Tag: Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz

Central China Normal University

On March 28, 2012, I presented a talk entitled “From Generation to Generation: Maintaining Cultural Identity over Time” to the School of Foreign Languages, part of the Central China Normal University, in Wuhan, China.

My thanks to Zongping Xiang (Eudora), a faculty member in the Department of English, who invited me and made all of the arrangements, including dinner with several of the faculty afterwards. My thanks to Prof. Hua Xianfa, Chair of the Department of English, who was able to attend, and my apologies that we did not think to take the photograph until after he had left.

Profs Shu Baimei and Leeds-Hurwitz, Ms. Yu Bo and Zongping Xiang

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Wuhan University 2012

On March 26, 2012, I presented a talk entitled “Interactional resources for the “problem” of intercultural communication” at Wuhan University, in Wuhan, China. Last year when I was in China, I was invited to return in order to visit Wuhan, which I was able to do this year, and I found it a delightful city and campus. I owe great thanks to my host, Prof. SHAN Bo, the Associate Dean of the School of Journalism and Communication, and also Director of the Research Center for Intercultural Communication, at Wuhan University, for the invitation, and for organizing all of the events. Dr. LIU Xue served as my contact for logistics, and was of great help, whatever was needed.

Prof Leeds-Hurwitz, Liu Xinya, Prof Shan, Liu Harrison, and Dr. Xin Jing, and Liu Xue (standing)

There were multiple lunches, dinners, and conversations with various combinations of faculty and graduate students over the week I was at Wuhan, as well as an entire afternoon spent sorting out areas of overlapping interests with Prof. Shan. Some of the other faculty members I met are shown below.

Li Jiali, Xiao Jun, Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Si Jingxin

I was lucky enough to be in Wuhan for sakura (the cherry blossoms). They are a major tourist attraction, and the campus was full of visitors during that week.

Profs. Shan and Leeds-Hurwitz

I was assigned two graduate student guide/translators, LIU Xinya (Cynthia) and Harrison LIU, pictured below at the Yellow Crane tower which we visited, among other sites. The Hubei provincial museum was also quite impressive.

I look forward to continued connections of several types with Wuhan in the future.

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Beijing International Studies University 2012

From March 11-23, 2012, I took on the role of visiting professor at the School of English of the Beijing International Studies University, in China. (In China, intercultural communication is often viewed as an extension of foreign language training in order to ensure that students achieve intercultural communicative competence.

As part of my responsibilities there, I taught a graduate seminar on research methods, and also delivered several presentations.

On March 13 and 16, I presented on the topic of “The Social Construction of Identity.” On March 20, the topic was “The History of Intercultural Communication in the United States.

On March 21, I participated in a workshop on “Training for Intercultural Competence in the United States; Prof. JIANG Fei, Director of the Department of Communication, and also Director of the Center for World Media Studies, at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, was the respondent. He and his wife, Dr. Viola Kuo HUANG, introduced my husband and me to a new form of Chinese buffet one evening.

My sincere thanks to Dr. HONG Liang, Associate Dean of the School of English and an intercultural communication scholar, for inviting me, organizing all of the events, including multiple meals with faculty and graduate students, and ensuring the success of the visit. Dr. GU Guoping (Gordon), from the American Studies department, helped with logistics ahead of time, and offered the official welcome when I arrived. Dr. David YU, Chair of the Department of Intercultural Communication, met with me over several days, and then provided the official farewell when I left. Dr. Ivory Juan ZHANG of the same department, participated in several events. Dr. Belinda Zou of the School of International Education not only attended most of the graduate seminar and the other lectures, but also volunteered to play tour guide and showed off parts of Beijing I had not yet visited.

Lu Qinsha (Emily), a master’s level student studying intercultural communication, was my guide and translator for the entire visit. To Emily and all of the other students, I hope you learned enough about research methods to have an easier time preparing your masters’ theses! To the faculty members, I look forward to continuing the connection in the future.

While in Beijing, although it was spring, there was one cold night, and it snowed. This was the view from the campus hotel (from the 18th floor) of the campus. The next morning students were having snowball fights!

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue


Taiwan – 2 universities

On March 5, 2012, I had the chance to meet with scholars at two different universities in Taiwan. Drs. Jung-huel Becky Yeh and Pei-Wen Lee are in the Department of Speech Communication at the Shih Hsin University in Taipei. Dr. Yu-Sheng Li is part of the Department of Computer and Communication Engineering at the Ming Chuan University, with campuses both in Taoyuan and Taipei.

Taipei, Taiwan
back: Drs. Li and Lee
front: Drs. Leeds-Hurwitz and Yeh

We spent a delightful evening in Taipei eating local delicacies, and discovering common research interests as well as many potential future connections. I look forward to continuing the conversation with all three in the near future.

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

University of Melbourne

Between talks in Dunedin and Brisbane, I had a chance to visit the University of Melbourne and meet a few faculty members there. On February 15, 2012, I met with Dr. Ingrid Volkmer, Director of the Media and Communication program at the School of Culture and Communication there. In addition, I met with Prof. Nikos Papastergiadis, Professor in the same school. Both are extremely active scholars, producing particularly interesting research (follow the links provided for details). We found potential future connections, and I look forward to following up on the conversations.

The buildings at the University of Melbourne are like those elsewhere in the city in that they are eclectic in design, often combining multiple elements in ways I have not seen previously. A pleasure to see!

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz,Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Nanyang Technological University

On February 29, 2012, I presented “Intercultural weddings and the simultaneous display of multiple identities” to the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University, in Singapore.

Nanyang Technological UniversityMy thanks to Dr. Vivian Hsueh-hua Chen for organizing the event, and to her colleagues and graduate students who showed up even though my visit fell during a break in classes. While there I had lunch with Dr. Chen and several members of her research team (Gina Cordero-Rahman and Zhou Qiongyuan), met her colleague, Dr. Brenda Chan, and received a tour of the outstanding media facilities at the School. (The photo above shows Drs. Chan, Chen, and Leeds-Hurwitz, as well as Gina and Qiongyuan. The one below shows Drs. Chen and Leeds-Hurwitz.) I walked away with lots of notes about potential connections to be made to researchers here, and look forward to continued contact in the future.

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

University of Queensland

On February 24, 2012, I spent a day at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. My visit was sponsored by the School of Journalism and Communication, and included a formal presentation entitled “Interactional Resources for the ‘Problem’ of Intercultural Communication,” a lunch with faculty and graduate students, a data session on “Complex Constructions of Social Identity,” and a faculty dinner.


My thanks to Dr. Sean Rintel for organizing the entire event, and to Prof. Cindy Gallois for originally encouraging me to visit Brisbane. I met lots of new scholars, including Dr. Richard Fitzgerald, Dr. Shuang Liu, and Dr. Aparna Hebbani, and reconnected with Dr. Joan Mulholland, who created a quilted banner for the Language and Social Interaction division of the International Communication Association just as the division was being established in the mid-1990s.

One of the unexpected surprises was the extent to which the day’s activities were attended not only by faculty and graduate students from other Schools within UQ but also several from either nearby Griffith University and the Queensland University of Technology, and even a visitor from Linköping University in Sweden who was in town to present at QUT.

Over the weekend, there was time for a tour of the area with Sean Rintel and Cherie Gregoire, including some of the many parks in Brisbane, where the water dragons are so accustomed to humans they let us get very close for photos – this dragon is nearly 3 feet long and only about 2 feet away from me.

Water dragon

Ed Reynolds, a PhD student in the department, videotaped my morning talk. When the video is available, I’ll add a link here.

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

NCA 2011

On November 20, 2011 I presented “Learning to walk like a local: Applying Goffman’s theory of face to pedestrian behavior” at the National Communication Association convention held in New Orleans, LA. My co-author for the paper was Prof Yves Winkin, Director of the Institut Français de l’Education in Lyon, France, and we divided up the presentation. My thanks to Prof. Beth Haslett for organzing the panel, and inviting us to participate.

While at NCA I met with several members of the Advisory Board of the Center for Intercultural Dialogue (Profs Donal Carbaugh and Barbara Hines) as well as the Center’s Technology adviser, Dr. Brenda Berkelaar, and the President of the Council of Communication Associations, Prof. Patrice Buzzanell. I also met with dozens of scholars about the Center, participated in business meetings for several divisions of NCA and, of course, attended sessions. A number of those who participated in the NCA Summer Conference on Intercultural Dialogue in 2009 were at NCA, and I had a chance to talk with at least half a dozen. Several people made very good suggestions for additions to the website – so look for what’s new in the coming months!

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz, Director
Center for Intercultural Dialogue

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Politécnico de Coimbra

On November 8, 2011, I presented a talk entitled “Intercultural weddings and the simultaneous display of multiple identities” to the Escola Superior de Educação de Coimbra, Politécnico de Coimbra, Portugal.

Coimbra posterOn November 9, 2011, I presented another talk entitled “Constructing a community of practice around the scholarship of teaching and learning: The role of centers for teaching excellence” to the Centro de Inovação e Estudo da Pedagogia no Ensino Superior, also part of the Politécnico de Coimbra.

My host was Dr. Susana Gonçalves, Director of the Centro de Inovação e Estudo da Pedagogia no Ensino Superior (Center for Innovation and Higher Education Pedagogy) at the Politécnico.
After the talk, Susana, her colleague Mark Carpenter, and Dr. Maria João Pinto Cardoso, the Vice President of the Politécnico, made time for lunch and followup conversation about future activities.

My thanks to Susana for inviting me to come to Coimbra, and to Mark and his wife Carmo, for offering me and my husband gracious hospitality at their home for our few days in Coimbra. Mark and Susana made time to give us the grand tour of the old city.

While in Coimbra, I had time to meet with Dr. Nancy Duxbury, a Canadian scholar I had not seen in several years, currently part of the Research Group on Cities, Culture and Architecture, a project of the Centro de Estudos Scoials at the Universidade de Coimbra.

I look forward to future connections with all of these colleagues.

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz
Director, Center for Intercultural Dialogue

Institut Français de l’Éducation

On September 26, 2011, I presented a talk entitled “’A Curious Mixture of Passion and Reserve’: Understanding the Etic/Emic Distinction” to Prof. Christine Develotte‘s doctoral seminar at the Institut Français de l’Éducation, which is part of the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon in France. Other faculty who participated in the discussion were Prof.  Jacques Cosnier, and Dr. Nicholas Guichon. The presentation described a manuscript in preparation with Christina Hahn (a recent Master’s student at the University of Duisberg-Essen, Germany) and Prof. Jane Jorgenson (University of South Florida). My thanks to Prof. Develotte for organizing the event and to the students for being a great audience.

On October 13-14, 2011, I was one of the respondents to a panel at Journées d’étude ViSA, presenting a paper entitled “A Metacomunicative perspective on the ViSA group analysis of data.” I am also on the Conseil scientifique of ViSA (Vidéos de situations d’enseignement et d’apprentissage), so in addition to participating in the 2 days of activities, I was part of the group discussing next year’s event and other future plans. My thanks to Andrée Tiberghien for again including me in ViSA. Other researchers who are involved are too numerous to mention as this is a group of several dozen scholars across France, with additional participants from Switzerland and Spain.

On October 17, 2011, I presented “Integrating new technologies into higher education pedagogy in the United States: What problems do they solve? What problems do they create?” as a public lecture at IFE. Prof. Denis Bédard (from the University of Sherbrook, Canada) was the other international speaker. My thanks to Profs. Catherine Loisy and Eric Sanchez for organizing the event, and to the participants for excellent questions.

IFE logo

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz
Director, Center for Intercultural Dialogue