U Macau job ad: Director of English Language Centre (China)

Director of English Language Centre
University of Macau
Expires: 27th March 2016

The University of Macau (UM) is a leading higher education institution in Macao, with English as its working language. In recent years, the university has made great progress in various areas, gaining increasing international recognition for its teaching, research and community service. To better support higher education development in Macao and to meet society’s ever-increasing demand for high quality professionals, the university relocated in August 2014 to a beautiful campus which covers approximately 1.09 square kilometres. With this state-of-the-art campus, the implementation of Asia’s largest residential college system, the establishment of new faculties and well-equipped laboratories, and the increasing numbers of students and faculty members recruited from around the world, UM possesses great potential and provides exciting new possibilities for professional development.

The English Language Centre of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities invites applications for the position of Director of English Language Centre :

The English Language Centre (ELC) is committed to the objective of enhancing English language proficiency of students across the University, both to support students’ pursuit of their academic majors and to prepare them for global citizenship. The ELC seeks to achieve its goals through the provision of courses in general and academic English and extra-curricular language activities. The ELC also organizes summer programmes for pre-sessional students and others, in collaboration with the Residential Colleges. The ELC Director may also be expected to collaborate in the provision of academic courses in applied linguistics and second language teaching, in conjunction with other units in the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.

Qualifications
The successful candidate will have a PhD in Applied Linguistics, TESL/TEFL or another related area, a minimum of three years of administrative or leadership experience in a University English language programme, a distinguished record of teaching English as a second or foreign language, and a track record of publishing in the area of language teaching and learning. Applicants for the position should demonstrate excellence in teaching and academic supervision, as well as a proven record of curriculum/course development, delivery and assessment, who is qualified to be appointed as Associate Professor or higher in rank.

The selected candidate may assume duty as early as June 2016.

Position and Remuneration
Remuneration and appointment rank offered will be competitive and commensurate with the successful applicants’ academic qualification, current position and professional experience. The current local maximum income tax rate is 12% but is effectively around 5% – 7% after various discretionary exemptions.

Application Procedure
Applicants should visit website for more details, and apply ONLINE at Jobs@UM (Ref. No.: FAH/DELC/10/2015). When applying, please upload a cover letter, a current CV (with English translations wherever relevant) and a writing sample (i.e. ‘Research Word/Publication’). Other documents may be submitted as needed or as available. Review of applications will commence immediately and continue until the position is filled. Applicants may consider their applications not successful if they were not invited for an interview within 3 months of application.

Vice Rector (Academic Affairs) Office
University of Macau, Av. da Universidade, Taipa, Macau, China

The effective position and salary index are subject to the Personnel Statute of the University of Macau in force. The University of Macau reserves the right not to appoint a candidate. Applicants with less qualification and experience can be offered lower positions under special circumstances.

***Personal data provided by applicants will be kept confidential and used for recruitment purpose only***
** Under the equal condition of qualifications and experience, priority will be given to Macao permanent residents**

Intercultural Neologisms for a New Revolution

Guest PostsIntercultural Neologisms for a New Revolution. Guest Post by Wenshan Jia.

Since the beginning of the third millennium, neologisms such as Chindia, Chimerica, and BRIC(S) have been floating in the English-speaking world, particularly in the field of international politics and diplomacy, international business and economics. The concept of Chindia was originally created to refer to the geopolitical unity between China and India by Jairam Ramesh, Rural Development Minister of Indian Government in 2005 (Ramesh, 2005). His argument is that given the large population of 2.7 billion shared by both China and India, almost 40% of the world’s population, the huge economic potential, geographical proximity, and cultural affinity, the two countries can jointly forge the leadership of Asia and potentially that of the world if the two parties can, to use his own words, “overcome suspicions and establish reciprocal partnerships” (http://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/chindia-still-vibrant-idea-jairam-ramesh-114032700382_1.html). Chimerica was coined by Ferguson and Schularick (2007) to refer to “the sum of China, the world’s most rapidly growing emerging market, and America, the world’s most financially advanced developed economy” (p. 1). Specifically, Chimerica accounts for 13 percent of the world’s land surface, a one-fourth of the world’s population, a third of its gross domestic product (GDP), and over half of the global economic growth over the past six years since 2000. This symbiotic relationship between the US (as the big spender) and China (as the big saver) is compared to “a marriage made in heaven” and regarded as “the defining feature of the current world economy” (p. 1). Besides, the two countries are also co-dependent in their concerted global efforts to address global issues such as terrorism and nuclear proliferation, global warming and poverty, transnational crime, energy shortage, and gaps of intercultural communication. Last but not least, “the acronym ‘BRICs’ was initially formulated in 2001 by economist Jim O’Neill, of Goldman Sachs, in a report on growth prospects for the economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China – which together represented a significant share of the world’s production and population” (http://brics.itamaraty.gov.br/about-brics/information-about-brics). In 2006, the four countries Brazil, Russia, India, and China decided to create a BRICs dialogue structure and hosted the First BRICs Summit and in 2011, BRICs turned into BRICS with the addition of South Africa. BRICS has now entered into deeper collaborations with the establishment of the BRICS Bank, the BRICS Think Tanks Council (initiated in 2013) as well as the BRICS Media Summit and BRICS Global University Summit (both initiated in 2015).

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Language and Conflict: Politics of Language and Identity across Contexts (London)

Call for Papers
Language and Conflict: Politics of Language and Identity across Contexts
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London
20th May 2016

Call Deadline: 25-Mar-2016

This one day workshop brings together scholars and graduate students working on the role of language in on-going and post-conflict contexts. Examples could include (but are not limited to) the Middle East, Africa, the Balkans, and Western Europe, including diaspora and migration contexts.

The workshop aims at exploring the intersection of language and conflict on several levels, stressing the role of language and identity:
– Firstly, a micro level with a particular focus on the interactional construction or discourse of conflict (and resolution)
– Secondly, we focus on the macro structures of conflict, drawing on processes of language policies and revitalization in such contexts
– Thirdly, we focus on the potential role of languages in inter-community, intra-community or social cohesion.

We welcome papers from fields such as:
– Sociolinguistics
– Linguistic Anthropology
– Critical/ Discourse Analysis
– Political Science
– Conflict, Peace, Violence and Development Studies
Interdisciplinary studies are especially welcome.

This event is a one-day workshop with an opening keynote presentation by Prof. Hilary Footitt, University of Reading, followed by presentations by selected speakers (max. 20), in parallel sessions. Each of the presenters would have 20 minutes for the talk, plus 10 minutes for questions.

We invite 20-mintute-long papers contributing to the debate on the relationship between language and conflict contested on interactional and policy-based dimensions.

Submissions of 300-word abstracts should be sent to the Organising Committee: Birgul Yilmaz and Dr. Julia Sallabank.

The deadline for submissions is: 25th March 2016.
Accepted speakers will be notified on: 10th April 2016.
*Attendance to this workshop is free.

Health Systems Through Conflict and Recovery (Italy)

Call for Applications
HEALTH SYSTEMS THROUGH CONFLICT AND RECOVERY
Location: Pisa, Italy
Dates: 4-15 April 2016

Background and nature of the course
The volatility and complexity of conflict and post-conflict scenarios pose unprecedented challenges to health workers – both national and international – who are called to rehabilitate the physical and human health infrastructures. Lack of properly prepared professionals in this field has often resulted in reconstruction efforts characterized by weak analysis, little understanding, inadequate planning and poor implementation.

This Training Course intends to fill this gap as it aims to:
Introduce participants to the main features of conflict-ridden environments;
Identify and discuss the main features of health systems during protracted crises and recovery processes, and the most common distortions plaguing healthcare provision.
Analyse and reflect upon the challenges faced by health actors in countries affected or recovering from a conflict;
Introduce participants to recovery processes, to the dangers they pose and to the opportunities they provide for correcting long-standing distortions and creating more efficient and fair health systems;
Familiarize participants with the existing literature in this field and stimulate their interest in conducting further research.

Methodology
The Course is taught in English. It is intensive in nature and demands from participants a pro-active attitude. Interaction with the trainers is encouraged through the use of case studies and practical exercises. Ample space is devoted to testimonies and reflections drawn from the personal experience of trainers and trainees. Participants will conduct an in-depth analysis of a distressed healthcare arena through the study of selected documents and group work. The study materials revolve around a variety of troubled countries, which include Afghanistan, Angola, Cambodia, Central African Republic, DR Congo, Haiti, Iraq, Lebanon, Liberia, Myanmar, Palestine, Somalia, the Former Soviet Union, South Sudan, Timor Leste, Yemen. An exploration of the existing literature will complement each training session. Participants will receive a rich portfolio of key selected documents.

For further info on aims, contents, and methodologies please check the Course brochure.

Who can apply
The Course focuses on health issues, but it is open to professionals from other disciplines. Applicants must have a university degree or the equivalent of 3 years of relevant working experience. They must have a sound working knowledge of English.

Application deadline: 21 March 2016

How to apply:
Applicants shall submit their application on-line. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis. Accepted applicants will be informed within two weeks from the moment of the submission of their application. Unless all places are taken earlier, the final deadline for application is the 21th of March 2015. The online application requires a registration and login procedure (including the creation of a “User ID” and of a “Password”).

Course fee:
1.500,00 (one thousand five hundred) Euro for participants sponsored by any organization or their employer.
1.200,00 (one thousand two hundred) Euro for self-sponsored participants.

The cost includes tuition fee, reference material and lunch on class days. Participants are required to make their own arrangements for accommodation, travel and visa (a list of possible accommodations will be made available). Prospective participants may apply for the full or partial waiver of the tuition fee by explaining their request on the application form.

For any additional information:
HSCR Course Secretariat
via Cardinale Maffi, 27
56127 Pisa (Italy)

Prezi presentation

CFP Borderland Linguistics Conference (UK)

BORDERLAND LINGUISTICS CONFERENCE, Bristol, UK. 27-28 June 2016.

The notion of border is highly complex and problematic, whether it be an officially demarcated border between two states, or a less rigorously defined meeting space of somehow differentiated social or ethnic groups. Leading theorists have proposed that a broad-reaching ‘theory’ of borders may in fact be infelicitous, due to the contextual specificities of each different border area that may constitute an area of study. Nevertheless, borders remain fruitful sites for scholarly inquiry, and this conference invites contributions from linguistics researchers of all levels whose work focuses on borderlands.

This conference welcomes contributions from scholars of all subdisciplines of linguistics as well as researchers in border studies whose work relates to language or communication.

Abstract submission (300 words) is via the EasyAbs portal (deadline 16th March 2016).

Keynote speaker: Dr Phillip M Carter, Florida International University.
June 27-28, 2016. Clifton Hill House, University of Bristol, UK.

Organised by Dr James Hawkey (Department of Hispanic, Portuguese and Latin American Studies), and supported by the British Academy and Leverhulme Trust.

CFP Designing Professional Communication Across Cultures

CFP Designing Professional Communication Across Cultures
Special issue of connexions: international professional communication journal

In the last thirty years, two trends have transformed the world of professional communication. On one hand, a global economy has increasingly placed professional communicators in multilingual and multicultural work environments. In such environments, disciplinary borders are blurred, markets are integrated, and ideas are shared across individuals and organizations. On the other hand, advances in technology have revolutionized the ways communication products are designed, shared, and assessed. Professional communicators must thus reach and serve a diverse population of stakeholders.

They do so with multimodal forms of communication that integrate both text, visuals, and audience interactions. Design no longer means “a picture is worth a thousand words.” It is now impacted by a holistic methodology often known as “design thinking.” Design thinking encompasses the entire process of creating professional communication products and services, including websites, social media campaigns, technical documentation, and information-driven user interfaces. Neumeier (2009) wrote that design “has been waiting patiently in the wings for nearly a century, having been relegated to supporting roles and stand-in parts” (p.18). Design thinking is now important to such disparate activities as branding, innovation, and cultivating optimal user experiences. As Vogel (2009) pointed out: “Only one company in a market can be the cheapest; the rest need design” (p.8).

In this way, the practice of designing across cultures has been brought to the forefront of professional communication in order to engage stakeholders in a globalized, multicultural marketplace. From a business perspective, communicators use design thinking to discover user goals, strategize content, structure teams, and create and evaluate prototypes. Design helps distinguish brands and increase value for enterprises. Design can also help bridge linguistic and breaks language and cultural barriers, however. It can create beneficial solutions for users from minoritized, underrepresented, and marginalized populations. Good design is thus culturally-sensitive as it must adapt to and respect cultural groups being served.

This special issue of connexions: international professional communication journal seeks to understand, articulate, and evaluate the role of design in professional communication across cultures. It aims to bring together scholars and practitioners who engage in design activities in a cross-cultural or multi-cultural context. Here culture is broadly defined. We seek articles related to nationality, race, ethnicity, age, gender, disability/accessibility, sexual orientation, as well as any other cultural/professional identities.

Suggested topic areas include, but are not limited to:
Design thinking in professional communication projects
Challenges in designing for multi-national and multi-cultural audiences
Affordances for specific genres of information products within specific cultures
The design, writing, and strategy of documentation
New approaches to particular sets of audiences and markets
Design pedagogy, curricula, training, and organizational development
Design project management and team work
Design in internationally-distributed work environments
Information design and its relationship to culture
The relationship between design, users, and professional communication

References
Neumeier, M. (2009). The designful company. In T. Lockwood (Ed.), Design thinking: Integrating innovation, customer experience, and brand value (pp. 15-22). New York, NY: Allworth.
Vogel, C. M. (2009). Notes on the evolution of design thinking: A work in progress. In T. Lockwood (Ed.), Design thinking: Integrating innovation, customer experience, and brand value (pp. 3-14). New York, NY: Allworth.

Schedule
Submission deadline for manuscript abstracts: March 15th, 2016
Notification of acceptance: June 30th, 2016
Submission deadline for full manuscripts: September 30th, 2016
Expected date of publication: December 30th, 2016

Submission Procedures
Submit 500-word abstracts for original research articles, review articles, and teaching cases; or 250-word abstracts for focused commentary and industry perspectives.
Prepare a cover page for your abstract with 1.5 line spacing and Georgia, 12-point font.
Save the cover page and abstract in doc, docx, or rtf format.
Include in your cover page author(s) names, institutional affiliations, email addresses, and whether you are submitting a research article, a review article, a teaching case, a focused commentary, or an industry perspective.
Submit your abstract via email to Quan Zhou and Guiseppe Getto.

Upon acceptance of your proposal, you will be invited to submit a full-length manuscript. All manuscripts that meet the journal’s standards and requirements will be, without exception, submitted to double-blind peer review.

Abstracts To Be Developed Into
Original research articles of 5,000 to 7,000 words
Review articles of 3,000 to 5,000 words
Teaching cases of 3,000 to 5,000 words
Focused commentary and industry perspectives articles of 500 to 3,000 words

Contact information
Quan Zhou
Metropolitan State University, MN
Guiseppe Getto
East Carolina University

CFP ECREA Doctoral Summer School (Italy)

Call for Participants
ECREA Summer School 2016

We are happy to invite you to participate in the ECREA European Media and Communication Doctoral Summer School 2016 that will take place at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, Milan, Italy, from July 25 to August 5, 2016.

THE FOCUS
The ECREA European Media and Communication Doctoral Summer School 2016 brings together members of the European research community in order to debate contemporary issues in media, communication and cultural studies. The main emphasis of this summer school is not on a particular theme, but on providing structural and individuated PhD-support for young European scholars, through a variety of working forms, including feedback seminars, workshops, and lectures. The summer school aims to provide a supportive international setting where doctoral students can present their ongoing work, receive feedback on their PhD-projects from international experts and meet students and academics from other countries, establishing valuable contacts for the future.

HOW TO APPLY
There are two options to attend the Summer School:

For students whose universities are members of the organizing consortium the summer school will provide:
– free accommodation for the whole duration of the summer school, including breakfast
– free Welcome and Farewell Dinner
– free WiFi at the summer school venue
– free summer school materials (including 2 books)
– free coffee during the breaks
– free lunch from Mondays to Fridays
– travel expenses (between 0 and 1999 KM: maximum 275 EUR per participant; 2000 and more KM: maximum 360 EUR per participant)

Payment of a registration fee of 560 Euros is required for consortium participants.

For students whose universities are not a member of the organizing consortium, the summer school will provide:
– free accommodation for the whole duration of the summer school, including breakfast
– free Welcome and Farewell Dinner
– free WiFi at the summer school venue
– free summer school materials (including 2 books)
– free coffee in the breaks
– free lunch from Mondays to Fridays

Payment of a registration fee of 660 Euros is required for non-consortium participants.

The total number of students will be limited to 44, half of them from consortium members.

CREDITS
The Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore (Faculty of Political and Social Sciences) acknowledges the Summer School activities with 10 ECTS for the participation in the full programme (including the supplementary activities). Furthermore, six of the best student presentations and all abstracts of student projects will be published in the Summer School Book.

DEADLINE
The deadline for applications for the summer school is March 15, 2016. Applicants from consortium universities and from affiliated partners of the summer school must coordinate their application with their institutional coordinators. All applicants will be informed about the selection of participants in early April.

The working language of the summer school will be English; therefore, a sufficient understanding and ability to express oneself in this language is required.

Global—Local Dimensions of Qualitative Communication Research

CfP Extension – Kaleidoscope: A Graduate Journal of Qualitative Communication Research is welcoming submissions through March 15, 2016 at 11:59 PM PST.

*Special Call* Global—Local Dimensions of Qualitative Communication Research

In addition to regular 7,000 word submissions and media submissions, this year’s issue will feature a special section devoted to scholarly discussions concerning global—local dimensions of qualitative communication research. Submissions should: (1) Detail the author’s/authors’ approach to global—local research; (2) Offer an example of global—local research in action (e.g., mini analysis); and (3) Describe how this work uniquely contributes to the study of communication. Topics may include (but are not limited to) theoretical and/or methodological extensions of global—local research that intersect with/derive from: neocolonialism; postcolonialism; cosmopolitanisms; critical/cultural approaches; queer theory; transgender studies; queer of color criticism; affect theories; theories of identity, voice, and agency; feminist approaches; transnational and translocal alliance building; coalitional politics; dialectics; transmodernity; globalization; glocalization. Authors should clearly mark in their cover letter that their submission is for the special call. Submissions should be no more than 2,000 words (excluding references) and be prepared using the same citation systems as regular submissions.

Kaleidoscope is a refereed, annually published print and electronic journal devoted to graduate students who develop philosophical, theoretical, and/or practical applications of qualitative, interpretive, and critical/cultural communication research. We welcome scholarship from current graduate students in Communication Studies and related cognate areas/disciplines. We especially encourage contributions that rigorously expand scholars’ understanding of a diverse range of communication phenomena.

In addition to our ongoing commitment to written scholarship, we are interested in ways scholars are exploring the possibilities of new technologies and media to present their research. Kaleidoscope welcomes scholarship forms such as video/audio/photo of staged performance, experimental performance art, or web-based artistic representations of scholarly research. Web-based scholarship should be accompanied by a word-processed artist’s statement of no more than five pages. We invite web-based content that is supplemental to manuscript-based scholarship (e.g., a manuscript discussing a staged performance could be supplemented by video footage from said performance).

Submissions must not be under review elsewhere or have appeared in any other published form. Manuscripts should be no longer than 25 pages (double-spaced) or 7,000 words (including notes and references) and can be prepared following MLA, APA, or Chicago style. All submissions should include an abstract of no more than 150 words and have a detached title page listing the author’s/authors’ name(s), institutional affiliation, and contact information. Authors should remove all identifying references from the manuscript. To be hosted on the Kaleidoscope website, media files should not exceed 220 MB in size. Larger files can be streamed within the Kaleidoscope website but must be hosted externally. Authors must hold rights to any content published in Kaleidoscope, and permission must be granted and documented from all participants in any performance or presentation.

Please direct any questions to the editor, Gregory Sean Hummel.

Unity in Diversity – World Civil Society – India Launch

Unity in Diversity – World Civil Society
Mumbai, India
15-16 March 2016
Planetary Citizens Assembly
India Launch

* Building intercultural, inter-ethnic, inter-religious, inclusive and sustainable society
* Working in collaboration with the United Nations.

The launch of the India Assembly is a significant step, and you are invited!

Mar 15, 2016 OFFICIAL LAUNCH EVENT
5:00 pm (for a 5:30 pm start)
KC College Auditorium, Churchgate Mumbai 400020

Mar 16, 2016 WORKSHOP & GARDEN INAUGURATION
9:30 am – 5:00 pm
Roundtable: Business for building Unity in Diversity
Workshop: Policy, team, action plan of the Unity in Diversity Indian Chapter
Where: Thadomal Shahani Centre for Management, 257 SV Road, (next to
Shroff Eye Hospital, Bandra, Mumbai 400050
Inauguration: Unity in Diversity Peace Garden, Muktanand Peace Garden, off
Linking Road, Mumbai 54

Objectives of the India launch event:
• to form a “National Steering Committee” in India; which will coordinate continuous collaboration among civil society, private business sector, governments, religions, spiritual organisations, and work towards building inclusive societies,
• to establish a grassroots “Community Leadership Team; which will work with local communities in creating and implementing projects to strengthen civil society via dialogue and understanding,
• to lay the foundation of the Policy of the Indian Unity in Diversity – World Civil Society Assembly and to create the first action plan based on this policy, and
• to establish collaboration between the UN Alliance of Civilizations India Focal Point, UN associated organisations and the India civil society; in order to contribute to reaching the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Who is invited
Corporate leaders, youth groups, women’s groups, media, educationists, migrants, sports, music arts and entertainment, volunteer groups, faith or spiritual groups, community organizations, cultural & ethnic groups, multicultural & diaspora organizations, congress bodies, councils, individuals with an interest in intercultural understanding, prominent thought leaders, etc., and everyone who believes in the vision of the Unity in Diversity.

Presented and organized by
Global Dialogue Foundation (GDF), Melbourne Australia, Shahani Group, Mumbai India, in collaboration with: UN Alliance of Civilizations & NGO DPI.

U Nizwa job ad: Applied Linguistics/TESOL (Oman)

Lecturer / Assistant Professor / Associate Professor / Full Professor in Applied Linguistics / TESOL
University of Nizwa – Department of Foreign Languages
Expires: 12th March 2016

We are seeking motivated, well-qualified academics to teach English classes for university-wide EAP courses, and on courses in the BA and MA English language programmes in the Department of Foreign Languages, University of Nizwa, Oman. Applicants should be able to begin work at the beginning of the Fall 2016 academic semester (August / September).

Requirements:
The ideal candidate will have the following profile:

Lecturer:
• MA in Applied Linguistics / TESOL from an recognized Anglophonic university

Assistant Prof / Associate Prof / Prof:
• PhD in Applied Linguistics / TESOL from an recognized Anglophonic university
• Research track record and proof of an ongoing commitment to research activities
• Experience in supervising MA theses

For all ranks:
• Higher education teaching experience in a relevant specialism for a minimum of two years
• Computer / media literacy including use of a LMS
• Experience of working in an L2 English academic context.

Job Description
The successful applicant will be expected to:
• teach modules in the university-wide English courses, and on BA and MA English language programmes (according to rank)
• contribute to the development of courses, and the development of student learning opportunities
• collaborate with other teachers working on the programmes
• supervise BA undergraduate final year projects and MA dissertations as required
• undertake necessary administrative tasks

Application Information
Applicants should send their CV and covering letter via email.