Tag: intercultural dialogue

New Intercultural Dialogue book out

Intercultural dialogue: Modern paradigm and experience of the neighborhood has just been published as an ebook, and is available for free (just click on the thumbnail below if you want a copy). The editor is Liubou Uladykouskaja, Director of the Institution Intercultural Dialogue in Minsk, Belarus.

ICD-Belarus-coverIn the original Cyrillic, the citation would be:

Міжкультурны дыялог: сучасная парадыгма і во­пыт су­cедства : зб. навук. арт. / склад. і навук. рэд.Л. Уладыкоўская. – Мінск : ДIКСТ БДУ, 2014.

 

This collection includes selected materials from the international scientific conference of the same name organized by the Polish Institute in Minsk, the State Institute of Management and Social Technologies of the Belarusian State University, the Institution “Intercultural Dialogue” (held in Minsk on May 24, 2013) , as well as scientific developments of foreign authors. The articles discuss various aspects and modern concepts of intercultural dialogue and the basis of its research methodology. Chapters are written in Belarusian, Polish, English and Russian; the authors are from the US, Belarus, Poland, and Ukraine.

The one chapter in English is by the CID Director, Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, based on a paper delivered at the World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue in Baku, Azerbaijan in 2011. In English, that citation would be:

Leeds-Hurwitz, W. (2014). Dialogue about dialogue: Taking a (meta)communication perspective on intercultural dialogue. In L. Uladykouskaja (Ed.), Intercultural dialogue: Modern paradigm and experience of the neighborhood (pp. 6-13). Minsk, Belarus: Belarusian State University.

Key Concepts in Intercultural Dialogue #1

Key Concepts in ICDYou may have already noticed that the menu bar on the site has a new entry: publications. Starting today, the Center for Intercultural Dialogue is initiating a series of short briefs describing Key Concepts in intercultural Dialogue. The logic is that different people, working in different countries and disciplines, use different vocabulary to describe their interests, yet these terms overlap. It should be useful to sort out some of the assumptions and history attached to each concept for those unfamiliar with it. Key Concepts will be made available as PDFs on the CID website and may be downloaded for free. The first few concepts will be intercultural dialogue, cosmopolitanism, intercultural competence, and coordinated management of meaning. As you think of other concepts you would like to see included, send an email to the series editor, Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz. If there are concepts you would like to prepare, provide an explanation of why you think the concept is central to the study of intercultural dialogue.

The first key concept described is, for obvious reasons, Intercultural Dialogue. Click on the thumbnail to download the PDF.KC1-sm

NOTE for students: As these will be written by academics, they may be used as resources in academic papers (unless your professor in a particular course tells you otherwise). The citation format in APA would be:

Leeds-Hurwitz, W. (2014). Intercultural dialogue. Key Concepts in Intercultural Dialogue, 1. Available from: https://centerforinterculturaldialogue.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/key-concept-intercultural-dialogue1.pdf

NOTE: After publishing dozens of key concepts and translations, lists organized chronologically by publication date and number, alphabetically by concept in English, and by languages into which they have been translated, have been created, and a page of acknowledgments with the names of all authors, translators, and reviewers.

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

AdR Fellowship in Cross-cultural dialogue

The Ariane de Rothschild Fellowship is now accepting applications. This unique program blends business training in social entrepreneurship and innovative thinking in social science with experiential dialogue. Fellows will spend two weeks in August 2014 at the University of Cambridge.

Deadline for complete applications is February 9, 2014 (midnight, CET).

NOTE: Application deadline has been extended to Feb 23, 2014

To apply, click here
For more information, visit: www.adrfellowship.org
Social Media: www.facebook.com/AdRFellowship

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Transformative Power of Dialogue

Review of:
Stephen W. Littlejohn & Sheila McNamee (Eds.). (2014). The coordinated management of meaning: A festschrift in honor of W. Barnett Pearce. Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.

by Robyn Penman

In 1980, Barnett Pearce and his colleague, Vern Cronen, published Communication, Action and Meaning, a seminal work introducing scholars to the theory of the coordinated management of meaning (CMM). Over the ensuing decades, CMM theory has continued to grow, reaching a wider and wider audience as the practical and theoretical relevance of Barnett’s work became increasingly acknowledged.

In recognition of Barnett’s outstanding scholarship, a conference, entitled the Transformative Power of Dialogue, was held in his honour in January 2011. The essays in this book collection emerged from that conference. I am one of the contributors to this volume and, as such, this review is more of a commendation than any conventional critical review.

The book opens with an essay written by Barnett shortly before his death, reflecting on what it could take for personal and social revolution to be brought about. As he put it, he has “bet my professional life” on following the risky, high stake path that this evolution “could be promoted by explicit attention to what we are making together in the forms of communication in which we engage” (p. 44).

Barnett’s bet has reaped its rewards, not the least of which is the extent to which he has inspired, encouraged and collaborated with an extraordinary range of scholars and practitioners, a sample of which is contained in the current volume. The very breadth, scholarship and wide-ranging practical import captured in the 15 essays bear witness to the rich offerings to be found in CMM and its broader communication perspective.

For those interested in intercultural dialogue, the central importance placed on dialogue in Barnett’s work, and in the essays in this volume, makes the book especially pertinent. One part of this volume is specifically devoted to the theme of dialogue. The topics include the role of systemic questioning (Victoria Chen), moral conflict and managing difference (Stephen Littlejohn), framing and conflict transformation (Linda Putnam), and generative community dialogue (Stanley Deetz).

Dialogue also emerges as a powerful theme throughout the other parts in the book. For example, I (Penman) consider the core relationship between dialogue and presence and what this means for understanding participation in mediated life. John Lannamann explores the key role of dialogue and its practice in cosmopolitan communication in making better social worlds. And Kim Pearce sums up the volume by talking about the pathway to personal and social evolution in terms of the “life of dialogue…that holds in tension, and compassion, the various stories, actions and people who loves us, or don’t, who are like us. . . . , or aren’t and who may challenge us to the core to remain civil and open” (p. 328).

For anyone interested in dialogue and its role in making better social worlds, this book should be a rewarding read.

Reminder: ABC Micro Grants available

UPDATE May 12, 2014: This round of micro grants has been completed – see the results. As further micro grants become available, they will be described on the website.

The Center for Intercultural Dialogue will distribute micro grants for intercultural dialogue from a pool of $5000 made available by the Association for Business Communication. These micro grants are intended to support either or both of the two types of activities described in the mission of the Center: study of intercultural dialogues by Communication scholars, and/or participation in intercultural dialogue through academic interactions between Communication scholars based in different countries, or different linguistic and cultural regions. These grants are sufficient to provide seed funding only: no more than $1000 maximum can be awarded to any one individual. The goal is to encourage international, intercultural, interlingual collaborative research by giving enough funding to offset the cost of airfare only, while providing opportunity (and cause) for matching grants from universities.

ABC logo
If you already have multiple international connections, this grant is not for you – obviously you don’t need it. But if you are at a small college, or if you are a new scholar, or have not yet established significant international connections related to research, you are the intended audience for this competition. If you have been reading publications by an international scholar on a topic of potential relevance to your own research, consider a short trip to discuss ways to collaborate on a future project. If you do not know who has been doing relevant work, check the sources you’ve been reading lately, ask your colleagues, and/or think about who you know from graduate school or who you have met (or heard present an intriguing paper) at a conference. Find someone with similar interests but who takes a different theoretical or methodological stance by virtue of being based in a different cultural context.

The intention is to support the development of new intercultural, professional connections. Thus continuing collaborations are ineligible. Those based in the US are expected to propose travel outside the country. International scholars currently living outside their country of origin are asked to establish a new affiliation in a different region rather than proposing a return to their homeland. We recognize that much interesting work can be done within a country between cultural groups, however this grant program focuses on connecting researchers who are not yet connected, across cultural regions that are typically disconnected. This rationale of cross-cultural connection must be explicit in the project description.

The ABC Micro Grants Application requires applicants to describe their project, provide a brief resume, a short note from their department chair documenting their current status, and one from the host scholar expressing interest in holding conversations related to research. The initial deadline for review of proposals is February 1, 2014. If funds remain after the initial set of grants have been awarded, April 15, 2014 will be the second deadline.

The National Communication Association set aside similar funding for micro grants in 2012-13. Those projects have already been completed, and have been described in sufficient detail that they may serve as models for this year’s applications.

Contact the Center’s Director, Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, with questions.

Recommended UNESCO Documents for Interculturalists

UNESCO sees intercultural dialogue as a central topic, and publishes frequently on related issues. In addition to the Intercultural Competences booklet that I worked on last year, which has had hundreds and hundreds of downloads from this site alone, several other publications may be of interest to intercultural scholars.

A Common Framework for the Ethics of the 21st Century

A New Cultural Policy Agenda for Development and Mutual Understanding

Asian-Arab Philosophical Dialogues on Globalization, Democracy and Human Rights

Cultural Diversity and Transversal Values: East-West Dialogue on Spiritual and Secular Dynamics

Exploring Synergies between Faith Values and Education for Sustainable Development

What UNESCO for the Future? Forum of Reflexion

World Social Science Report 2010: Knowledge Divides

My thanks to Yoshitaka Miike for these suggestions!

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

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Harron Chair talk: Intercultural Dialogue

Harron Lecture flyerOn November 11, 2013, I presented the Harron Family Endowed Chair Lecture entitled “Intercultural Dialogue: Who Needs It? Who Promotes It? Who Studies It?” This is the one public lecture expected of the Harron Chair at Villanova University, and this semester I serve in that position. College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Dean Jean Ann Linney provided a brief history of the Harron Family Endowed Chair for the audience, and Dr. Maurice Hall, Communication Department Chair, introduced me. There was a large crowd (more than expected, about 75 – sorry about the lack of chairs for the last dozen to come!) and good questions from not only faculty members but also students. Thanks to Chad Fahs for videotaping, and Minh Cao who set up a new YouTube channel for the Center (more about that in a separate post), you can see an excerpt of the talk (above).

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

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Micro Grants for Intercultural Dialogue Available!

UPDATE May 12, 2014: This round of micro grants has been completed – see the results. As further micro grants become available, they will be described on the website.

The Center for Intercultural Dialogue will distribute micro grants for intercultural dialogue from a pool of $5000 made available by the Association for Business Communication. These micro grants are intended to support either or both of the two types of activities described in the mission of the Center: study of intercultural dialogues by Communication scholars, and/or participation in intercultural dialogue through academic interactions between Communication scholars based in different countries, or different linguistic and cultural regions. These grants are sufficient to provide seed funding only: no more than $1000 maximum can be awarded to any one individual. The goal is to encourage international, intercultural, interlingual collaborative research by giving enough funding to offset the cost of airfare only, while providing opportunity (and cause) for matching grants from universities.

ABC logoIf you already have multiple international connections, this grant is not for you – obviously you don’t need it. But if you are at a small college, or if you are a new scholar, or have not yet established significant international connections related to research, you are the intended audience for this competition. If you have been reading publications by an international scholar on a topic of potential relevance to your own research, consider a short trip to discuss ways to collaborate on a future project. If you do not know who has been doing relevant work, check the sources you’ve been reading lately, ask your colleagues, and/or think about who you know from graduate school or who you have met (or heard present an intriguing paper) at a conference. Find someone with similar interests but who takes a different theoretical or methodological stance by virtue of being based in a different cultural context.

The intention is to support the development of new intercultural, professional connections. Thus continuing collaborations are ineligible. Those based in the US are expected to propose travel outside the country. International scholars currently living outside their country of origin are asked to establish a new affiliation in a different region rather than proposing a return to their homeland. We recognize that much interesting work can be done within a country between cultural groups, however this grant program focuses on connecting researchers who are not yet connected, across cultural regions that are typically disconnected. This rationale of cross-cultural connection must be explicit in the project description.

The ABC Micro Grants Application requires applicants to describe their project, provide a brief resume, a short note from their department chair documenting their current status, and one from the host scholar expressing interest in holding conversations related to research. The initial deadline for review of proposals is February 1, 2014. If funds remain after the initial set of grants have been awarded, April 15, 2014 will be the second deadline.

The National Communication Association set aside similar funding for micro grants in 2012-13. Those projects have already been completed, and have been described in sufficient detail that they may serve as models for this year’s applications.

Contact the Center’s Director, Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, with questions.

University at Albany

On October 18, 2013 I gave a talk at the University at Albany, State University of New York, entitled “Intercultural Dialogue: Who Needs it? Who Promotes it? Who Studies it?”

Albany flyer

My thanks to Prof. Teresa Harrison for organizing the event, and to Dr. Mihye Seo for integrating my talk into her Proseminar. While there I was able to catch up with several colleagues who I have known for many years (including Profs. Anita Pomerantz, Robert Sanders and Annis Golden) as well as meet several I had not yet met (Drs. Emilie Gould, Matthew Matsaganis).

U at Albany talk

I also had the chance to talk with some of the graduate students, including Erting “Sa Sa” Sa and Sunny Zhao, below.

Albany students

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz
Director, Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Summer Academy Peacebuilding & ICD

2nd International Summer Academy in Peace-building & Intercultural Dialogue
17.08 – 27.08.2014
Baar, Switzerland

IPD logo

The Institute for Peace and Dialogue is very glad to announce its next International Summer Academy in Peace-building & Intercultural Dialogue, which is going to be held in Switzerland 2014.  Its image as one of the most favourable places for traveling has made it more interesting to offer an exited and comprehensive program for our participants. Our experts, who are professionals in their fields will contribute to this event, with many years of experience in peace and conflict studies.

Nowadays unfortunately several frozen or ongoing conflicts between or within states still exist. Conflicts are different and if we look to the world mankind, how they are facing many new challenges, coupled with new dangerous situations, i.e. terrorist acts, non-legal arming of conflict sides, re-determination of borders, establishing new countries in the world map, non-providing territorial integrity, trafficking of arms, drugs and human; disputes on the implementation of transnational energy projects, democratization and false elections, revolution and internal political conflicts, armed guerrilla movements, violation and discrimination by nationalists, world economic crisis, climate change and unsafely biodiversity etc. Unfortunately the list is long. Conflicts are related and an integral part of human beings, as conflicts cause violation of human rights.

Existing conflicts weaken every kind of cooperation between nations and states. Without mutual cooperation and understanding, the future prosperity of the region would remain only as a good dream. Taking into consideration of peaceful behavior and engagements, we can make a decision on the strict belief, that opportunities for solving conflicts are feasible. Because in every conflict situation and tension forms we consequently face the below mentioned common situations:

1. Desperate situation and non-solving problems are not eternal;
2. It is possible to make common decision which both sides;
3. We can find common values, traditions and similar situation among conflict parties;
4. Protracted conflicts on the same time endanger regional development and prosperity;
5. Any mediation and negotiation actions are better than nothing.

Main Goal
The main goal of the summer academy is to support institutional academic peace education and strengthen peace-building skills and intercultural dialogue of the international society.

Language of the program
The International Summer Academy will be held in English.

Further information, and application, available from the Institute for Peace and Dialogue.