Center for Intercultural Dialogue

If you are interested in participating in a cooperative CID-UNESCO focus group on the role of intercultural dialogue in the futures of education, then please read the following and send an email immediately as this event will be scheduled for late January at a mutually convenient day/time. We cannot guarantee participation, as this will be a small group, but you will also be able to organize your own event if so desired. There will only be one meeting, and then a report of the discussion sent in to UNESCO.

UPDATE: Several focus groups are now full, thanks to the many responses – more details to be posted shortly as there are results to report. [Second update: the final report is now posted here]

UNESCO’s Futures of Education initiative is an ambitious attempt to rethink education and help shape the future. The initiative is catalyzing a global debate on how education, learning and knowledge need to be re-imagined in a world of increasing complexity, uncertainty, and precarity.

As part of this initiative, UNESCO has appointed a high-level International Commission of thought leaders with diverse expertise and perspectives from the worlds of politics, academia, the arts, science and business. The International Commission will prepare a report, to be released in November 2021, that will provide an agenda for action and discussion by policymakers and practitioners.

The report of the International Commission will emerge out of a range of work modalities that emphasize co-creation, a broad participatory and partnership structure, the inclusion of diverse perspectives, and the absence of pre-specified conclusions. Towards this end, UNESCO is encouraging individuals, organizations and networks to organize focus group discussions with their constituencies, inputs from which will feed into to the Commission’s work.

The objective of these consultations is to generate a set of diverse perspectives on the challenges and opportunities for education and learning that can be both anticipated/predicted and imagined/envisioned when looking towards the year 2050. Rethinking as well as fully reimagining the way we live together are key dimensions explored by UNESCO; this is why the Center for Intercultural Dialogue has been approached to mobilize its members in the organization of a focus group discussion. Please send an email asap if you wish to participate!

Janny H. C. Leung Profile

Janny H. C. Leung is Dean of Liberal Arts at Wilfrid Laurier University, where she is also Professor of Law and Society and Professor of English. She was Professor of Linguistics in the School of English at the University of Hong Kong. She obtained her M Phil and PhD in English and Applied Linguistics from the University of Cambridge, an LLB from the University of London, and an LLM from Yale Law School.

Janny Leung

She was a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard Yenching Institute, the Faculty of Law of McGill University, and a Luce East Asia Fellow at the National Humanities Center (USA).

Broadly speaking, her research has revolved around the study of meaning. Her first line of research, developed from her doctoral work, focuses on the mapping between meaning and linguistic form in the acquisition and processing of language, using a psycholinguistic approach and a quantitative methodology. She was a founding member of the University of Hong Kong’s Speech, Language and Cognition Laboratory.

Her second and most current line of research lies in the emergent interdisciplinary area of language and law. She has published a monograph and a series of papers on challenges, ideologies and paradoxes in multilingual legal practice. She has also written about language rights, legal interpretation, unrepresented litigation, courtroom discourse, legal translation, and representations of law in the media. Her current government-funded project deals with the evolution of law in the modern communication environment.

Selected publications:

Leung, J. (2019) Shallow equality and symbolic jurisprudence in multilingual legal orders. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Leung, J. (2019). Does the world need more Canada? Legal multilingualism and strategic pluralism. Sherbrooke Law Review / Revue de droit de l’Université de Sherbrooke, 47 (2-3), 193-226.

Leung, J., & Durant, A. (Eds.) (2018) Meaning and power in the language of law. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Durant, A., & Leung, J. (2016) Language and law. London, UK: Routledge.

Work for CID:

Janny Leung wrote a guest post on COVID-sensitive kanji.

CFP Race Matters in JACR

Call for Proposals: Special Issue: ‘Race Matters’ in Applied Communication Research, Journal of Applied Communication Research. Deadline: February 11, 2021.

In 2008, Mark P. Orbe and Brenda J. Allen published a critique of race-related research appearing in the Journal of Applied Communication Research, and in doing so, conceptualized a typology of different genres of race-related scholarship in the field of communication. This proposed JACR special issue is designed to create an academic space that highlights applied communication research that centralizes race—and through intersectionality, other salient aspects of identity—in meaningful ways. In essence, the special issue situates JACR as a productive location for engaged research that centralizes race as both a theoretical anchor and powerful point of praxis. Authors are invited to submit proposals of theoretically-informed applied communication research that engages the social construction of race at the center of analysis. The guest editors for the proposed special issue are Mark P. Orbe, Western Michigan University, and Jasmine T. Austin, Texas State University.

PHD Project: Media Tourism in China (The Netherlands)

PHD position in the project “Media tourism in China: A local perspective,” Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands. Deadline: 7 February 2021.

The application is now open for a Chinese student who wishes to study at Erasmus University Rotterdam (The Netherlands) with a scholarship from the China Scholarship Council (CSC).

This PhD project seeks to answer the two following main research questions: How do locals perceive the representations of their places of residency in popular culture? How do these portrayals shape locals’ place-attachment, their self-identity and, also, their interactions with media tourists? China presents an excellent location to explore the above-mentioned questions due to the long tradition of media tourism in the country, the current boom of domestic popular media, and the lack of research that thoroughly explores the relationship between media representation and destination images in Asia.

Methodologically, the investigation will take a qualitative approach. Textual analysis will be used to analyze the mediated representations in a selection of popular culture texts filmed in well-established filming locations such as the Fujian Province. Participants will explore, for instance, which spaces have been represented and which ones have been excluded, and what type of locals have been portrayed and which ones have been left out. Focus groups and participatory methods (e.g. photo/video voice) will be used to reach a deep understanding about locals’ interpretations of those portrayals, as well as the consequences that these depictions have on their identities and on their relationship with media tourists.

KC70 Verstehen Translated into Spanish

Continuing translations of Key Concepts in Intercultural Dialogue, today I am posting KC#70: Verstehen, which Raúl A. Mora wrote for publication in English in 2015, and which Jhon Eduardo Mosquera Pérez has now translated into Spanish.

As always, all Key Concepts are available as free PDFs; just click on the thumbnail to download. Lists of Key Concepts organized alphabetically by concept, chronologically by publication date and number, and by languages into which they have been translated, are available, as is a page of acknowledgments with the names of all authors, translators, and reviewers.

Mora, R. A. (2021). Verstehen. (J. E. Mosquera Pérez, Trans.). Key Concepts in Intercultural Dialogue, 70. Available from: https://centerforinterculturaldialogue.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/kc70-verstehen_spanish.pdf

If you are interested in translating one of the Key Concepts, please contact me for approval first because dozens are currently in process. As always, if there is a concept you think should be written up as one of the Key Concepts, whether in English or any other language, propose it. If you are new to CID, please provide a brief resume. This opportunity is open to masters students and above, on the assumption that some familiarity with academic conventions generally, and discussion of intercultural dialogue specifically, are useful.

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Ghent U: Research Assistant: Multilingual Website Evaluation (Belgium)

Research Assistant for MULTIPLES Research Group, Department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. Deadline: 10 January 2021.

The MULTIPLES research group at the Department of Translation, Interpreting and Communication wants to hire a part-time research assistant (80%) for the project “Evaluation multilingual website fedasilinfo.be”. This research is situated in the field of multilingual and intercultural (digital) communication. The project aims at an evaluation of the use of the multilingual Fedasil website on the basis of an analysis of the current and desired situation by means of qualitative-quantitative research among (1) applicants for international protection and (2) collaborators who are active in collective and individual reception initiatives.

The research combines among others:

(a) in-depth interviews and/or focus interviews with applicants for international protection and/or persons who do not (or no longer) have right to reception

(b) screencaptures of user experiences on the fedasilinfo.be website

Dublin City U: Research Assistant in Creativity in Higher Education (Ireland)

Research Assistant in Creativity in Higher Education, Institute for Creativity, School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies, Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland, UK. Deadline: 4 January 2021.

The DCU Institute for Creativity is currently working on an exciting project funded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. The aim of this project is to promote and stimulate creativity within the staff and student community in DCU. This forms part of the University’s current strategic plan, and is an ambitious objective with great potential.

The School of Applied Language and Intercultural Studies (SALIS) is a research-intensive learning-centred, and globally-engaged School that is working toward a sustainable multilingual and multicultural society. They teach and research new developments in the areas of applied linguistics, translation studies, literary studies, citizenship education, migration studies, sexuality/gender studies.

Happy New Year 2021

Happy New Year 2021 from the Center for Intercultural Dialogue. Wishing good health and happiness to all our followers in the coming year.

Thank you to all those who have supported CID over the past year, and the past 11 years. Our work would not be possible without the considerable contributions of scholars and practitioners around the world. See the acknowledgments for specific names, but you know who you are. Your time and effort are much appreciated.

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Photo taken at the Tết Festival, the Vietnamese New Year celebration, in San Diego, January 25, 2020, by Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz.

MOOC on Inclusive Leadership by Brenda Allen

Inclusive Leadership: The Power of Workplace Diversity, taught by Brenda J. Allen, through the University of Colorado System, on Coursera.

This course is designed to empower and equip you to develop inclusive cultures where everyone feels valued and respected. You will learn how highly inclusive leaders from around the world use processes of social influence to interact effectively with individuals from a wide variety of backgrounds. You will deepen your understanding of the benefits of diversity. And, you will explore a wealth of perspectives and practices to help you to reap those benefits. The course is FREE (with the option to earn a certificate for $49.95).

Dr. Brenda J. Allen (Communication Professor Emerita) is a retired Chief Diversity Officer who offers highly-rated workshops, consultations, and presentations on topics such as inclusive leadership, racial equity, strategic planning, respect in the workplace, and diversity recruitment/retention practices.

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this:

Share this: