Li & Lee: Transpositioning: Translanguaging and the Liquidity of Identity

Resources in ICD“ width=Li, W., & Lee, T. K. (2023). Transpositioning: Translanguaging and the liquidity of identity.
Applied Linguistics, 20, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amad065

Transpositioning is an adaptation of the concept of positioning as used in social psychology, and is defined as “the process in which individuals articulate their personhood by taking up changeable identities in interaction” (p. 2). It should be relevant to those studying intercultural dialogue, though it has not yet been used in that context. See KC99: Translanguaging for a brief explanation of that concept.

“This essay seeks to address the seemingly random, ever-expanding, and shifting communicative demands of liquid modernity by focussing on two key issues: the need to reconceptualize language and communication as a consequence of the diversification of media and resources users draw upon to meet these demands; and the need for a new analytical framework to capture how people perform multiplex roles spontaneously and simultaneously through dynamic and adaptive communicative practices. We do the former with the concept of translanguaging and the latter with transpositioning.” (p. 1)

“Translanguaging facilitates transpositioning. The juxtaposition of the two terms underscores the simultaneous activation of multiple identities by way of mobilizing resources across the boundaries of named languages, new media, and entrenched ideologies. In this process, borders are renegotiated, circumvented, even outright rejected. What ensues are emergent and evolving semiotic spaces in which play—in the sense of a certain lightness of being, marked by a creative and critical ludicity—is a method of social engagement. One might thus say that communication in the liquid modern age comprises a non-committal play of identities where language users, in the manner of free-and-easy tourists creating itineraries on the whim, spontaneously (re)invent themselves by orchestrating all available and accessible resources in their semiotic repertoire in response to communicative stimuli from others.” (p. 14)

For a brief introduction to the topic, see KC99: Translanguaging.

Intersect Virtual Conference 2023 (Canada but Online)

EventsIntersect: 2nd Annual Graduate Students Virtual Conference, Royal Roads University, Victoria, British Colombia, Canada, 26-27 October 2023.

INTERSECT is the annual virtual conference of the Master of Arts in Intercultural and International Communication (MAIIC) program at Royal Roads University, Victoria, BC, Canada. The conference brings together experts, researchers, and students from different parts of the world to explore and discuss the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities in intercultural and international communication. Join and register for free to be part of this exciting conference.

The keynote speakers are:
Dr. Rogério Miguel Puga (Nova University, Lisbon, Portugal)
Dr. Merelda Fiddler-Potter (First Nations University of Canada, Saskatchewan, Canada)
Dr. Brad Anderson (Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Canada)
Ms. Delphine Schrank M.A. (Investigative Journalist and Author, Mexico City, Mexico)

DIVERSAS: Dialogue Between Portuguese and Chinese (Macau)

EventsDIVERSAS: Diversity in Portuguese and Chinese Translation, St. Joseph University, Macau, 27 September-20 October 2023.

The exhibition “DIVERSAS – Diversity in Portuguese-Chinese Translation,” organized by at the University of Saint Joseph, is a multifaceted display of intercultural and linguistic dialogue between Portuguese and Chinese. This exhibition showcases student projects prepared during the prior academic year. Each work reflects the diversity of these two very different languages, exploring the translation and interpretation of texts, covering various genres, themes, and fields of knowledge.  DIVERSAS invites visitors to explore and discover the plurality of meanings and perspectives that arise throughout the process of teaching and learning languages. Each piece in the exhibition is a testimony to the challenge of translating not only words but also contexts, ideas, and feelings between such rich cultures and traditions.

This event is an opportunity to see the work and creativity of the students, and to reflect on the importance of intercultural dialogue in building a more inclusive and harmonious world.

The exhibition is an invitation to reflect on the role of translation in bringing worlds closer together, in understanding other cultures, and in building bridges between people and nations. It would serve well as a model to other similar programs.

 

New CID Competition/Publication: Student Voices

“Student Voices

This is a reminder the Center for Intercultural Dialogue has invited students to apply for the opportunity to be published in a new publication, to be titled Student Voices.

Students (at any level, high school to doctoral students) may submit entries at any time; they will be judged four times/year. All entries submitted will be reviewed, and the best ones prepared for publication. This is not a competition with just a few winners; all entries passing review will be published. The students whose work is accepted for publication will be given profiles on the website. The first winner’s essay was published in September: Rohak Jain, a high school student at Interlake High School in Belleview, wrote The Virtues of an Open Mind: Making Room for Flexibility in Intercultural Dialogue.

The goal of the competition is to invite a wide range of students to tell the story of their own experience with intercultural dialogue, or what they have learned about intercultural dialogue, or what they want to share with others. As made clear on our website, intercultural dialogue is jointly constructed by participants, requiring cooperation to engage in new and different ways of interacting. This series is designed to publicly amplify the voices of students who have engaged in intercultural dialogues. Those dialogues do not have to have been successful; we can learn as much from things that go wrong as when things go right.

There will be several deadlines per year, to accommodate different schedules. The next deadline is November 30, 2023. Details about Student Voices can be found by reading the original post.

Auburn U: International Organizational Communication (USA)

“JobAssistant Professor of International Organizational Communication,  Auburn University, Auburn, AL, USA. Deadline: 27 October 2023 or until filled.

The School of Communication and Journalism at Auburn University invites applications for a tenure-track position as an Assistant Professor of Communication beginning fall semester, Aug. 16, 2024. Responsibilities include teaching organizational and intercultural communication as well as quantitative or qualitative research methods at the graduate and undergraduate levels and developing graduate and advanced undergraduate courses in international organizational and intercultural communication and area of specialty.

The successful candidate will have a strong background in international organizational communication and a demonstrated ability to teach undergraduate courses in group communication and related organizational communication processes. They will have taught or have an interest in developing communication courses related to organizational and intercultural contexts. The successful candidate will be willing to teach large lecture courses and have taught or have an interest in developing online courses and/or study abroad opportunities. Candidates that can teach a variety of research methodologies are desired.

Cornell U: Global Operations (USA)

“JobAssistant Director of Global Operations, Office of the Vice Provost of International Affairs, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA. Deadline: 28 October 2023.

Reporting to the Associate Vice Provost and Executive Director of Global Operations and Strategy, the Assistant Director of Global Operations is part of the Global Operations team responsible for Finance, HR, and Consulting. The position provides support to Cornell faculty, staff and students conducting educational, research, service, or professional services abroad. The position works closely with the Director of International HR and other subject matter experts across the institution including Tax, Cash Management, Office of Sponsored Programs, Risk Management and Insurance, and the Office of General Counsel, and Colleges/Schools.

Media Literacy Week 2023

EventsMedia Literacy Week,  Sponsored by the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) , 23-27 October 2023.

US Media Literacy Week Logo

U.S. Media Literacy Week is the celebration of Media Literacy across the United States, held in conjunction with UNESCO’s Global Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Week. The mission is to highlight the power of media literacy education and its essential role in education all across the country. U.S. Media Literacy Week calls attention to media literacy education by bringing together hundreds of partners for events and activities around the country.

NAMLE defines media literacy as, “the ability to ACCESS, ANALYZE, EVALUATE, CREATE, and ACT using all forms of communication.” So each day will focus on one of those words and we encourage participants to organize events, teach a lesson, or create media related to the day’s theme. Learn more about this year’s theme here. each day: Access, Analyze, Evaluate, Create, and Act.

What does media literacy have to do with intercultural dialogue?

…media literacy deals with the study of cultures and looks at the problems relating to hybridization, interconnection and cross-cultural issues between societies and peoples. In other words, media literacy is all about intercultural dialogue.

Source: Tornero, J. M. P. (2014). Media literacy: The cultural heritage of our time. In J. M. P. Tornero (Ed.), Media literacy and intercultural dialogue: Strategies, debates and good practices (p. 5). Barcelona, Spain: Ediciones Sehen.

The long list of activities includes the 3rd Annual Media Literacy Week Film Festival and Productive Conversations without Confrontation.

 

Copenhagen Winter School in Sociolinguistics 2024 (Denmark)

Study Abroad

Copenhagen Winter School in Sociolinguistics, University of Copenhagen, Denmark, 11-15 March 2024. Deadline: 1 December 2023.

The LANCHART Centre and the Department of Nordic Studies and Linguistics at the University of Copenhagen once again invite applicants for a PhD winter school in sociolinguistics. The winter school will take place from 9:00 to 17:00 from the 11th to the 15th of March 2024 at the University of Copenhagen.

Invited guest teachers: David Britain (Universität Bern), Alexandra Georgakopoulou (King’s College London), David Karlander (Uppsala University and The Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study); Local teachers: Andreas Candefors Stæhr, Pia Quist, Janus Spindler Møller, and Malene Monka (University of Copenhagen).

The overall theme for the course is sociolinguistics understood broadly, and the participants will gain insights into different research fields within contemporary sociolinguistics. Focus is on newer developments, and instructors will address themes and questions raised within the study of language, variation and indexicality as well as discourse oriented studies of language, diversity and social media. These issues will be discussed both from a theoretical and an empirical perspective.

All participants should prepare a 20-minute presentation of their project with a special focus on themes that they would like to have discussed as part of the course. This could be for instance theoretical or methodological issues, or it could be ongoing analyses that would benefit from a discussion. The idea is for all participants to get an opportunity to have their projects discussed, and to get comments from both teachers and other participants.

A Linguistic Landscapes Approach to Learning Environments (Finland & Online)

EventsA linguistic landscapes approach to learning environments,  Speaker: Tamás Péter Szabó , University of Jyväskylä, Seminaarinmäki, B 349 Suvanto and Zoom, 7 November 2023 14:15–15:45 EET.

Welcome to think about the origins and use of the concepts linguistic landscape and schoolscape that help us understand discourses, policies and educational practices in public spaces. The workshop is part of the ongoing FORTHEM Campus period hosted by the University of Jyväskylä. Open to students, researchers, teachers and anyone interested, this workshop demonstrates the concepts of linguistic landscapes and schoolscapes through some main conceptualizations of language and language learning in educational contexts. Examples from ethnographic research invite participants to reflect on their own lived experiences and (envisioned) pedagogical practices.

The term linguistic landscape originates in Geography research that first focused on the presence of various languages in commercial signs in the 1970s. Expanding an early focus on written signs in public spaces, current definitions take a multimodal and multisensory approach. The concept of schoolscape in turn encompasses physical, institutional, societal, and virtual spaces of education. Schoolscape studies look beyond policy and language practices and frame language and educational practices as spatialized and embodied.

Tamás Péter Szabó (PhD) is Senior Lecturer of multilingualism and the internationalisation of teacher education in the Department of Teacher Education as well as Adjunct Professor of Linguistic Landscape studies in the Centre for Applied Language Studies at the University of Jyväskylä. In his schoolscape studies, he focuses on multilingual pedagogies and methodological innovations. Further, he develops pre- and in-service teacher education courses for the creative renewal of learning environments. In the FORTHEM Alliance, Tamás is Alliance level coordinator of Multilingualism in School and Higher Education Lab and co-chair of the Labs and Co-creation Mission Board.

This workshop is a joint session of the FORTHEM Campus course Approaches to Multilingualism and the FORTHEM Digital Academy course Multilingual Learning Environments, both developed by contributors of Multilingualism in School and Higher Education Lab.

FORTHEM Alliance aims to transform and shape the future of the European higher education and research area. The nine universities have therefore established an education, research, innovation and transfer connecting, student-centred and inclusive European University with a strong regional anchoring. FORTHEM is an alliance of nine public universities with a well-balanced geographical distribution in Europe. 

Washington Office on Latin America: Internships 2024 (USA)

Professional OpportunitiesSally Yudelman Internship Program, Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA), Washington, DC, USA. Deadline: 31 October 2023 for spring 2024 internships.

WOLA’s Internship Program is named in honor of Sally Yudelman for her commitment and contribution to WOLA and the cause of social justice. Following Sally’s example, they hope to provide unique mentoring opportunities through internships, encouraging the next generation of young people to get involved in advocating for human rights in Latin America. Former interns can be found around the world working as human rights advocates, congressional aides, lawyers, journalists, professors, and even as members of WOLA’s staff.

Every semester, WOLA’s new interns are paired with staff mentors and absorbed into the work of the organization. They collaborate on a mix of research, analytical, and administrative work, and they are encouraged to get involved in the day-to-day activities of their teams.

WOLA selects three interns per session (Spring, Summer, and Fall), and each intern is assigned to work with two of the programs from the following; Border Security, Central American Monitor, Colombia, Communications, Cuba, Development/Fundraising, Drug Policy, Mexico and Migrant Rights, Operations and Human Resources, and Venezuela. The available programs are based on the intern’s interests as well as WOLA’s needs; they change every session.

Interested applicants should have a demonstrated interest in human rights, democracy, and social justice in Latin America; initiative and flexibility; the ability to work in a fast-paced environment; good organizational skills; follow-through; and attention to detail. A minimum of intermediate-advanced Spanish proficiency is required for all internships. Intermediate Portuguese language skills and an interest/experience in development, operations, or communications are pluses. Lastly due to the paid nature of this internship you must be authorized to work in the United States.