MIASA: Interdisciplinary Fellows 2024-5 (Ghana)

Fellowships

Call for pre-proposals: MIASA Interdisciplinary Fellow Groups 2024-5, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana. Deadline: 14 August 2023.

The Maria Sibylla Merian Institute for Advanced Studies in Africa (MIASA) is dedicated to research in the Humanities and Social Sciences, with ‘Sustainable Governance’ as its central topic. Their main thematic corridors are conflict and sustainable peace, democracy and environmental transformation. They are also interested in a wide range of intersectional sub-topics, such as landownership, migration and mobility, restitution of cultural objects, African cities, and human rights. MIASA is committed to reduce global asymmetries in knowledge production, to promote female scholarship and to bridge cultural divides.

The institute offers time and space for supporting innovative academic research of top international quality. All MIASA fellowships are residential and mainly focus on onsite reflection, discussion and writing. In addition, MIASA facilitates networking and collaboration amongst leading researchers from Germany, Ghana, other parts of Africa and Europe and elsewhere in the world. The present call is for pre-proposals for Interdisciplinary Fellow Groups (IFGs) for the period from August 15 to December 15, 2024, and from February 1 to May 31, 2025. MIASA hosts two IFGs per year. They are MIASA’s central instrument for fostering original research on ‘Sustainable Governance’ and its connected thematic areas as mentioned above. An IFG brings together a group of four to six fellows, including two co-convenors. One of the two co-convenors is expected to be from the University of Ghana. IFGs are interdisciplinary and international.

Whether to Leave Twitter

About CIDIf you follow the Center for Intercultural Dialogue on Twitter, please read! We are considering leaving the platform, and need to hear from anyone that would inconvenience.

CID has been on Twitter for a decade and currently has 657 followers there, but the promoted tweets are starting to take over our feed. The Center also has a Facebook group (2,001 members), and a LinkedIn group (612 members). It is also possible to directly follow the website as 1,442 people do now by providing your email (in the box on the right side of the page if you view the website on a computer; use the triple bar (≡) at top left if you view it on a phone). Presumably most of our followers on Twitter will be able to follow one of the other platforms.

If you would find that terribly inconvenient (because you’re not on FB or LI, or you don’t wish to receive notifications of posts via email), you need to let us know by sending an email before July 17, 2023. If leaving Twitter would cause difficulty for a sizable group, we will stay – at least for the time being (we cannot promise more). But if we do not hear an outpouring of objections, we will be leaving that platform, and asking you to follow us using any of the other options.

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

AFS: Participant Support Specialist (USA)

“JobParticipant Support Specialist, AFS-USA, New York, NY, USA, remote position. Deadline: posted 21 June 2023, open until filled.

AFS-USA is part of a worldwide network of AFS partner organizations that work together to advance global education and foster meaningful connections across cultures. As the network’s largest partner, AFS-USA works to increase the global competency of U.S. citizens by providing a variety of international and intercultural learning experiences to individuals, families, schools, and communities. We are proud of our Staff from our national office in New York City as well as home offices across the county, who collaborate with our more than 2,000 AFS-USA Volunteers to deliver high quality programs and global education resources. These include immersion-based study abroad experiences in over 40 countries worldwide; opportunities to host foreign AFS exchange students; and global learning workshops and curricula for educators, schools, and businesses.

The Participant Support Teams primary role is maintaining the safety and wellbeing of all participants, while facilitating intercultural learning. The Participant Support Specialist works closely with the Senior Participant Support Specialist (Sr. PSS) and the Participant Support Manager (PSM) in developing and implementing quality support for the hosting and sending programs. The Support Specialist works with the PSM and the Team Development Specialist (TDS) to advise, train, and strengthen their volunteer area teams’ capacity to support participants, host families, natural families, schools, and partners during the intercultural living experience.

Hong Kong Polytechnic: Bilingualism & Communication (Hong Kong)

“JobProfessor / Associate Professor / Assistant Professor in Bilingualism and Communication, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong. Deadline: 8 August 2023.

The Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies seeks to strengthen its impact in Bilingualism and Communication as a broadly defined interdisciplinary area of academic studies, in keeping with the latest theoretical frameworks in Corporate Communication that are informed by exemplary business practices in associated industries worldwide. They aspire to develop academic leadership and groom young researchers to excel in Bilingual Corporate Communication (BCC), where “bilingual” is construed as not only distinct varieties of Chinese and English and the associated cultures specific to the local communities, but also other regional languages and cultures (e.g., Japanese and Korean, among others). Apart from infusing BCC theories and practices in multiple degree pathways at the undergraduate level, their flagship, highly popular MA programme (MABCC) will serve as a platform for disseminating BCC knowledge and influence in not only Hong Kong, but also the Greater Bay Area, elsewhere in Greater China, East Asia, the Asia-Pacific region and beyond.

UNESCO Reimagining Our Futures Together

“UNESCO”

UNESCO Futures of Education Commission. (2021). Reimagining our futures together: A new social contract for education. Paris, France: UNESCO.

UNESCO’s Futures of Education initiative aims to rethink education and shape the future. The initiative is catalyzing a global debate on how knowledge, education and learning need to be reimagined in a world of increasing complexity, uncertainty, and precarity. Over the course of two years and drawing on the inputs of over a million people, an independent International Commission under the leadership of the President of Ethiopia, Her Excellency President Sahle-Work Zewde prepared a global report on the Futures of Education. That report is now available in 12 languages.

Download the full report: Arabic | Bahasa Indonesian | Catalan | Chinese | English | French | Italian | Korean | Latvian | Mongolian | Portuguese | Spanish

[CID was one of the organizations consulted by the initiative, and is acknowledged in the report; see the CID Report for UNESCO Futures of Education for the conclusions of 3 focus groups we organized at their request.]

Justus Liebig U: Studentship in Intercultural Communication & Business 2023 (Germany)

“Studentships“

PHD Candidate and Research Assistant position, Intercultural Communication and Business, Justus Liebig University, Giessen, Germany. Deadline: 18 July 2023.

Founded in 1607, Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU) is a research university rich in tradition. They are currently offering a part-time position (50 %), for a PhD Candidate and Research Assistant in the field of Intercultural Communication and Business. The position is to be filled on a fixed-term basis at the Chair of Intercultural Communication and Business, Department of English at the Faculty of Language, Literature, Culture. As long as the maximum permissible duration of a fixed-term contract is not exceeded, you will be employed for an initial period of 3 years. An extension for up to another 2 years is possible under the above-mentioned condition.

JLU aims to employ more women in academic research. They therefore particularly encourage female candidates to apply. Due to the women’s support plan, there is an obligation to increase the proportion of women. JLU is regarded as a family-friendly university. Applicants with children are very welcome. Applications from disabled people of equal aptitude will be given preference.

Your tasks at a glance:

  • Opportunity for own academic and didactic qualification, activities in research and teaching according to § 72 HessHG
  • Taking on teaching duties according to the teaching obligation ordinance of the state of Hessen
  • Conduct research at the interface of two or more of the following areas: intercultural communication and education, cultural anthropology, intercultural management, international and political communication, migration and diaspora studies – with a focus on China and Asia.
  • Prepare and teach seminars and tutorials in undergraduate and graduate programs: teaching responsi­bilities – totaling two hours per week during each semester – include examination duties and student supervision
  • Develop and conduct a PhD research project
  • Assist the Chair with academic self-administration

CFP Frontiers: Intercultural Communication and International Students

“PublicationCall for papers: Research Topic: Intercultural Communication and International Students, Frontiers in Communication. Deadline: abstract by 10 October 2023, manuscript by 31 March 2024.

This Research Topic to be edited by Jiayi Wang (De Montfort University, UK) and Anastassia Zabrodskaja (Tallinn University, Estonia).

With internationalization high on the agenda of education providers worldwide, the complex relationship between intercultural communication and the international student phenomenon deserves close study.

Being an international student is a great opportunity to be exposed to a new language and culture and to develop intercultural communication skills. Traditionally, the phrase ‘international students’ refers to those who undertake all or part of their education in a country other than their own. For present purposes, though, we adopt a broad definition of the phrase to include transnational education (TNE) students, who are often regarded as international students by their awarding institutions.

The number of international students pursuing tertiary education reached 6.3 million in 2020 (up from 2 million in 2000), and this number continues to grow (UNESCO Institute of Statistics, 2023). The recent decade has also seen a tremendous expansion of TNE, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, both in terms of size and scale. TNE is the delivery of education in a country other than the one in which the degree-granting institution is based. TNE takes many diverse forms, including dual degrees, joint institutes, and international branch campuses, to name but a few. In many cases, students can get a foreign degree without ever leaving their home country or region.

Research on international students is often scattered across different disciplines, including communication, education, psychology, and language and linguistics. The field of intercultural communication (a term often used interchangeably with ‘cross-cultural communication’) investigates how people from different cultural backgrounds communicate. The combination of intercultural communication and international students is a broad and fascinating topic of research. Extant research on the topic has mainly focused on the following areas: international students’ perceptions of intercultural communication, the difficulties faced by international students, and the correlations between different variables; e.g., intercultural communication competence and effectiveness, intergroup anxiety, intercultural sensitivity, attitude towards other cultures, (meta)stereotypes, sensation seeking, ethnocentrism, empathy, mindfulness, and motivation to engage in intercultural communication.

These studies have offered valuable insights into the predictors of intercultural communication competence and effectiveness and the pathways for developing this competence and effectiveness. However, intercultural communication and international students is a complex topic that requires a multifaceted approach that transcends disciplinary boundaries. Research on the topic is lagging behind the growth of student numbers, and there are many gaps and underexplored areas. For example, TNE students have rarely been studied from an intercultural communication perspective, and international students’ perceptions of intercultural communication are much less explored than those of faculty and home students. Additionally, while academic advising has been found to be vital to international student success, academic advisers have reported a lack of institutional training on how to deal with international students. The actual intercultural interactions of, and with, international students have rarely been studied in detail.

Against this background, this Research Topic seeks to create interdisciplinary dialogue and cooperation, exploring the gaps and underexamined areas of intercultural communication and international students. Themes to be addressed include, but are not limited to:

• language and communication
• intercultural communication competence and effectiveness
• intercultural interaction
• international student experience
• transnational education (TNE)
• internationalization.

CFP: BAICE Early Career Conference 2023 (UK but Online)

ConferencesCall for abstracts: British Association for Comparative and International Education Early Career Conference, UK but online, 5-6 August 2023. Deadline: 3 July 2023.

The call for abstracts is now open for The British Association for Comparative International Education (BAICE). The Student Committee warmly welcomes your submissions to the 2023 Annual Early Career conference, ‘Transformative education as a force for change: reflections and experiences from around the world’. The conference will be held over two days, hosted online via Zoom.

They invite submissions from postgraduate students, researchers and practitioners engaged with education research. The conference offers a dynamic and friendly environment for postgraduate researchers to showcase and discuss their research, even if the research is still in early stages. Attendees will be able to listen to colleagues from different areas of the Education Studies field; those presenting will be able to receive feedback in a diverse, constructive and academically rigorous environment. They welcome innovative and creative submissions on any research topic concerned with ‘Transformative education as a force for change: reflections and experiences from around the world.’

Knappitsch Guest Post: The Global Case Study Challenge

Guest Posts
The Global Case Study Challenge: Competencies for the Future of Work in Virtual Environments.
Guest post by Eithne Knappitsch.

The Global Case Study Challenge (GCSC) began as a Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL)/Virtual Exchange program, offering students an authentic and immersive intercultural learning opportunity. As the importance of New Work and remote work contexts grew following COVID, it became clear that students and professionals needed to develop more effective competencies to excel virtual and hybrid work environments. Initial iterations of the GCSC revealed that while students possessed strong digital skills, they frequently lacked essential digital collaboration competencies – the attitude, knowledge, and skills to become high performing teams in diverse, interdisciplinary, and international contexts. Recognizing this gap in competencies needed for future New Work environments and those acquired at higher educational institutions, the need for the GCSC to further develop into a transformative, career-oriented global teaching and learning program became obvious. At the same time, the GCSC management team – a virtual female-led team – became inspired by the potential for virtual exchange to contribute to a paradigm shift in higher educational settings as responsible and sustainable forms of education (and internationalization). The GCSC, over the five consequent iterations from 2018 onward evolved into a transformative program, resulting in the development of the GLOW model. This CID guest post explores how the GCSC GLObal Work (GLOW) model addresses these pressing needs and empowers students and educators with the competencies required to excel in virtual and intercultural work settings.

Download the entire guest post as a PDF.

U Wroclaw: Intercultural Education (Poland)

“JobAssistant Professor of Intercultural Education, Department of Intercultural Education and Social Support Research, Institute of Pedagogy, University of Wroclaw, Poland. Deadline: 30 August 2023.

University of Wroclaw invites applications for the position of assistant professor in the Department of Intercultural Education and Social Support Research, Institute of Pedagogy at the Faculty of Historical and Pedagogical Sciences. Requirements include: Doctoral degree (Ph.D) awarded in a scientific field of social science, discipline of pedagogy; Polish and English proficiency allowing writing scientific publications, participating in conferences, and conducting classes with students.