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Intercultural Relations in a Global World

Published on September 20, 2011 in Book, Headline and Newsletter. 0 Comments

Intercultural Relations in a Global World edited by Michele Lobo, Vince Marotta and Nicole Oke is available as part of the On Diversity series.

The exploration of cross-cultural contact in a global and transnational world is essential in understanding how we can learn to live with difference in ways that go beyond tolerance. This book explores such contact in Euro-American/Australian societies as well as non-western multiethnic societies such as China, Malaysia, Indonesia and countries within Eastern Europe. The contributors in this book expose the power relations underpinning such encounters as well as explore the possibilities for meaningful dialogue.

Dr Michele Lobo is an Alfred Deakin Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Citizenship and Globalisation, Deakin University. Her research focuses on intercultural relations and the social inclusion of ethnic minorities.

Dr Vince Marotta is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology and the Deputy Director of the Centre for Citizenship and Globalisation at Deakin University. He is Managing Editor of the Journal of Intercultural Studies (Routledge) and his research and publications focus on social theory, urban sociology, theories of the stranger and migration and multiculturalism.

Dr Nicole Oke is a Lecturer in Sociology & Community Development in the School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Victoria University, Australia. Her research interests are in the areas of globalisation, transnationalism and migration.

Call for Journal Editor

Published on August 30, 2011 in Headline, Journal and Newsletter. 0 Comments

The International Journal of Diversity in Organizations, Communities and Nations seeks an editor, or team of editors, for a one-year term. This is an opportunity to make a significant contribution to what we believe is one of the leading journals in its field, the journal’s associated conference and, more broadly, the knowledge-community which the journal and conference seek to serve.

The roles of the editor are to:

write an introduction for the Journal volume which would be included in the first issue for the year, and possibly on the website, the newsletter and other appropriate places or for the purposes of marketing and promotion.
collate papers addressing a theme of the editor’s choosing into a book, to be launched at the conference at the completion of the editor’s term. The chapters may be drawn from submissions to the journal during this or recent years, and other material as considered appropriate.
actively solicit manuscripts for the Journal from well-known and notable members of the community—these would could be refereed if the author wished, or regarded as ‘invited papers’.
assist the Commissioning Editor with suggestions of supplementary peer reviewers for specific papers (and this will never be burdensome – note that the Commissioning Editor of the Journal finalizes a majority of the peer reviewer requirements based on thematic matching and ‘mutual obligation’ principles in which all author requested to review up to three other papers).
promote the journal throughout their network and other associated networks.
maintain regular communications with the community via periodical blog posts to the community website (which feeds automatically to our email newsletter, Facebook and Twitter).

The editor will be offered a complimentary electronic subscription to the Journal, free copies of the book which they edit, an electronic subscription to the book series as well as complimentary registrations to attend the conferences at the beginning and end of their term.

Qualifications

The Editor of the Journal must possess the following attributes:

They will have successfully obtained higher degree, and have academic teaching and scholarly research experience in an area related to the subject matter of the Journal.
They will have published in this or other comparable scholarly journals.

Applicants are asked to send:

a cover letter outlining their interest and relevant experience, and the ways in which you would propose to enhance the profile of the journal
a curriculum vitae
a special theme outline: a title with paragraph explanation.

Please send applications and supporting documentation to journals@ondiversity.com.

The deadline for applications is 26 September 2011.

Dr. Sneja Gunew to Speak at the 2012 Diversity Conference

Published on August 10, 2011 in Conference, Headline and Newsletter. 0 Comments

Sneja Gunew (FRSC) B.A. (Melbourne), M.A. (Toronto), Ph.D. (Newcastle, NSW) has taught in England, Australia and Canada. She has published widely on multicultural, postcolonial and feminist critical theory and is Professor of English and Women’s Studies at the University of British Columbia, Canada. She was Director of the Centre for Research in Women’s and Gender Studies (2002-7) and North American editor of Feminist Theory (Sage) 2006-10. She was Associate Principal of the College for Interdisciplinary Studies, UBC 2008-11.

She has edited and co-edited four anthologies of Australian women’s and multicultural writings; Feminist Knowledge: Critique and Construct and A Reader in Feminist Knowledge (1990-91). In Australia, she compiled (with others) A Bibliography of Australian Multicultural Writers (the first such compilation in Australia) and co-edited Striking Chords: Multicultural Literary Interpretations (1992), the first collection of critical essay to deal with ethnic minority writings in the Australian context. She set up the first library collection of ethnic minority writings in Australia. Continuing her focus on cultural difference, Gunew edited (with Anna Yeatman) Feminism and the Politics of Difference (1993) and (with Fazal Rizvi) Arts for a Multicultural Australia: Issues and Strategies (1994).

Her books include Framing Marginality: Multicultural Literary Studies (1994) and Haunted Nations: The Colonial Dimensions of Multiculturalisms (2004). Her current work is in comparative multiculturalism and in diasporic literatures and their intersections with national and global cultural formations.

For more information, please visit the Diversity Conference Web-Site.

Announcing the Winner of the International Award for Excellence

Published on August 4, 2011 in Headline, Journal and Newsletter. 0 Comments

Congratulations to Vivian de Klerk and Sarah Radloff, the winners of the International Award for Excellence in the area of diversity in organisations, communities and nations for their paper Measuring the Effect of Diversity Interventions at a South African Residential University.

Abstract: There have been many changes in post-apartheid South Africa since 1994, and one of the primary issues attracting attention within institutions of higher education has been diversity, as it pertains to social, cultural, linguistic, religious and racial differences. The challenge facing Universities has been to respond quickly to the national imperative to facilitate transformation, both in terms of day-to-day institutional practices as well as perceptions, attitudes and mindsets, which, while very elusive and invisible, are the most powerful determinants of the prospects for success in any efforts to achieve real change.

While diversity pervades all aspects of academic life, including student access and support, staff recruitment and retention, curriculum issues, research and scholarship and the social and learning environment on campus, this paper focuses on residence life at Rhodes University in the Eastern Cape and reports on the extent to which recent interventions aimed at enhancing the acceptance of diversity have succeeded. After a description of the context and the nature of interventions which were organised to raise awareness of diversity, the paper reports on the results of a comprehensive survey which was carried out in the residences in 2007 and 2008, and focuses primarily on aspects of race and culture. The aim of the paper is two-fold: to describe a range of strategies which may be used to counteract prejudice in an institution, and to offer a method of measuring the effectiveness of these interventions, as a possible means of taking regular (if approximate) ‘readings’ of an institution’s ‘prejudice barometer’.

Power and Politeness between Native and Non-native Speakers

Published on July 21, 2011 in Book, Headline and Newsletter. 0 Comments

Power and Politeness between Native and Non-native Speakers by Mustapha Taibi is now available as part of the On Diversity series.

This book presents the findings of an empirical study on face and power relationships between native and non-native speakers of English. Based on twenty audio-recorded conversations, the work provides valuable insight into communication between native and non-native speakers, especially as far as politeness and interactional dominance are concerned. The underlying hypothesis was that “nativity” would constitute a source of power and that this would be reflected in conversational practices such as politeness strategies and interactional dominance. The politeness strategies covered include attending to one’s interlocutor’s self-image and needs, complimenting, supportive responses and in-group solidarity. Signs of interactional power include topic control, talkativeness, interruption and questions, among others.

Mustapha Taibi is a senior lecturer in interpreting and translation at the University of Western Sydney. In addition to translation and interpreting, he has been lecturing on semantics, pragmatics and intercultural pragmatics. From 2002 to 2006 he taught English language and linguistics as well as community translation and interpreting at the University of Alcalá (Spain). His main research interests are community translation and interpreting and discourse analysis.