CFP ICA 2025: Disrupting and Consolidating Communication Research (USA)

ConferencesCall for papers: ICA@75: Disrupting and Consolidating Communication Research, Denver, Colorado, USA, 12-16 June 2025. Deadline: 1 November 2024.

Addressing the International Communication Association’s 75th anniversary, the 2025 conference theme is an invitation to critically reflect on communication studies as a discipline and ICA as an agent and site of disciplinary development. Theme sessions will take stock of our past, critically review present developments, and chart out future avenues for communication research. Organizers particularly welcome contributions speaking to three important aspects of the theme: communication scholarship as a transformative and stabilizing force in society, as a research practice that can be both revolutionary and consolidating, and communication studies as a disrupted and resilient discipline. In all these contexts, elements of disruption and consolidation are not necessarily antithetical but may productively be framed as a dialectical relationship.

ICA has made significant strides in amplifying the visibility of communication scholarship beyond academia. From democratic backsliding to climate change and conflict transformation, our discipline is poised to provide relevant answers to many burning questions of our time. Through public scholarship, communication scholars can make themselves useful by addressing the problems of the world’s current polycrisis. They may act as a transformative voice in society (by advocating social change) and as a stabilizing force (by maintaining democracy or social justice). A key issue in this context is the sometimes troubled relationship between scholarship and advocacy.

The public impact of scholarship is typically connected to a discipline’s ability to generate original knowledge. During the past 75 years, communication research has exponentially grown in terms of quantity. However, across a variety of disciplines and academic fields, such expansion is mostly attributed to the growth in studies that consolidate existing knowledge, pushing aside disruptive and revolutionary scholarship that forges new directions and breaks existing paradigms. The progressive fragmentation of the discipline may have contributed to this trend, along with persisting social and global inequalities in academia as well as a publication and review culture that tends to disadvantage certain types of research and scholarly communities, including those from the Global South.

Communication research is facing these issues while itself being disrupted on multiple fronts and, perhaps, with unprecedented consequences. AI-based technologies have started revolutionizing scholarly practice with vast implications for the way we conduct and evaluate scholarship. In addition to high levels of insecurity and precarity, researchers face growing demands to publish in prestigious venues, obtain large grants, and participate in reviewing and evaluations, all putting heavy mental strain on scholars. Through this call, we encourage the discipline to think about possible ways to consolidate our research environment by growing resilience and developing effective coping strategies.

In this spirit, organizers invite submissions for papers and panel proposals that address the conference theme along the lines of the outlined three areas. Submissions may address, but are not limited to, the following issues and topics:

  • Strategies to increase the visibility and impact of communication scholarship addressing the problems of our time
  • The relationship between scholarship and advocacy as well as obstacles to public scholarship and ways to overcome them
  • Research-based disruptions of dominant theories guiding communication inquiry
  • Historical trajectories of communication scholarship that have disrupted other fields of research and where communication studies has been disrupted by other disciplines
  • The cross-fertilization of communication research through disruptions originating from within
  • Research-based disruptions of dominant modes of communication inquiry from the Global South
  • The impact of AI on the conduct and evaluation of communication scholarship
  • The political economy of scholarship for the discipline’s ability to generate original knowledge
  • Assessments of growing academic demands and the resulting mental toll
  • Strategies to grow resilience and cultivate solidarity networks among various academic communities

CFP: Capacity Strengthening Training on Transitional Justice and Reconciliation (Kenya)

Professional OpportunitiesCall for Applications – Capacity Strengthening Training on Transitional Justice & Reconciliation and the African Union Transitional Justice Policy (AUTJP), Nairobi, Kenya, 21-25 October 2024. Deadline: 26 July 2024.

Capacity strengthening training on Transitional Justice and Reconciliation (TJ & R) and the AUTJP for women from national and sub-national civil society organisations in the Horn of Africa Region (focusing solely on Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, and Kenya) and the Great Lakes Region (focusing solely on Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, and Uganda). Sponsored by Life & Peace Institute (LPI), Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR), and Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (IJR).

The primary objective of the capacity- strengthening training is to empower African women from national and sub-national CSOs in the Horn of Africa and Great Lakes regions by providing them with comprehensive knowledge on TJ&R, specifically focusing on the AUTJP. This is intended to assist in developing, implementing, and monitoring TJ&R and dialogue initiatives in their respective countries. The aim is to enable these women to incorporate this knowledge into their work and actively promote TJ&R, dialogue, and social cohesion processes within their local communities.

KC 102: Inclusive Communication Translated into German

Key Concepts in ICDContinuing translations of Key Concepts in Intercultural Dialogue, today I am posting KC#102: Inclusive Communication, originally written by Mohammed Guamguami for publication in 2021, and now translated by Marlena Pompino into German.

As always, all Key Concepts are available as free PDFs; just click on the thumbnail to download. Lists organized chronologically by publication date and number, alphabetically by concept in English, 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.

KC102 Inclusive communication in GermanGuamguami, M. (2024). Inklusive Kommunikation. (M. Pompino, trans.). Key Concepts in Intercultural Dialogue, 102. Available from: https://centerforinterculturaldialogue.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/kc102-inclusive-communication_german.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

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

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Assoc of International Education Administrators: CEO (USA but Remote)

“JobChief Executive Officer, Association of International Education Administrators, Durham, NC, USA Deadline: 2 August 2024.

The Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA) seeks a mission-aligned and visionary leader to join the organization as the next Chief Executive Officer (CEO). AIEA, a membership organization formed in November 1982, is the only association dedicated exclusively to senior leaders in the field of international education, equipping them to shape the future of higher education in a global context. With more than 600 members from around the world, AIEA brings international education leaders into dialogue with each other, their counterparts around the world, organizations that promote international education, and groups concerned with the shaping and management of international higher education. Reporting directly to the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors, the CEO is the key leader responsible for overseeing the operations of the Association which includes the administration, staff, programming, strategic vision and plan implementation while representing the Association in external relations.

Stanford U: Berlin Overseas Studies Director (Germany)

“JobBing Overseas Studies Program Director, Stanford University, Berlin, Germany. Deadline: 2 August 2024.

The Bing Overseas Studies Program (BOSP) at Stanford University is seeking qualified candidates for the Director position at their center in Berlin, Germany. The Stanford in Berlin program is comprised of 6 employees who serve an average of 35 students for each of three academic quarters annually, in addition to a summer internship program. The Director of the Stanford Program in Berlin is charged with nourishing an intellectual and social environment that is supportive of excellence and high academic standards for Stanford undergraduates. The Director is responsible for the academic and administrative management and day to day operation of the Bing Overseas Studies Program (BOSP) center and for making decisions on local resource allocations and priorities, recognizing both local practice and Stanford University operating principles. The Director represents the Stanford Program in Berlin in collaboration with partner German academic institutions, sponsors, donors, foundations and alumni organization

ALF: Euro-Mediterranean Young Professionals Programme 2024 (Egypt)

Professional OpportunitiesEuro-Mediterranean Young Professionals Programme, Anna Lindh Foundation, Alexandria, Egypt. Deadline: 24 July 2024.

The ALF Euro-Mediterranean Young Professionals Programme is a full-time professional experience designed for young professionals at the beginning of their careers who are eager to expand their intercultural expertise through dedicated work.

The programme aims to empower talented graduates under the age of 30 from the 43 countries in the Euro-Mediterranean region by providing them with firsthand professional experience in intercultural dialogue. Professionals also benefit by contributing to the Foundation’s mission to foster youth inclusion through empowerment and engagement, enforcing their competitiveness on the job market.

Successful applicants will begin their professional journey of up to 12 months at the ALF Secretariat in Alexandria, Egypt.

U Illinois Urbana: Global Education & Training Program Coordinator (USA)

“Job

Global Education and Training Program Coordinator, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Champaign, IL (Hybrid position). Deadline: 22 July 2024.

Coordinate, plan and implement educational and training programs offered through Global Education and Training (GET).

Statement of Duties & Responsibilities:

Develop, plan and administer on-site or remote management for GET in-person, online, or hybrid training and educational programs including: proposal and budget preparation and management; schedule development; faculty, external speaker, and interpreter recruitment; and organization of seminars, field trips, cultural and social events.

Provide hands-on or virtual facilitation and delivery of selected program content. Accompany groups on site visits to regional businesses and cultural activities.

Communicate program planning logistics with all stakeholders, including international partner organizations and participants, in a timely fashion to ensure tight collaboration and coordination

Recruit, hire, train, supervise, and evaluate GET translators and employees working on GET programs.

Monitor and track program budgets and staffing needs.

Create and distribute program evaluations; meet with participants, faculty and staff to gather qualitative feedback on programs.

Utrecht U: Cancelling as a Postcolonial Strategy for Repairing Cultural Heritage (Netherlands)

“Studentships“Ph.D. in Cancelling as a Postcolonial Strategy for Repairing Cultural Heritage, Utrecht University, Netherlands. Deadline: 15 August 2024.

The Department of Media and Culture Studies is looking for a PhD candidate for a project that delves into the meaning and applications of canceling practices within antiracist and decolonial movements. The specific focus is on cancelling as a reparative strategy aimed at addressing the enduring impact of historical injustices in the present. Termed ‘reparative canceling,’ these practices seek to rectify symbols, art, knowledge, cultural heritage, and ingrained cultural norms that are deemed harmful and unjust, thus perpetuating the legacy of colonial history.

You will investigate how reparative cancelling of cultural heritage is performed within antiracist and decolonial activism in both postcolonial (Global South) and post-imperial (Global North) societies. Specifically, it will scrutinise the foundations, justifications, reparative outcomes, and potential drawbacks of the diverse canceling strategies employed by contemporary antiracist and decolonial publics to engage with memory and cultural heritage.

The project will address the following sub-research questions:
* Where does the ‘right to cancel’ stand in relation to the ‘right of memory’ and the preservation of cultural heritage?
* How is the emergence of decolonial and antiracist counter-narratives and counter-memories facilitated by reparative cancelling?

You will tackle these questions by analysing chosen case studies encompassing a range of reparative cancelling practices, such as suppressing/banning, removing/displacing, renaming, and blacklisting/censoring, situated in different geographic locations – namely two postcolonial contexts and two post-imperial contexts.

CosmoKidz Resources (USA)

Applied ICD

CosmoKidz resources, Coordinated Management of Meaning Institute for Personal and Social Evolution, USA.

 

The global problems of today and of the future will require leaders who are able to helpfully engage with others of varying backgrounds, beliefs, and perspectives. CosmoKidz is providing the building blocks for this kind of leadership. Helping to build better social worlds, one conversation at a time.

The CosmoKidzTM program consists of sets of conversational activities for adults to use with children and teens to help them develop constructive social and emotional intelligences. The CosmoKidzTM activities fit in with a new move in educational thinking: a shift from training students for cleverness and competition to helping them become fulfilled individuals and active, caring, compassionate people. The conversational activities are developed for different age groups—from children, to tweens and teens—based on something CMMi calls a cosmopolitan sensibility. It’s a different way of looking at how adults relate with children and how we would like them to relate with others. It also helps us focus on important things that most people don’t pay attention to that happens in our communicating with others.

CosmoKidz materials are now available in English, Pashto, Farsi, Norwegian, and Romanian. And there are related materials for CosmoTweenz, CosmoTeenz, and CosmoParents, as well as more general SOAR (Sense what’s around you, Open your hands to help others, Act with kindness, Respect other people) activities.

CFP: Family Language Policy Conference (Ireland)

“Collaborative

Call for papers: Family Language Policy Conference: Reimagining the Field, University of Galway, Galway, Ireland, 22-23 October 2024. Deadline: 31 July 2024.

In their 2008 paper, King et al. laid the foundation for the emergence of the field that came to be recognised as Family Language Policy (FLP). Since then, this field of inquiry has received an increasing amount of scholarly attention and has evolved into a burgeoning field over the last decade. In this short time span, the core interests of FLP have shifted: While it initially attempted “to draw direct causal links across ideologies, practices, and outcomes”, it moved on to examining “how families are constructed through multilingual language practices, and how language functions as a resource for this process of family making and meaning making” (King 2016: 728). Recent FLP scholarship has pointed to the necessity of putting under scrutiny the central concepts of family, language, and language policy and not departing from taken-for-granted notions in order to produce situated accounts of FLP (Lanza & Lomeu Gomes 2020). A recent proposal even suggests reimagining the field “under the more all-encompassing label of family multilingualism” (Léglise 2023: 288), arguing that the institutionalisation of FLP as a field has marginalised different kinds of knowledges pertinent to family multilingualism.

Encouraged by the impetus of these and other reflections on the foundations of research on family language policy and family multilingualism, this Hybrid International Conference on Family Language Policy is being organised under the theme of Reimagining the Field. The aim is to provide a forum for discussing epistemological, theoretical and methodological considerations around FLP and family multilingualism (FM), for setting future research agendas and for exploring possibilities for establishing regular venues for such exchange.

Contributions in the form of papers and symposia are welcomed on the following issues:
• Epistemological foundations of FLP/FM
• Key theoretical concepts in FLP/FM
• Nexus of FLP/FM and the wider community
• Interaction between FLP/FM and educational institutions
• Children’s agency
• Digital and multimodal interaction in the family
• Affect and emotion in FLP/FM
• FLP/FM and political economy
• Participatory approaches in FLP/FM