Leslie Bohon, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA, USA
Josephine Prado, University of Alabama, Birmingham, AL, USA

The 2023 TESOL International Convention and Expo in Portland, OR offered abundant opportunities to engage with colleagues from around the world both in person and virtually. ICIS offered valuable and timely contributions to the Convention. The ICIS Academic session connected Interculturality and Storytelling as speakers presented a variety of techniques and approaches to illustrate how storytelling facilitates interculturality in the language learning classroom. In addition, ICIS collaborated on intersection presentations with the Reading IS and CALL IS. Reflecting on our experiences at the 2023 TESOL Convention helps solidify our learning so we turn our attention to collaborating with colleagues to create new professional growth opportunities.

As Co-Chairs for ICIS in 2023-2024, we are eager to collaborate with this year’s amazing ICIS leadership team. We are grateful for the past leadership and continued mentorship of former Co-Chairs, Andrea Lypka, Barbara Laporik (2022 - 2023) & Jennifer Lacroix (2021-2022), as well as the current ICIS Historian, Past Chair (2019-2020) and Past Co-Chair (2020-2021), Roxanna Sensyhyn, as well as long-time ICIS contributor, Past Chair (2017-2018) and current member-at-large, Ramin Yazdanpanah. This year’s Co-Chair Elects are Amina Douidi and Daniela Silva. Nichole McVeigh and Lorena Bustos Gonzalez are the ICIS Newsletter Co-Editors and Sarah Hopkyns and Melanie Vandenhoven are Members-at-Large. We are grateful for their dedication to continue the good work of our community. Please meet all of our leadership, both old and new, in our team section and let us know what interests you and how we can help.

Bringing a wide range of experiences and backgrounds, ICIS leaders are planning a variety of digitally based gatherings to engage our colleagues with thought-provoking, timely topics around interculturality and language learning. For example, ICIS is planning webinars, and coffee hours, which are informal Zoom meetings with a theme to exchange ideas, as well as lightning talks, where participants present a five-minute summary of their research or teaching techniques. Please see the table for a schedule. We are excited about this year’s offerings and hope that you will be able to join us for these upcoming events. We look forward to connecting with you.

ICIS Event Calendar 2023 - 2024

Kind regards,

Josie Prado

Leslie Bohon

ICIS Co-Chairs