Illinois State University – Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Joseph Zompetti
Professor of Communication
Illinois State University

Fulbright to Sri Lanka

My Fulbright was in 1993 to Sri Lanka. I emailed the department of political science at the University of Colombo to arrange collaboration for research on the legacies of colonialism on the civil strife occurring in Sri Lanka. Once I arrived in Sri Lanka, I met with members of the political science department who then helped me locate important libraries, book stores, and individuals to interview for my research. As I was there, the civil war intensified and communication with individuals ceased. Unfortunately, those contacts did not last, and many of the individuals with whom I worked are no longer at the University. Nevertheless, while I was in Sri Lanka, the individuals at the University of Colombo were extremely helpful and welcoming. I strongly encourage anyone interested in Sri Lanka to reach out to relevant departments and introduce themselves to Sri Lankan academics. My experience suggests that the Sri Lankan academics will be more than willing to help however they can.

UPDATE 4/2/16:
Zompetti was also the recipient of a Fulbright grant to travel to Brazil in summer 2015. Zompetti taught at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), located in Belo Horizonte. The Fulbright Specialist Program (FSP) allowed Zompetti to teach a graduate course in cultural studies, work in a research consortium and lecture at nearby universities. The experience lasted 35 days.

John R. Baldwin is Professor of Communication and Coordinator of the Communication Studies Unit at Illinois State University.

John Baldwin Intercultural/ Intergroup Communication and Tolerance: My research interests usually involve culture or groupness in some way. In my dissertation (Ariz State Univ, 1994), I investigated how Caucasian Americans perceive the terms “race” and what behaviors they perceive to be “racist.” In various research projects, I am looking at the link between communication behaviors and stereotypes, at cross-cultural understandings of sexual harassment, at communicative strategies in interethnic romances, and at different ethnic perspectives at what constitutes “racism.”

Multidisciplinary Understandings of Culture: In different essays and a 2006 book on the definition of culture (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates), I strive to see how different disciplinary views, as well as different methods and even different assumptions about the world can inform our understandings of the nature of culture and of intolerance, such as racism and sexism.

Latin American Studies: I am also interested in communication in Latin America (Brazil specifically, though Latin America in general) and the social construction of gender, “race,” and nationality in Latin America. With knowledge of both Spanish and Portuguese, I have made presentations on Latin American communication and relationship patterns. I have published essays on the social construction of gender in Brazil and Latin America and done several presentations on the construction of “race,” particularly in Brazil. I have done consulting in Brazilian culture and taught Portuguese to local business professionals, as well as conducted training on cultural adjustment and on American culture for business sojourners. My next major research agenda will be to look at the social construction of “race” in Música Popular Brasileira (popular Brazilian music), and then to focus in on how it is negotiated in the work of specific artists, like Milton Nascimento, Tropicália (Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil), the Paralamas de Successo, and Legião Urbana.

Work for CID:
John Baldwin co-translated KC22: Cultural Identity into Portuguese.