[ecrea] CFP: Postcolonial Turn and Geopolitical Uncertainty: Transnational Critical Intercultural Communication Pedagogy

CFP: Postcolonial Turn and Geopolitical Uncertainty: Transnational 
Critical Intercultural Communication Pedagogy

Editors: Ahmet Atay (College of Wooster) and Yea-Wen Chen (San Diego 
State University)

In her critique Raka Shome (2009) calls attention to the domination of 
English language in cultural studies and communication discipline and 
calls attention for change, an international or postcolonial turn. As a 
field of study, the communication discipline has been somewhat 
successful in providing some outlets for scholarship to be published 
addressing the saliency and importance of pedagogy. What we have not yet 
excelled in, however, is giving space and voice to pedagogy scholarship 
that addresses the issue of marginalization or experiences from 
non-mainstream vantage points in the global contexts, particularly the 
voices of postcolonial and transnational scholars and in-between global 
experiences. Given the changing national, ethnic, racial and cultural 
landscape of the world and global tensions therein, it is imperative 
that particular and concentrated attention be given to communication 
scholarship that centers communication and cultural pedagogy scholarship 
that not only provides voice and a platform for articulating these 
tensions, but also has theoretical and practical implications for 
facilitating societal change within, through, and beyond the academy. In 
this book, we explore the complex and intertwined link between critical 
communication pedagogy (CCP) and critical intercultural communication 
(CIC) that aims to take postcolonial and transnational approaches.

Both CCP and CIC aim for social change and promote a diversity of voices 
that (try to) resist micro and macro structures of oppression and 
domination; however, the scholarship neglects to incorporate the 
postcolonial and transnational turns and the impact of globalization in 
their discourses. Therefore, these efforts bypass decolonization 
discourse, transnational approaches and the impact of geopolitics on 
voices and experiences within and outside of academia. This is 
particularly true of CCP, but it also applies to CIC, to a certain 
degree. Therefore, despite the push to open up spaces for diverse voices 
to come to the center and/or join the dialogue, White and, more 
significantly, North American perspectives and English as the language 
of "diversity" discourse tend to dominate the discussion. Shome (2013) 
critiqued this U.S.-centric approach driving CIC, arguing that "...we 
often find in critical intercultural communication studies an implicit 
tendency to territorialize race where race becomes synonymous with the 
boundaries of the nation-state. Such a framework ends up shoring and 
maintaining a US centered ethos in our understanding of race" (p. 149). 
Similar tendencies are also very apparent in CCP's agenda. Despite 
honorable efforts, the notions of race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, 
class, ability and other identity markers often are articulated within 
and from the U.S.-centric ethos. Hence, transnational nature of 
communication, media and cultural studies as disciplines and global 
nature of U.S. academia (due to increasing presence of immigrants-both 
documented and undocumented, and international students and scholars) 
are highly disregarded. Shome and Hegde (2002) and Sorrels (2013) have 
claimed that globalization and its effects must be considered by CIC 
scholars due to the movements of ideas, information, technology, 
mediated texts, goods and human bodies. The linkages in the world are 
also salient because of increased transportation and communication 
platforms, means and processes. Similar arguments must be made for CCP 
research because, unfortunately, CCP scholarship often ignores 
globalization processes and how they impact the ways in which we teach 
in the classroom and the impact of geopolitics and who gets to talk and 
how their voices, and in what contexts, are articulated and received. 
Furthermore, the same processes are also changing the nature of our 
students, including global nomads, individuals who identify with 
multiple countries (as international students or the children of 
immigrants), and people whose primary language is not English.

The goal of this project is to connect and interweave CCP and CIC 
scholarship and emphasize the importance of postcolonial and global 
turns as they are molded into a new area of critical 
global/intercultural communication pedagogies. Hence, it takes a 
transnational approach and requires a deep commitment to acknowledging 
the importance of geopolitics when it comes to voice, articulation, 
power, and oppression. Ultimately, however, the focus of this pedagogy 
is the social change and social justice that are central to the critical 
and cultural communication work that aims to decolonize CCP, CIC, 
curricula, and academia by taking a transnational approach. Hence, the 
end goal is to develop and foster an area of study that we would like to 
call "transnational critical communication pedagogy".

Hence, this particular book aims to achieve three goals:

1. Offer a space where nationally, ethnically, racially, and 
linguistically different scholars can join in the discussion to 
globalize CCP and CIC while integrating the postcolonial turn into their 
discourse.
2. Connect and interweave CCP and CIC scholarship and discourse by 
contextualizing globalized and postcolonial experiences within higher 
education and beyond.
3. Propose and promote postcolonial and globalized turns in CCP and CIC 
theorization.
4. Mapping out Transnational Critical Communication Pedagogy that is 
rooted in transnationalism and committed of decolonization of CCP, CIC, 
curricula, and academia.

Potential topics might include but not limited to:

1. Construction of race in global contexts within and outside of academia.
2. Construction of gender and sexuality in global contexts.
3. Postcolonial and transnational turns in identity theories in the 
context of CIC and CCP.
4. Globalization and decolonization of the curriculum.
5. Globalization and decolonization of CCP and CIC scholarship.
6. Globalizing critical race theory.
7. Decolonizing feminist and queer pedagogies.
8. Globalizing intersectionality.
9. Geopolitics and intersectionality.
10. Creating transnational mediated CCP.
11. Geopolitics and voice in CCP and CIC scholarship.
12. Social change and CCP and CIC scholarship outside North America.

Abstracts are due by April 15, 2017, with a word length of no more than 
500 words. Full-length manuscripts are due on October 1, 2017, with a 
word length of no more than 6,000 words including references, endnotes, 
and so forth. Peter Lang has already expressed interest, and so we are 
excited to move forward.  Abstracts should be emailed as Word documents 
to co-editor Ahmet Atay ((aatay /at/ wooster.edu)) and Yea-Wen Chen 
((yea-wen.chen /at/ sdsu.edu)) for an initial review.


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