[ecrea] conference: The 17th International Conference of the International Association for Languages and Intercultural Communication (IALIC) - Interrogating the 'Third Space': Negotiating meaning and performing 'culture'

status: CfP Call for papers
conference
The 17th International Conference of the International Association for 
Languages and Intercultural Communication (IALIC)   -  Interrogating the 
'Third Space': Negotiating meaning and performing 'culture'
19.06.2017-20.06.2017
Edinburgh Napier University, UK

The 17th International Conference of the International Association for 
Languages and Intercultural Communication (IALIC)


Interrogating the 'Third Space': Negotiating meaning and performing 
'culture'


Edinburgh Napier University, UK

19 - 20 June 2017


Keynote speakers:

Malcolm MacDonald, University of Warwick

Alison Phipps, University of Glasgow

 Until the recent two decades or so, intercultural communication 
research has focused on constructions of ‘cultural difference’ that tend 
to fix communication behaviour to large-scale, monolithic 
collectivities, such as nation, class, and race. This essentialist 
tradition, which applies culture as an a priori explanatory framework, 
is now giving way to a research paradigm that construes culture as a 
complex, emergent phenomenon (Holliday, 2011) and highlights 
individuals’ interactions in multicultural settings.

However, much of current intercultural research, policy and practice 
following this trend tends to manifest a neo-essentialist position that 
oscillates between a stated emphasis on ‘cultural diversity’ and an 
underlying essentialist legacy that different ‘solid’ cultures (Dervin, 
2016) exist, can co-exist peacefully, and may be fused into a ‘new 
culture’ through equally negotiated compromises, e.g. in the form of 
strategic conflict resolution or collaborative partnerships around 
common tasks (Kramsch and Uryu, 2014). This liberal relativist 
perspective (Rutherford, 1990) has been critiqued for its normative 
stance and oblivion to the power asymmetries and political struggle 
between dominant and marginalised groups, which were particularly 
stressed in Homi Bhabha’s (1994) seminal work on the ‘location’ of cultures.

In the current scholarship of intercultural communication, concepts 
developed for addressing the ‘location’ of cultures are increasingly 
cited, such as ‘thirdness’, ‘hybridity’, ‘liminality’, ‘in-betweenness’, 
and ‘interstices’. However, the ways in which these terms are used 
sometimes reflect very different philosophical stances. Furthermore, 
these terms are often mentioned to signpost the ontological and 
epistemological positions underpinning the main inquiry, yet the very 
phenomena denoted by the concepts themselves, i.e. the complexities of 
the locales of intercultural communication, are less commonly studied as 
the research focus (MacDonald and O’Regan, 2014).

This conference thus draws on Bhabha’s (1994) concept of ‘third space’ 
and foregrounds intercultural communication as a site of struggle, where 
established orders become unstable and ambivalent. It aims to explore 
how, in this site, ‘cultural difference’ is articulated, ‘culture’ and 
‘cultures’ are performed, and the space for the creation of new meanings 
opens up (or is suppressed).

 The conference invites both theoretical contributions and empirical 
insights which contest the notion of ‘third space’ and enrich this area 
of inquiry. Abstracts are invited in relation (but not limited) to the 
sub-themes suggested below:

·       discursive / narrative constructions of Self and Other
·       performance of linguistic and cultural resources
·       ethnographic accounts of emergent patterns of meaning and 
practice in the ‘third space’
·       (re)conceptualisation of interculturality vis-à-vis the ‘third 
space’
·       current usage of ‘third space’ and related concepts in 
intercultural communication theory and research
·       possible implications of the ‘third space’ for social and 
educational policies and practices

Proposals will be in the format of individual papers for 20-minute 
presentations.

Please note that there will be two ‘Paper-for-Publication’ panel 
sessions for doctoral students to present their working papers aimed for 
publication and receive feedback from invited discussants.

Please submit your proposal in a single Word document to 
(ialic2017edinburgh /at/ napier.ac.uk). Your proposal should include the following:

-   a title
-   abstract (no more than 300 words)
-   five keywords
-   one sentence indicating how your proposal fits with the conference 
theme (for example, with reference to the sub-themes above)
-   each author’s name, institution and a short bio (no more than 150 words)
-   an email address for correspondence
-   if you are a doctoral student and would like your abstract to be 
considered for the Paper-for-Publication panel, include the words 
‘Paper-for-Publication Panel’ in the subject line of your email

The deadline for submission is 12th Feb 2017.

Notifications of result will be sent out by 19th Mar 2017.

We also invite doctoral students to present an overview or slice of 
their research in the form of posters. If you intend to bring a poster, 
please inform Min at (zhuomin.huang /at/ manchester.ac.uk) by 19th Mar and 
provide your name, email address, affiliation and the title of your 
poster (you do not need to submit an abstract). We will then arrange a 
space for your poster to be displayed at the conference.
 For more information about the conference, please visit the conference 
website: staff.napier.ac.uk/ialic2017.

email: (ialic2017edinburgh /at/ napier.ac.uk)


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