Enhancing Global Community, Resilience and Sustainability Through Intercultural Communication

The International Association for Intercultural Communication Studies (IAICS) is soliciting submissions for the 20th International Conference on Cross-Cultural Communication to be held at the University of Rhode Island, USA, July 31-August 4, 2014.

People around the world are interconnected, interdependent and mobile. Scholars and practitioners are more aware of the necessity to develop strong intercultural relations, based on mutual understanding in the context of intercultural interaction. Intercultural
Communication has become a dominant paradigm connecting a range of disciplines. Globalization and increased diversity heighten the risk of communication failures and misunderstandings due to ethnocentrism, prejudice, sexism and environmental, social, and technological issues. They include Climate Change; Pollution and Resource Depletion; Global Food and Water Supply; Impact of Information Technology and Social Media; Political Oppression, Conflict and War; Poverty; Societal Security and Personal Safety.

Global communication plays a key role in solving these problems. Increasingly we must learn to rely on each other, build resilience, resolve conflicts peacefully, and strive for social equity by enhancing intercultural communication.

The conference theme focuses on aspects of interpersonal, inter-group and international communication. We must address both theoretical and empirical studies, as well as develop new conceptual and methodological approaches to affirm the centrality of the discipline.
Collaborative research needs to stress communication and embrace synergies by joining efforts with other disciplines, including environmental and health sciences, business, engineering and information systems.

Conference Goals

- provide scholars, educators and practitioners from different cultural communities with opportunities to interact, network and benefit from each other’s research and expertise related to intercultural communication issues;
- synthesize research perspectives and foster interdisciplinary scholarly dialogue for developing integrated approaches to complex problems of communication across cultures;
- advance the methodology for intercultural communication research and disseminate practical findings to facilitate understanding across cultures;
- foster the importance of global cultural awareness and involve educators, business professionals, students and other stakeholders worldwide in the discourse about diversity and intercultural communication issues.

Themes

Topic areas are broadly defined as, but not limited to, the following:

- Advertising and marketing
- Business communication
- Climate change and pollution
- Conflict, mediation and negotiation
- Corporate culture and management
- Communication failures
- Communication pedagogy
- Crisis/risk communication
- Critical cultural awareness
- Cross-cultural adaptation
- Cultural identity
- Culture and diplomacy
- Diversity of languages and cultures
- Ethnocentrism and stereotypes
- Environmental communication
- Ethnic studies
- Gender issues
- Global community
- Global food and water supply
- Group/Organizational communication
- Health communication
- Immigration and mobility
- Intercultural communication competence
- Intercultural communication in global context
- Intercultural communication and politics
- Intercultural conflict
- Intercultural education practices
- Intercultural interaction in science
- International journalism
- Interpersonal communication and relations
- Linguistics and intercultural communication
- Localization and globalization
- Media and social research
- Multiple cultures and interculturality
- New media and visual communication
- Philosophy and human behavior patterns
- Poverty
- Power in intercultural communication
- Psychological communication studies
- Public opinions and public policy
- Public relations
- Racial discrimination and ethnic relations
- Resource depletion
- Religion/spiritual communication
- Resilience among cultures
- Rhetorical communication
- Social equity
- Stereotypes and stereotyping
- Sustainability and globalization
- Translation studies
- Understanding across cultures
- Verbal and nonverbal communication

Contact:

Prof. Guo-Ming Chen, IAICS Executive Director
Department of Communication Studies
University of Rhode Island
10 Lippitt Road, Room 310, Davis Hall
Kingston, RI 02881
USA
Email: [email protected]
Web: