Identity Research and Communication: Intercultural Reflections and Future Directions

The concept of identity has steadily emerged in importance in the field of intercultural communication, especially over the last two decades. In a transnational world marked by complex connectivity as well as enduring differences and power inequities, it is imperative to understand and continuously theorize how we perceive the self in relation to the cultural other. Such understandings play a central role in how we negotiate relationships, build alliances, promote peace, and strive for social justice across cultural differences in various contexts. Identity Research in Intercultural Communication, edited by Nilanjana Bardhan and Mark P. Orbe, is unique in scope because it brings together a vast range of positions on identity scholarship under one umbrella. It tracks the state of identity research in the field and includes cutting-edge theoretical essays (some supported by empirical data), and queries what kinds of theoretical, methodological, praxiological and pedagogical boundaries researchers should be pushing in the future. This collection’s primary and qualitative focus is on more recent concepts related to identity that have emerged in scholarship such as power, privilege, intersectionality, critical selfhood, hybridity, diaspora, cosmopolitanism, queer theory, globalization and transnationalism, immigration, gendered and sexual politics, self-reflexivity, positionality, agency, ethics, dialogue and dialectics, and more. The essays are critical/interpretive, postmodern, postcolonial and performative in perspective, and they strike a balance between U.S. and transnational views on identity. This volume is an essential text for scholars, educators, students, and intercultural consultants and trainers.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: Identity Research in Intercultural Communication Part I. Identity Pedagogy, and Praxis Chapter 1. Performative Pedagogy as a Pedagogy of Interruption: Difference and Hope Chapter 2. Doing Intersectionality: Power, Privilege, and Identity in Political Activist Communities Chapter 3. Understanding Identity through Dialogue: Paulo Freire and Intercultural Communication Pedagogy Chapter 4. (Academic) Families of Choice: Queer Relationality, Mentoring, and Critical Communication Pedagogy Part II.Identity and Home/Spaces Chapter 5. Cultural Reentry: A Critical Review of Intercultural Communication Research Chapter 6. Performing Home/Storying Selves: Home and/as Identity in Oral Histories of Refugees in India's Partition Part III. Identity and the Global-Local Dialectic Chapter 7. Landscaping the Rootless: Negotiating Cosmopolitan Identity in a Globalizing World Chapter 8. Cultural Matter as Political Matter: A Preliminary Exploration from a Chinese Perspective Chapter 9. Understanding Immigration and Communication Contextually and Interpersonally Part IV.Identity and the Liminal Chapter 10. Postcolonial Migrant Identities and the Case for Strategic Hybridity: Toward "Inter"cultural Bridgework Chapter 11. Researching Biracial/Multiracial Identity Negotiation: Lessons from Diverse Contemporary U.S. Public Perceptions Chapter 12. Rethinking Identities Within Globalization Through Chinese American Literature: Perspective: From Postcolonial to Intercultural Chapter 13. (Re)Thinking Conceptualizations of Caribbean Immigrant Identity Performances: Implications for Intercultural Communication Research Part V. Theorizing "Doing" Identity Chapter 14. Navigating the Politics of Identity/Identities and Exploring the Promise of Critical Love Chapter 15. (Un)Covering the Gay Interculturalist Chapter 16. Praxis-Oriented Autoethnography: Performing Critical Selfhood

About the Author :
Nilanjana Bardhan is associate professor in the Department of Speech Communication at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. Mark P. Orbeis professor of communication and diversity in the School of Communication at Western Michigan University.

Review :
Identity Research in Intercultural Communication features an invaluable collection of qualitative, critical, and transnational scholarship that not only maps the landscape of cultural identity research but also offers new insights, tools, and directions for identity theorizing. This volume advances and broadens the important study of identity from an array of perspectives and—as a dedication to John T. Warren and his work—bridges identity research, performance, and critical communication pedagogy. Identity has been a historically central guiding construct in intercultural communication studies across multiple perspectives. This edited volume does an excellent job of representing its rich history while engaging deeply and creatively with state-of-the-art issues in the study of identity. The contributions are from outstanding scholars, whose craft is transforming how we understand the performance of identity, culture, and difference in exciting new ways, and their treatment of identity in terms of dialogue, difference, liminality, intersectionality, and politics is going to provide further stimulus and energy to intercultural communication studies in general. I expect this volume to become a must-have addition to any intercultural communication scholar’s library.