Dear IALIC colleagues and Friends.

Hope the IALIC in Beijing went well and I'm sorry that I could not be there.

I am pleased to announce the publication of my new edited volume, Crossing Boundaries and Weaving Intercultural Work, Life, and Scholarship in Globalizing Universities (Routledge, co-edited with Adam Komisarof). 

A brief summary of the book:

Crossing Boundaries and Weaving Intercultural Work, Life, and Scholarship in Globalizing Universities generates a fresh, complex view of the process of globalization by examining how work, scholarship, and life inform each other among intercultural scholars as they navigate their interpersonal relationships and cross boundaries physically and metaphorically.

Divided into three parts, the book investigates: (1) the socio-psychological process of crossing boundaries constructed around nations and work organizations; (2) the negotiation of multiple aspects of identities; and (3) the role of language in intercultural encounters, in particular, adjustment taking place at linguistic and interactional levels.

The authors reflect upon and give meaning and structure to their own intercultural experiences through theoretical frameworks and concepts—many of which they themselves have proposed and developed in their own research. They also provide invaluable advice for transnational scholars and those who aspire to work and live abroad to improve organizational participation and mutual intercultural engagement when working in a globalizing workplace. 

Researchers and practitioners of applied linguistics, communication studies, and higher education in many regions of the world will find this book an insightful resource. 

 

Link to the Routledge website and price

A link to the book’s web page may be found here:

https://www.routledge.com/products/9781138825352

Currently, the book is only priced as a hardcover volume, so please consider asking your library to purchase it.  I am including as an attached document a flier which the holder can use to get a 20% discount on the book, and it may be used either by individuals or libraries ordering it. 

 

Endorsed by Dr. Milton Bennett:

"Komisarof, Zhu Hua, and their contributors avoid the politically correct self-absorption that too often accompanies explorations of cultural identity, instead showing us how various concepts of cultural adaptation can bring meaning to the profoundly liminal experience of becoming intercultural."

 

Table of Contents

 

 

Foreword: The Pleasure of Peeking Behind the Curtains . . .

            Fred Dervin

 

           

1        Crossing Boundaries and Weaving Intercultural Work, Life, and Scholarship in Globalizing Universities: An Introduction

 Adam Komisarof & Zhu Hua

 

Part 1 Acculturation Dynamics

 

2        Organizational Membership Negotiated, Denied, and Gained: Breaking the Rice Paper Ceiling in Japan 

Adam Komisarof

 

3        Twists and Turns: Forging a Career as a Psychology Academic in Australia

Anita S. Mak

 

4        From Outside In: Cultural Practices and Organizational Life of a Chinese Immigrant in Japan

Gracia Liu-Farrer

 

5        Heart and Mind: Using Critical Incidents to Decipher Culture

David L. Sam

 

6        Difference, Disconnection, Social Support, and Connection: Communication with the Host Environment and Cultural Adaptation

Deepa Oommen 

 

Part 2 Negotiating Identities  

 

7.      The Struggles of an International Foreign Language Lecturer with Representations of Cultural Identity

Regis Machart

 

8.      Issues and Challenges in Constructing Identity in an Adopted Home: Being an Iranian Professor in America

Maryam Borjian

  1. Rituals of Encounter: Campus Life, Liminality and Being the Familiar Stranger

Brigitte Bönisch-Brednich

 

Part 3 Language and Interaction

  

10.  Brussels-London: Crossing Channels While Juggling with Social and Cultural Capital

Jean-Marc Dewaele

  1.  Where Are You from?:  Interculturality and Interactional Practices

Zhu Hua

  1. Manoeuvring the Margins: A Korean-American in Kazakhstan

Elise S. Ahn

 

Conclusion

 

13 Making Sense of Transnational Academics’ Experience: Constructive Marginality

      in Liminal Spaces

Adam Komisarof & Zhu Hua

 

 

Best wishes

Zhu Hua