Social Service, Daily Routine, and Intercultural Adaptation

“Associate

In addition to state (or public) primary and secondary schools, with students in my study abroad program, which ended on July 18, 2022, I visited two NGOs during our second week of study, the London Chinese Community Centre (CCC) in London’s Chinatown and the Islington Centre for Migrants and Refugees in the Islington district just north of the City of London. Our goal was to have direct exposure to how community-based organizations help newcomers in their intercultural adaptation in the U.K., as well as some of their challenges and successes in this regard.

London’s Chinatown, a communal center for generations of immigrants of Chinese heritage in the U.K. (Photo credit: Casey Lum)

During the initial stage of adaptation, one of the most immediate needs of new migrants is the acquisition of services in helping them settle into their new daily routines. Such can prove to be a difficult task, especially for those who do not have a sufficient level of social or functional English. As such, community-based NGOs like the two we visited last week can play a vital role. For example, CCC routinely assists their immigrant members with legal aid for securing social services from the local government or otherwise offering a place for them to build a new social network with their compatriots.

On the other hand, the Islington Centre also regularly helps their clients, many of whom are refugees from conflict regions, with various kinds of legal aids referral services to help them address issues such as political asylum status application, as well as various other everyday life matters related to poverty or job seeking, health maintenance (some of their clients do not know how to fill their medical prescriptions), housing or homelessness, learning about their rights like all other citizens, learning their way around the city, and so on.

One of the challenges facing the staff at these organizations has to do with how, and the extent to which, they can maintain a balance between their professional obligation to their clients and their own personal emotional well-being. On the one hand, one needs to be compassionate about the lives of the newcomers – especially since many of the refugees come from conflict or war-torn regions or escape from political persecution – and many of these people are going through an extremely traumatic stage of their lives. One legal aid staff member of the Centre confided that their day rarely concludes at the end of the workday as their clients’ (at times desperate) needs do not end then.

But there also are moments of joy and great satisfaction. Many members at the Chinese Community Centre enjoy taking part in the various Chinese arts and culture events and workshops, as well as English-language classes. This has been a source of encouragement for the center’s staff and volunteers to continue with their work. An executive at the Islington Centre told us that at times they organize field trips for their clients, to visit museums or attend cultural events across London. During these field trip events and various other such social activities, they sense noticeable joy among their clients. As their clients see or learn something new, their cultural experiences allow them to begin to regain some sense of normalcy in their intercultural adaptation to an otherwise unfamiliar social landscape.

Casey Man Kong Lum, Associate Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

City U of Hong Kong: Media & Communication 2022 (China)

“JobChair Professor / Professor / Associate Professor / Assistant Professor, Department of Media and Communication, City University of Hong Kong, China. Deadline: 31 August 2022.

The Department of Media and Communication invites applications and nominations for faculty appointment at the rank of Chair Professor/Professor/Associate Professor/Assistant Professor beginning in January/August 2023. Specialization sought is open, with preferred areas including Mass Communication, Political Communication, Digital and Social Media, Visual Communication, Broadcast Journalism, and Marketing and Strategic Communication. The appointees will work in one of the areas described above; and are expected to conduct quality research, seek external funding, teach undergraduate and postgraduate courses, develop curriculum, supervise students, and undertake administrative and service-related activities.

Requirements: A PhD in Communication or a closely related field from a globally accredited institution. The appointees for Chair Professor/Professor should command a superb record of scholarly achievements and exert leadership in the field of media and communication. The appointees for Associate Professor should have an outstanding record of scholarly achievements in both teaching and research, a strong record in research grant and/or academic management expertise. The appointees for Assistant Professor should have a solid record of, or evidence of high promise for, scholarly achievements in both teaching and research. The appointees are expected to work well with colleagues. Preference will be given to those who are willing to teach skills-oriented courses; and possess industrial experience or particular expertise in Journalism, TV Production, Digital Media Planning, Data Analytics, Marketing and Strategic Communication, or Social Media Management.

U College London: Language and Intercultural Communication (UK)

“JobLecturer in Language and Intercultural Communication,
Department of Culture, Communication and Media, University College London, London, UK. Deadline: 28 July 2022.

The Department of Culture, Communication and Media (CCM) is a department of the Institute of Education. It is committed to excellence in teaching, research and consultancy in the areas of: Media and Cultural Studies, Art, Design and Museology; Academic writing; English Education; Applied Linguistics; Language Learning and Intercultural Communication, Music Education; Multimodality studies; Learning with Digital Technologies.

This lecturership in Language and Intercultural Communication will be located in the International Centre for Intercultural Studies and the Centre for Applied Linguistics. The newly established International Centre for Intercultural Studies promotes intellectually rigorous, practically relevant and interdisciplinary Intercultural Studies that advance understanding of the role of culture in society, education and communication and inform intercultural practices and policy.

The UCL Centre for Applied Linguistics is dedicated to research in Applied Linguistics. It has as its mission to promote IOE as a centre of international excellence in research and teaching in applied linguistics. The post holder will contribute to Masters, PhD programmes and other programmes in the Centres and to research knowledge exchange and consultancy activities in the Centres. You will play a significant role in planning and development of the International Centre for Intercultural Studies. The post holder will contribute to the advancement of scholarship in the fields of Intercultural Communication and Applied Linguistics, through publications and other research activities. You will take a part in academic policy and planning at programme, department, and institutional levels. You will teach specialist modules on the MA Intercultural Communication and MA Applied Linguistics in areas of language and intercultural communication, and language and identity.

You will have PhD in Intercultural Communication, Applied Linguistics, or closely relevant subject areas, and have a sound knowledge of key concepts, debates and challenges in Intercultural Communication and Applied Linguistics. You will also have experience of teaching at postgraduate levels and have good understanding of the learning needs of a diverse body of students.

New Voices for Europe Podcasts

Podcasts

New Voices for Europe: An interview series by Literature Across Frontiers, Wales, UK. Ghayath Almadhoun

New Voices for Europe is a podcast and interview series that has emerged from the Literary Europe Live Plus (LEUL+) project with which Literature Across Frontiers (LAF) continued forging links between European literary scenes and those of other regions, something they had done for fifteen years with collaborations in SWANA (South West Asian/ North African) region. This work mostly ceased as a result of the political turmoil that in turn created a vibrant artistic diaspora in Europe. LEUL+ aimed to highlight the contribution of writers and artists who had been forced to flee conflict zones and find a home in Europe, whether temporary or permanent. Interviewees were asked to tell about their journey, personal and creative, and how they continued working in their chosen discipline in an initially unfamiliar environment. What the interviews have in common is the speakers’ admirable tenacity and perseverance in the face of the obstacles and challenges they encountered along the way. Following up from a previous project entitled New Voices from Europe, which selected and promoted emerging European writers internationally, Literature Across Frontiers chose to call this collection of podcasts and interview-based articles New Voices for Europe.

LAF, the European Platform for Literary Exchange, Translation and Policy Debate, was established in 2001 with support from the then Culture Programme of the European Union. Their aim is to develop intercultural dialogue through literature and translation, and highlight less translated literatures.

CFP Culture & COVID-19

“Publication

Call for Book Chapter Proposals: Culture and COVID-19. Editor: Nadezhda Sotirova. Deadline for abstracts: 20 August 2022.

What is the role of culture in navigating the pandemic? Despite the seemingly dissipating pandemic, and just as it might seem “things are going back to normal,” new strains and vaccine boosters continue to compete for our attention and countries around the world are once again struggling to answer COVID-19 questions. Are we going back to “normal”? How do we re-think vaccination and boosters?

The ongoing uncertainty continues to produce opposition and questioning. Some locations, individuals, and communities have had more trouble implementing and sustaining COVID-19 rules than others and a discussion as to the reason behind these occurrences soon followed. While some communities seemed to have an easier time following and dealing with the rules, others continued to struggle and rebel against both mandates and the virus itself (denial, refusals of vaccines, or even tracking local numbers, etc.).

Throughout the pandemic, the role of culture as focal in such vastly different responses has been brought up in public discussions, editorials, opinion pieces, conference presentations, and panel discussions. Even the CDC site linked to a study highlighting the part culture plays in unpacking health messages while UNESCO urged for more projects exploring the role and impact of culture on recovery.

Frequently, such discussions have focused on collectivism and cultural psychology, national culture, and mindsets but has been hesitant to make generalizations and proscribe solutions as “culture” is not easy to define, quantify, or link to specific policy outcomes. Why do some communities seem to be complying more with mandates? Which communities have more trust in science? What government structures are linked to more COVID-19 compliance? Is it about larger notions of “freedom” and individual responsibility? Or is it about who the perceived authorities are? Numerous questions with no simple or easy answers to guide mandates and policies.

The editor invites proposals from scholars who would like to contribute to an edited volume, in which a publisher has expressed preliminary interest. Prospective contributors may submit a 350-word chapter abstract, and a 150-word biography, to Nadezhda Sotirova by August 20, 2022, with decisions to be shared by October 15, 2022.

Some possible chapter themes include (but are not restricted to) exploring the role of culture in/and:

– Covid norms/regulation and peer policing/commenting
– Discursive forms and cultural norms
– Role of local conceptualizations/discourse on democracy (rights and responsibilities)
– Agency and community
– Local norms restricting/allowing Covid compliance
– Discourse of authority
– Local context’s role in compliance
– Local cultural terms related to covid
– Ethnographic explorations of covid and culture
– Role of ideology in public health
– Public health messaging and culture
– Sense-making and vaccination hesitancy
– Context and vaccination

Again, the topics are not restricted and can employ various methodologies, with focus on the role of culture. International collaboration is welcomed and much appreciated!

The volume’s audience would be:

– Scholars in cultural communication interested in culture and health.
– Upper-level undergraduates or graduate students in cultural and health communication.

Nadezhda Sotirova is associate professor of Communication, Media, and Rhetoric at University of Minnesota Morris. Her research focuses on cultural communication, identity, and migration from an ethnographic perspective. She is the author of The Cultural Communication of Emigration in Bulgaria.

American-Scandinavian Foundation: Grants & Fellowships

Grants

The American-Scandinavian Foundation offers a range of grants and fellowships intended to encourage exchanges between the United States and Nordic countries. Deadline: Each program has its own deadline.

These include fellowships for Americans for study or research in Scandinavia, fellowships for Scandinavians for study or research in the US, translation prizes for outstanding translations of poetry, fiction, drama, or literary prose written by a 20th or 21st-century Nordic author, and grants for a wide variety of programs that bring American and Scandinavian culture, art and thought to public audiences, among others.

The American-Scandinavian Foundation (ASF) promotes firsthand exchange of intellectual and creative influence between the United States and the Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden (some opportunities also include Greenland, Faroe Islands, and Sámpi). A publicly supported American nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization based in New York City, ASF has an extensive program of fellowships, grants, intern/trainee sponsorship, publishing, and cultural activities.

CFP Language, Inequality and the Everyday (Un)making of Alliances (UK)

Conferences
Call For Abstracts: 9th Explorations in Ethnography, Language and Communication: Language, Inequality and the Everyday (Un)making of Alliances, Faculty of Education and Society, University College London (UK),
3rd -4th April 202 . Deadline:  21 October 2022.

The ninth EELC conference follows a series of global crises epitomised by moments of spectacular disruption, such as the so-called ‘2008 economic crisis’ or the ‘COVID-19 pandemic’. But far from representing isolated events, these build on long-standing processes, practices and experiences of inequality which are increasingly at the centre of more and more people’s daily lives. The conference aims to provide a platform to reflect on the types of alliances that ethnographic and language scholarship might be able to generate in the (un)making of such inequalities.

The confirmed keynote speakers and featured workshop organisers are:

  • Dr Julia Snell, University of Leeds (UK)
  • Dr Daniel Silva, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina (Brazil)
  • Dr Beatriz Lorente, University of Bern (Switzerland)
  • Dr Lian Malai Madsen, University of Copenhagen (Denmark)
  • Dr Jackie Jia Lou, Birkbeck University of London (UK)

Bilingual Education and Storytelling in Intercultural Education

“Associate

The important role of bilingual education and storytelling in the social development of young students have been two recurring themes running throughout the first week of my summer study abroad program on United Kingdom: Intercultural Perspectives in Teaching and Learning at NYU London (July 4-18, 2022).

NYC London students visiting classroom
Summer study abroad students from NYU observing a class in session at Mayflower Primary School in London. (Photo credit: Casey Lum)

In her guest lecture to my students on “Rethinking Teaching Languages in European Schools (with a Focus on England): A Healthy Linguistic Diet Approach,” Dina Mehmedbegovic-Smith (July 5) emphasized the importance of bilingual education among the young in the United Kingdom nowadays. This topic was shared by Nicky Busch (July 6) in her special presentation on “The Intersectional Dynamics of Immigration, Intercultural Education, and Intergroup Relations in the United Kingdom,” in which she similarly acknowledged how acquiring English as a second or additional language can help immigrant students gain a voice of their own in their intercultural adaptation to life in the UK.

Our understanding of the above ideas – and many more others that this brief post simply cannot include – has been greatly enhanced by what my students and I witnessed “on the ground level” during our field visit at the Mayflower Primary School, a public school located in the eastern borough of Tower Hamlets in London. While the 2011 census in the UK reported that about one-third of the borough’s population came from Bangladesh, about 90% of the students at Mayflower Primary today are Bangladeshi. Many come from low-income families with a relatively low level of literacy, with parents who are not fluent in spoken English. These are some of the reasons why the school has adopted an approach that emphasizes developing their students’ competence in reading and storytelling in English. At the same time, the teachers encourage their students’ families to speak in their home language, in part to help promote bilingual fluency among the students.

From one practical (or pragmatic) perspective, the emphasis on reading is meant to help the students become savvy information seekers and users for personal and professional development purposes. On the other hand, it is believed that a high level of oracy – with a high degree of competence in taking in one’s experience of the world around them and then in being able to articulate or tell “stories” about their experience orally – can help the young build a solid foundation for acquiring writing skills.

But the above teaching and learning strategies do not and most likely will not automatically or by default lead to the development of students’ competency in intercultural communication, adaptation, or dialogue. For example, Heba Al-Jayoosi, the Assistant Head (Inclusion) at Mayflower Primary School, suggests that many of the parents have never been to London Bridge, which is not far from home. Hence, the school has embarked on a project to take the students and their families on a field trip to London Bridge. Such co-curricular activities are meant to help them gain more exposure to the larger social and cultural environment and help them better adapt. These field trips (similar to my current study abroad program in London) set the stage for follow-up discussion or storytelling among the participants afterward.

Casey Man Kong Lum, Associate Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

U Manchester: Lecturer in Intercultural Communication (UK)

“JobLecturer in Intercultural Communication , The University of Manchester, Manchester, UK. Deadline: 20 July 2022.

Applications are invited for the teaching and research post of Lecturer in Intercultural Communication. The post is tenable from 1 September 2022, or as soon as possible thereafter, and offered on an open-ended basis. The appointed person will teach in the MA programme in Intercultural Communication. You must have a PhD (awarded) in a relevant field and demonstrable teaching experience in Intercultural Communication at university level as well as in curriculum/programme development.

You must be able to deliver courses that successfully cover or combine the study of several of the following:

  • Intercultural communication in the context of crisis communication, diplomacy, international development, international migration
  • Intercultural communication in international media production and consumption
  • Intercultural communication in business or institutional contexts
  • Intercultural communication in transnational popular culture
  • Intercultural competence skills training
  • Critical intercultural communication in social identity formation / social movements
  • Postcolonial intercultural communication

Your research may focus on any aspect of Intercultural Communication. Only applicants with high quality publications will be considered. A successful record of grant capture and of PhD supervision would be highly advantageous. Experience with virtual learning environments and in developing online teaching materials is essential. Expertise in translation studies and/or foreign language proficiency would be beneficial. You must have excellent interpersonal skills and be able to empathise with students.

 

U Coimbra: Researcher on Societal Value of Culture (Portugal)

“JobResearch Assistant to the grant UNCHARTED, Centre for Social Studies, University of Coimbra, Portugal. Deadline: 16 July 2022.

The Centre for Social Studies  at the University of Coimbra calls for applications for one position for a research assistant (at the MA level) within the project “UNCHARTED-Understanding, Capturing and Fostering the Societal Value of Culture”, funded by the Research Executive Agency of the European Commission, and coordinated by the Principal Investigator  Nancy Duxbury.

The UNCHARTED project is a research and innovation action about understanding, capturing and fostering the societal value of culture. In recent decades, with the growing emphasis on the creative economy, culture has tended to be increasingly seen in political circles under the exclusive lens of the economy and its contribution to it. To counteract this tendency, it is necessary to define the social values associated with culture on a different basis from the traditional one. The work focuses on the valuation practices of the actors involved in cultural life. In this respect, three areas and three types of fundamental actors in the value dynamics of culture are distinguished: i. the field of cultural participation, in which citizenship is the protagonist; ii. the field of cultural production and heritage, where the professionals of creation and preservation are the ones who take the initiative; iii. the field of cultural administration, in which it is the experts and politicians who decide. These are the starting point to structure the study of the different aspects involved in this evaluative dynamic: the emergence of values, the configuration of a value order, and the political impulse of values.