, both from the University of London, UK.

Marika Preziuso

She writes: I teach 20th century and contemporary postcolonial literature, particularly by migrant and diasporic writers, and speculative fiction of the uncanny, magic realism and Afrofuturism.  The transnational scope of my classes actively invites students to cultivate the skill of intercultural understanding, specifically for visual artists and designers. In summer 2019 I designed and taught a graduate seminar titled “Intercultural Lab for Artists,” which focused on the intersections of craft, world, and self.

My working definition of Intercultural Understanding is: the orientation to any meaningful encounter across differences in which all parties involved recognize each other’s complexities, specificity, and dignity, and choose to engage with them from a self-reflective, dynamic and culturally responsive place.

At MassArt, I am the organizer of Creative Counterpoints,an annual series in its fourth year, devoted to the intersections of narratives of creativity and difference as investigated by visual artists, writers, public intellectuals, and other culture makers.

My academic research examines the intercultural pedagogies that result from transnational visual and literary narratives. These employ strategies of resistance and “opacity” to critique and expand Western imaginaries of “otherness” and create syncretic safe and radical spaces for their authors and their art.

My most recent publication is my conversation with artist Wangechi Mutu, titled “Is America Really Full?”, which is forthcoming in Transition, the magazine of the Hutchins Center for African and African-American Research at Harvard University.

I am a published poet and a RYT yoga instructor and meditation guide. My poetry stems from an intentional practice of “counterpoint”. As an immigrant woman, an academic of diaspora studies, a white “other” in a sea of American whiteness, I navigate layers of difference at times as a deficit, at times as an excess, a surplus. My poetry stems from this constant, exhausting and yet rewarding process of counterpoint, an alchemy, a (mis)translation. These qualities are both my curse and the lens through which I observe and make sense of the world, from the space of a sideway outsider, and suspicious insider space.

Outside Massart, I lead creative workshops in partnership with local communities in Boston to weave the practices of meditation, journaling, story-telling and verse in translation as gateways to explore our emotions and experiences as honorable and to practice holding space for them with curiosity, compassion, and a sense of humor. I particularly welcome the opportunity to work with creatives who straddle languages, cultures, and complex personal histories and support them in the (re)kindling of their creative light.

Academic website

Creative writing workshops

Work for CID:
Marika Preziuso offered her students credit if they would create potential CID Posters.

Lauren Mark Profile

ProfilesLauren Mark is a doctoral student and Graduate Teaching Associate at the Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University. Lauren is currently researching the possibility of bringing Asian epistemologies to Western contexts.

Lauren Mark

She is a certified Civil Dialogue Facilitator and holds an M.Ed in Educational Organization, Leadership and Policy, an M.A. in Dance, and a B.A. in English Literature and French. Prior to joining Hugh Downs, Lauren worked as a co-founder and project manager of two cross-cultural learning organizations in Taipei, Taiwan – Becoming, 緣創an intercultural development platform, and the East West Culture Project. Lauren has also worked as a translator and interpreter in Taiwan and Israel across a variety of business and artistic sectors.Rooted in her experiences in the field, Lauren’s general research interests focus on identity shifts in acculturation. Her studies focus on the intersection of ethnic, linguistic and performative factors in acculturation, as well as how local cultures influence people’s ways of being.

Pedagogically, Lauren explores innovative means to bring embodied self-reflexivity to classroom contexts, within courses such as Communication and Creativity, Intercultural Communication, and Identity, Performance, and Communication. Her work in this arena began with her thesis work, Visible Histories, in which she explored how the sharing of embodied reminiscence and the collective physical reconstruction of memories served as a meeting ground for multiple generations exploring the art of dance. Lauren continues to experiment with ways that purposeful nonverbal communication can enhance reflexivity and promote collective care. This is an extension of her previous work in Taiwan, where she managed creative interdisciplinary labs and choreographed works that tested the boundaries between audience and performers.

Publications:

Mark, L. (2019). An Exploratory study of part time minorities: Finding home as a minority member. Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, 3. doi: 10.1080/17475759.2019.1602071

Wells, T., Mark, L., and Sandoval, J. (2019). Affect, space and the everyday: A reconsideration of waste in academic inquiry. Taboo: The Journal of Culture and Education. Special Ed. Waste. [Manuscript accepted].

Ray, C. D., Floyd, K., Mongeau, P. A., Mark, L., Shufford, K. N., & Niess, L. C. (2019). Planning improves vocal fluency and appearance of concern when communicating emotional support. Communication Research Reports, 36, 57-66. doi: 10.1080/08824096.2018.1560251

Brezis, R. S., Singhal, N., Daley, T., Barua, M., Piggot, J., Chollera, S., Mark, L., & Weisner, T. (2016). Self- and other-descriptions by individuals with autism spectrum disorder in Los Angeles and New Delhi: Bridging cross-cultural psychology and neurodiversity. Culture and Brain, 4(2), 113-133.

Work for CID:
Lauren Mark wrote Constructing Intercultural Dialogues #7: When the East Meets the Middle East.

Gabriel Furmuzachi Profile

ProfilesGabriel Furmuzachi has a Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Vienna (Austria).

Gabriel Furmuzachi

His academic work deals with issues such as multiculturalism and cosmopolitanism, language learning, communication and narrative identity. His present research interests gravitate around the idea of dialogue as a means of bringing cultures closer and of cosmopolitanism (both in its guise as identity and responsibility and as moral and institutional cosmopolitanism). He also has written essays about metaphors and emotions, the accommodationist use of reason in Canadian philosophy, the relationship between reason and nature, aesthetics and more.His non-academic work consists in surveying the international fine art trade (with emphasis on Eastern European art), buying and selling nineteenth and twentieth century paintings.

He is also involved in a series of projects spread on a wide cultural spectrum including, for example, Space and Place (a non-profit group based in Vienna, Austria, focused on urbanism and social interventions aiming at promoting cultural and social diversity in the city), Liternautica (a Romanian literature portal where he is part of the editorial team, encouraging young and established Romanian writers and building bridges between literary traditions) and Revista Timpul (where he is contributing with interviews and essays on various themes).

Work for CID:

Gabriel Furmuzachi wrote a guest post, Migration, Language and Dialogue, and conducted an interview: Vienna Coffeehouse Conversations: An interview with Eugene Quinn. He also translated KC1: Intercultural Dialogue, KC3: Intercultural Competence, and KC16: Migration into Romanian.