Letter From the Co-Chairs

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

Dear Intercultural Communication Members and Friends,

Welcome to the pre-convention edition of the InterCom Newsletter!

Since our last newsletter in December, we have organized the December Solstice event for the leadership members, in which we reflected on nature, our relationship with it, and environmental issues within intercultural education. In January, we hosted a webinar with Dr. Sávio Siqueira (Federal University of Bahia) on “Critical Language Pedagogy (CLP) and English as a Lingua Franca (ELF): Exploring the Potential of this Dialogue to Decolonize ELT,” in which Dr. Siqueira explained how teacher education can benefit from the dialogue between critical language pedagogy and English as lingua franca to decolonize ELT. In February, Dr. Ramza R’boul (Education University of Hong Kong) was our speaker for the webinar on “Intercultural Communication Education and Research in the Middle East and North Africa,” in which he invited the authors of his two most recent books to share their work.

As this is a Pre-Convention newsletter, your ICIS team wants to share information and invite you to attend the three panels we have organized for the 2025 TESOL Convention.

ICIS Convention Presentations

Global South(s) Approaches to Intercultural Communication in ELT will be held onFriday, March 21, from 10:00-11:15 am US PST, in Grand Ballroom A at the Long Beach Convention Center (academic session). The presenters are Amira Salama (Nile University), Leonardo Marinho Dias Lima (University of Exeter), and Afaf Rabehi (Lone Star College).

Critical Intercultural Awareness in Discussing Uncomfortable Topics in ELT will be held on Thursday, March 20, from 1:00 -2:15 pm US PST, in Regency Ballroom A at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach Hotel (ICIS is primary and partnering with Social Responsibility IS). The presenters are Juan Rios Vegas (Bradley University), Quanisha Charles (North Central College), Olga Yashenkova (Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv), and Monica Baker (Webutuck Central School District).

ITA Programs as Frameworks for Global Learning will be held on Wednesday, March 19, from 2:00-3:15 pm US PST, in Seaview Ballroom C at the Hyatt Regency Long Beach Hotel(ICIS is secondary and partnering with International Teaching Assistant IS). The presenters are Hoomana Nathan Horton (Oklahoma State University), Elizabeth Wittner (University of Virginia), Stephanie Lindemann (Georgia State University), and Roxanna Senyshyn (Penn State University, Abingdon).

And please join us for our ICIS Networking Lounge on Wednesday, March 19, from 4:30-5:30 US PST, in the Expo area. In addition, the ICIS Open Meeting will happen on Wednesday, March 19, from 10:00-11:00 am US PST. We would love to chat with you and get you involved in the ICIS!

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

• Coffee Hour “Pre-convention Highlights-ICIS activities” on March 5 at noon EST

As always, we invite our membership to be involved in planning, envisioning, and proposing events (or leading them!). We are interested in learning what intercultural communication interests and needs you have. So please, do not be shy about making suggestions or contributing ideas. You can contact us at [email protected] and [email protected].

We look forward to continued interactions with you and hope to see you at the upcoming ICIS events and the TESOL Convention!

Daniela Silva

Amina Douidi

2024-2025 ICIS Co-Chairs