CfP: 12th IALIC: Language and Intercultural Communication in the Workplace: Critical Approaches to Theory and Practice

[Alon Lischinsky]

(With apologies for cross-posting)

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The 12th Annual Conference of the International Association for
Languages and Intercultural Communication (IALIC)

"Language and Intercultural Communication in the Workplace: Critical
Approaches to Theory and Practice"

29.11.13-01.12.13
Hong Kong Baptist University

Conference overview:

>From language classrooms to outdoor markets, the workplace is
fundamental to socialisation. The workplace is not only a site of
employment where, for example, money is made and institutional roles
are enacted through various forms of discourse; it is also a location
where interactants engage in social actions and practices, from
befriending or bullying a colleague to complimenting or gossiping
about the boss. In other words, the workplace possesses cultural and
linguistic norms and conventions for engaging in work and non-work
related activities.

Recently, the workplace has begun to attract the attention of scholars
because of advances in communication technology, cheaper and greater
options for travel, and global migration and immigration. Work is no
longer confined to a single space.  It now requires people to travel
over great geographical distances, communicate with cultural -others'
located in different time zones, relocate to different regions or
countries, and conduct business in online settings. The workplace is
thus changing and evolving, creating new and emerging communicative
contexts. Intercultural communication researchers have a long
tradition of investigating the language and communication of such
activities.

The aim of the conference is to promote greater understanding of
workplace cultures, particularly the ways in which working in highly
interconnected and multicultural societies shape language and
intercultural communication. The conference aims to encourage greater
dialogue between researchers studying workplace issues with different
theoretical and methodological frameworks, and between researchers and
practitioners. Abstracts are welcome in any area related to the
workplace, including pedagogical settings. The conference focuses on
critical approaches to theory and practice, and we are particularly
interested in studies that use practice to shape theory, and studies
that question the validity and universality of existing models. Many
Asian scholars, for example, have criticised some of the predominant
models in intercultural communication for being
Eurocentric/­Anglocentric, and the conference welcomes papers
proposing alternative frameworks for analysing intercultural
communication in the workplace.

The *conference objectives* are to:

1) Provide a forum for the discussion of language and intercultural
communication in the workplace

2) Provide a forum for the discussion of critical approaches to
language and intercultural communication research

3) Provide a critique of existing models and propose alternative
approaches to analysing language and intercultural communication in
the workplace

4) Promote the International Association for Languages and
Intercultural Communication

5) Disseminate research on (critical approaches to) language and
intercultural communication

6) Compile a special issue of Language and Intercultural
Communication, a tier-one journal published by Routledge, by selecting
papers that make an important contribution to the study of language
and intercultural communication in the workplace.


*Conference sub-themes include (but are not limited to):*

- Eurocentric/Anglocentric bias in intercultural (competency) models

- Multilingualism and multiculturalism in the workplace

- New approaches to analysing language and intercultural communication
in the workplace

- Race, gender and class in the workplace

- Language and discrimination in the workplace

- Forced and unforced labour

- Mobility and forms of transportation of labour

- Security and insecurity in labour

- Competency models and their limitations

- Occupation standards and intercultural competence

- The validity and generalisability of  intercultural training

- Workplace ethics and occupational standards

- Empathy in intercultural communication

- Competency and creativity in the intercultural workplace

- Interfaith/intercultural dialogue in the workplace

- Stereotypes and prejudice in the workplace

- The ethics of intercultural working

- Intercultural attitudes to risk in the workplace

- Technology and the intercultural workplace

- Translation/interpretation in the intercultural workplace

- Multimodality and intertextuality in the workplace

Abstracts are invited in any area related to the conference themes.
Deadline for submission of abstracts: 15 June 2013.
Please submit abstracts to the conveners, Hans Ladegaard & Chris
Jenks, at ialic2013 at hkbu.edu.hk

More details at the IALIC website: http://ialic.net/?page_id=15
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