ICIS Newsletter - June 2017 (Plain Text Version)
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LETTER FROM THE EDITORS
Dear ICIS members, How fast the time flies! Seems only yesterday our ICIS community came together in Seattle, Washington, USA to celebrate all things intercultural. Indeed, we had a lot to discuss: a quick look through the TESOL convention program book (PDF) yields a wide range of intercultural communication hits, from individual papers and panels to posters and roundtable discussions. What a wonderful testimony to the value and urgency of the work we do! While intellectually stimulating, the TESOL convention also provided us with opportunities to meet old friends and make new connections. That is why it was extremely encouraging to see new faces at our annual open meeting and welcome new members to our community. We also got a chance to meet the new leadership team and discuss the future directions of our interest section. For a detailed introduction of the new leadership team, please read Barbara Lapornik’s Meet the Team feature. One of the most pressing concerns that emerged at TESOL 2017 was the need to incorporate social justice work in teaching for intercultural communication. Because of this, the feature articles in this issue address the questions of social justice and multiplicity of perspectives in research and practice. Our first author, Yecid Ortega, shares some hands-on activities useful for the development of students’ understanding of social justice. Our second author, Lucy Yang, shares her reflections on why intercultural communication should move beyond a tokenistic view of culture toward a social justice–focused practice. As we go forward in 2018, we will continue publishing thematic newsletters. Our future newsletters will focus on advocacy in intercultural communication and intercultural communication online. If you have any ideas for themes, topics, or types of articles you would like to see in the newsletter, we are eager to hear from you! Cheers! Natalia and Patriann ICIS Co-Editors 2017–2018 Follow us on Twitter Natalia @_balyasnikova | Patriann @Patriann_Smith Like our pages on Facebook Natalia Balyasnikova is a doctoral candidate in language and literacy education at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Natalia writes about her life as a graduate student and a newcomer to Canada in her blog. Patriann Smith (PhD) is an assistant professor of language, diversity and literacy studies at Texas Tech University who relies on tenets of intercultural communication in her cross-cultural work to better understand how immigrant teachers to the United States address their ideologies about nonstandardized languages and how these ideologies affect literacy instruction. The intersections of Patriann’s research can be better understood by taking a look at her recently released coedited Handbook of Research on Cross-Cultural Approaches to Language and Literacy Development. |
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