Letter from the Chairs

Daniela Silva, PhD. The University of Texas at San Antonio, TX, USA
Amina Douidi, PhD. DEI and Intercultural Communication in ELT Consultant, UK

Dear Intercultural Communication Members and Friends,

Welcome to this edition of the InterCom Newsletter!

Your leadership has been busy since our last newsletter in May, in which we had the Coffee Hour event with Dr. Fatima Aldajani (University of Toledo), who talked about her project “The Narrative of Generational Resilience”, which is about a collective storytelling initiative that documents important events in the timeline of Palestinians, spanning multiple generations. In June, we hosted a webinar with Dr. Sarah Hopkyns (University of St Andrews) on “Decolonising Educationscapes in EMI Contexts,” in which Dr. Hopkyns presented the findings of her ethnographic study of a UAE educationscape. In September, Dr. Melina Porto (Universidad Nacional de La Plata and National Research Council (CONICET), Argentina) was our speaker for the webinar on teaching English in difficult contexts, especially in rural and indigenous spaces. In October, we organized the Lightning Talks event about translanguaging and intercultural communication with speakers from Oman, Thailand, USA, and Uganda. These events showcased diverse perspectives on language education, highlighting critical issues, such as decolonization, teaching in challenging environments, and translanguaging across various cultural contexts. By featuring speakers from multiple countries and focusing on underrepresented areas, these discussions have contributed to a more inclusive and globally aware approach to English language and intercultural education. Finally, in November, our own Dr. Nichole McVeigh (University of Richmond) facilitated a Coffee Hour event titled: Equity and Inclusion through Intersectional Pedagogy in the TESOL Classroom.

We have also started organizing three sessions for the 2025 TESOL International Convention and Expo in Long Beach, CA. We partnered with the Social Responsibility IS to organize our primary session, “Critical Intercultural Awareness in Discussing Uncomfortable Topics in ELT.” In addition, ICIS and the International Teaching Assistant IS collaborate to organize our secondary session on the role ITAs play in global learning within a higher education setting. Finally, ICIS is organizing the academic session, “Global South(s) Approaches to Intercultural Communication in ELT.” These collaborative sessions demonstrate the ICIS's commitment to address crucial topics in intercultural communication and English language teaching. By partnering with other interest sections and exploring diverse perspectives, these sessions advance critical intercultural awareness and global learning in ELT. The focus on uncomfortable topics, the role of International Teaching Assistants, and Global South(s) approaches highlights ICIS's dedication to fostering critical, inclusive, and culturally responsive practices in the field.

We thank all our collaborators who made all of these events possible, and we would like to invite you to attend our next events:

• December Solstice Celebration, facilitated by Barbara Lapornik on December 11 at noon EST
• Webinar led by Dr. Sávio Siqueira on January 14 at 12 noon EST, titled: Critical Language Pedagogy (CLP) and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF): Exploring the Potential of this Dialogue to Decolonize ELT. You can register to join us here: https://bit.ly/RegisterICISWebinarJan2025
• Lightning Talks on February 12 at noon EST
• Coffee Hour “Pre-convention Highlights-ICIS activities” on March 5 at 12 noon EST

We encourage our members to actively participate in the planning, conceptualization, and suggestion of events, including taking leadership roles. We are keen to understand your specific interests regarding intercultural communication. So please, do not hesitate to contact us with your suggestions or ideas at [email protected] and [email protected]. We also encourage you to contribute to the ICIS newsletter. Check out the author guidelines here. The next deadline is January 29, 2025. Please email your submissions to [email protected].

We also invite you to contribute to this newsletter. Please check out the call for submissions. We look forward to continued interactions with you and hope to see you participate in upcoming ICIS events!

Daniela Silva, PhD

Amina Douidi, PhD

2024-2025 ICIS Co-Chairs

Amina Douidi, PhD,  ICIS Co-chair (2024-2025) is a Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) and Intercultural Communication independent consultant in ELT and holds a doctorate from the University of Southampton, UK. Her research focuses on intercultural representation, interaction, and dialogic pedagogy.

Daniela Silva, PhD, ICIS CoChair (2024-2025) has taught EFL in Brazil and Portuguese at various U.S. universities. She is a multilingual and multicultural educator, and her research interests include teaching of culture, cultural and linguistic self-efficacy beliefs, TESOL, teacher education, and multicultural educationI collaborate with ICIS and TESOL members to carry out ICIS goals. She holds a Ph.D. in Culture, Literacy, and Language from the University of Texas at San Antonio in the USA and an M.A. in TESOL from the University of Mississippi.