Tag: COVID-19

Teaching Interculturality in Higher Education (Online Event)

EventsFurther thoughts on teaching interculturality in higher education during and after the COVID-19 crisis, 4 September 2020.

Following a very successful and stimulating event in July 2020, this new webinar represents another contribution to reflecting on current issues in the teaching of interculturality in higher education, especially in relation to the COVID-19 crisis. New speakers were invited to share their views and reflections for this session (Australia, China, Finland, The Netherlands). Organised by Fred Dervin (University of Helsinki, Finland), Andreas Jacobsson (Karlstad University, Sweden) and Mei Yuan (Minzu University of China)

Interculturality is taught in institutions of higher education around the world under different guises (intercultural communication, intercultural encounters, global competence, etc.) and in different fields (language, teacher education, health care, business, etc.). The accelerated internationalization that these institutions have experienced for the last decades has also contributed to the popularity of courses around the notion of interculturality. What scholars note about such courses is that the ideologies, theoretical frameworks and methods used for teaching interculturality are many and varied. Furthermore, those who teach interculturality are not always specialists and they can struggle with different kinds of perspectives, paradigms, ideologies, methods…

Many argue that the COVID-19 crisis will have an influence on our lives for the years/decades (?) to come. As far as interculturality is concerned, the crisis has led to very violent acts of xenophobia, Sinophobia, blatant nationalism but also aggressive (systemic) racism and discrimination. At the same time, some of these have been counterbalanced a little by people standing up against them.

Will these have an influence on the way we see interculturality from a higher education perspective, especially on what we teach, from what perspective(s) and how? Is it time for (real) change, beyond the polarization of culturalist/essentialist and postmodern ideologies, in intercultural communication education?

CFP Discourse & Rhetoric Amid COVID-19

“PublicationCall for papers: Special issue on Discourse and Rhetoric amid COVID 19 Pandemic: Dis/Articulating The ‘New Normal’ for Rhetoric and Communications E-Journal. Deadline: October 1, 2020.

Guest Editors: Andrea Valente and Paola Giorgis

The coronavirus disease (SARS-CoV-2) with its global and local pandemic has been on the top agenda of Government leaders, scientists, health professionals, as well as on the daily headlines across journalistic media. New governmental measures, decrees, scientific recommendations, and sanitary campaigns emerge everyday to combat or alleviate the pandemic which are endorsed and spread through mainstream media. On the one hand, a new discourse and rhetoric has been articulated to create, support, and even impose a ‘new normal’ that reconfigures how human beings communicate, interact, and socialize in public and private spaces. On the other hand, the new normal has triggered responses from skeptics, ‘Covideniers’ and protesters who try to disarticulate it by polarizing and politicizing the coronavirus pandemic.

With this in mind, this Special Edition invites junior and senior scholars to collaborate with articles that explore and analyze the various languages, rhetorical strategies, and discourses used during the Covid19 pandemic in order to either articulate (e.g. construct, endorse, conform) or disarticulate (e.g. contest, deny, undermine) the ‘new normal’. This Special Edition looks forward to collaborations in the field of argumentative theory, critical/discourse analysis, rhetoric, critical sociolinguistics, communication studies, and others alike.

Creative Tourism in the Regeneration of Communities (Portugal but online)

EventsOnline Seminar: So, what’s next? The role of creative tourism in the regeneration of communities. University of Coimbra, Portugal. June 2, 2020, 16h00 – Portugal/Lisbon timezone. Deadline to register: May 31, 2020

In this moment of transition, this webinar contributes to current discussions on the future of small-scale and community-based creative tourism, and on community recovery and resilience. How can we work collectively to move forward together?

The Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 has provided a stark moment of renewed reflection and contemplation on the realities of our interconnected world. It has highlighted the necessity of working together on both a local community and global scale to improve our quality of social solidarity, and to advance ideas and practices that can renew and provide mutual benefit, contribute to local vitality, and foster the sharing of cultural expressions. It has also led many to consider how to redirect travel and tourism to more meaningful and responsible ends. In our individual pods of isolation, the level of virtual reaching out and sharing was highlighted, and the importance of cultural practices in crafting these bridges and inter-locale connections was underscored.

Moving forward, there is a sense that this pandemic will change the way we act in future – individually, collectively in our geographic communities, and more widely in our nations and international networks. In this context, travel and tourism will resume but are likely be profoundly changed. Travelers may increasingly seek out places of beauty, of respite, of renewal. Domestic tourism may be reemphasized. Connections with others may be re-conceived and fostered on a more humane basis as co-travelers on a closely interconnected planet. A sense of rebuilding and renewal may prevail.

COVID-19 versus ICD

Applied ICDCOVID-19 vs. Intercultural Dialogue: What Impact? An interview of Professor Fethi Mansouri (UNESCO Chairholder, Cultural Diversity and Social Justice, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia) by Ann-Belinda Preis (Chief of UNESCO Intercultural Dialogue).

A good question. See the entire interview, but for an excerpt:

ABP: How does lack of contact and social interaction impact the broader Intercultural Dialogue (ICD) agenda, which is built on connectivity, contact and exchange?

FM: This is perhaps where COVID-19 presents a significant challenge to the ICD agenda. Intercultural dialogue has, as one of its core premises, contact between people. And the reason why we have contact as a core premise is because there is an assumption that when people get to know one another, prejudice might be reduced, and that issues of discrimination might disappear. So COVID-19 and its emphasis on social distancing means that a lot of what we would like to achieve through intercultural dialogue, in particular in bringing people together, bringing communities together, bringing diverse communities together (and diversity here means diversity of ethnic backgrounds, religious beliefs, nationalities etc.)…

Intercultural dialogue is in itself an essential tool that we will need in the post-COVID-19 environment.

We will need to renegotiate a new global compact, a new social contract, and I think dialogue will have to play a key role in that. So it is being perhaps compromised right now but it has a big role to play in the post-COVID-19 world that will emerge.

CFP: Relationships in the Time of COVID-19

“PublicationCall for Papers: Relationships in the time of COVID 19: Examining the effects of the global pandemic on personal relationships, for a Special issue of Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. Deadline: September 1, 2020.

Dr. Jennifer Bevan (Chapman University) and Dr. Pamela Lannutti (La Salle University) are editing a special issue of Journal of Social and Personal Relationships entitled “Relationships in the time of COVID 19: Examining the effects of the global pandemic on personal relationships.” This special issue of JSPR focused on the effects of the pandemic on personal relationships will serve as a valuable resource for scholars and practitioners as we work to understand the pandemic’s personal and social implications and to develop recommendations for scholars and practitioners in assisting relational partners to thrive in such difficult times.

Editors expect the special issue will serve as a catalyst to develop and challenge multiple theoretical and methodological aspects of relationship science. They will only consider papers where the pandemic is a central focus of the research project. Papers in the issue will be consistent with existing JSPR guidelines and requirements for papers.

Continue reading “CFP: Relationships in the Time of COVID-19”

Webinar: Impact of COVID-19 on International Assignees

EventsImpact of COVID-19 on International Assignees Webinar, Tri-State SIETAR. April 23, 2020.

Tri-State (NY-NJ-CT) SIETAR (Society for Education, Training and Research) have opened up their webinar on the impact of Covid-19 on international assignees’ mental health and approaches to overcome the challenges. International assignees tend to be highly resilient, having coped with the stresses of relocation and cultural adaptation. The stresses of Covid-19 can exacerbate unique expat circumstances, creating challenges that may be more than they bargained for.

In this webinar, Mercedes Naficy D’Angelo and Rensia Melles will discuss the impact of adverse events or crises on the mental health aspects of cultural adaptation and culture shock. They will offer tips and coping techniques to support assignees with these uncertain times away from home.

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