Fellows Day 2023:

Envisioning and Actualizing a New Generation of Acculturation Research

July 23^rd, 2023

 Calls for new approaches to acculturation research have been growing; in fact, some contend that we are now on the cusp of a third generation of acculturation research that is incorporating new theoretical models and methods to capture the increasing complexity of intercultural interactions (Sam & Ward, 2021). Debates have promulgated about the ontology and epistemology surrounding acculturation (Komisarof & Hua, 2016) such as what constitutes culture, which has implications for conceiving and measuring the nature of cultural change that is at the heart of the acculturation process. For instance, traditional concepts of interculturality and multiculturality based on the assumption of inherent differences between national cultures are challenged by the notion of transculturality (Skrefsrud, 2021). Moreover, in our increasingly interconnected digital world, virtual acculturation has become an area of active research—leading us to reconceive the communication mediums through which acculturation occurs (Ferguson et al., 2018). These controversies and new developments in the field underscore the exigency of conceiving new approaches to respond to the dialectic forces of homogenization and fragmentation of cultures, people, and practices in the context of an interconnected global community. Thus, the need for acculturation scholars to envision and actualize a new generation of acculturation research is more significant than ever before.

 Fellows Day 2023 at IAIR’s 13th Biennial Conference in Philadelphia aims to explore new approaches to acculturation research—particularly those that challenge longstanding assumptions—and encourage dialogue about integrating contemporary and longstanding methods that complement each other to meet current and future acculturation research needs. Facilitated presentations of novel approaches to acculturation research will be shared to address the increasing complexity and interconnectedness of our global society characterized by a hybrid of face-to-face and virtual communication. The goal of this Fellows Day is to answer the call for a new generation of acculturation research by addressing such issues as majority group acculturation, cultural appropriation, virtual acculturation, and many more. 

We see this as ideally accomplished not by ignoring past research, but rather bringing together Fellows who represent both entirely novel approaches to acculturation in their work with those who have done seminal studies that have brought us to our current point of understanding of acculturation.  By engaging in dialogue with each other, we hope to create conditions in which acculturation researchers can utilize the knowledge gained in the past, remain informed by it, and leap into the future in novel ways that address our increasingly complex world of intercultural interactions and identities.

The speakers are scheduled to be:

David Sam, "The third generation of acculturation research: Progress and challenges"

Colleen Ward, “Standing on the Shoulders of Giants or Re-inventing the Wheel? Reflections on the Way forward for Acculturation Theory and Research”

Jonas Kunst, “Majority-group acculturation: Genuine change or cultural appropriation?”

Gail Ferguson, “Integrating remote and proximal acculturation: Expanded framework and applications”

Valery Cherkov, "The Theory of Sociocultural Models and Mechanisms of　Acculturation: Philosophical, Conceptual, and Applied Issues"

Pawel Boski, "Becoming a bicultural person: A cultural psychology approach" 

Chan-Hoong Leong, “Geography, intercultural contact, and acculturation”

Seth Schwartz, "Micro-level perspective on acculturation"

Dina Birman, “The Many Meanings of ‘Acculturation”

As has been the practice at the previous two Fellows Days in Shanghai and Rapperswil, speakers in each session will be divided into two parallel streams. Participants may choose to attend either stream within each session during the same time block.  Each speaker will have 20 minutes to present their ideas, followed by 25 minutes of group discussion within each stream. In the last session, as a composite group, participants will also share insights from the day’s earlier discussions in order to build plans for state-of-the-art acculturation research in the future.

Tentative Program Schedule

9.00      Greetings (Adam Komisarof) and Introduction (David Sam: The third generation of acculturation research: Progress and challenges)

9.30       Session 1

Stream A: Jonas Kunst
Majority-group acculturation: Genuine change or cultural appropriation?

Stream B: Chan-Hoong Leong
Geography, intercultural contact, and acculturation

10.45     Coffee break

10.45     Session 2

Stream C: Gail Ferguson
Integrating remote and proximal acculturation: Expanded framework and applications

Stream D: Seth Schwartz
Micro-level perspective on acculturation

11.30     Session 3

Stream E: Valery Cherkov
The theory of sociocultural models and mechanisms of acculturation:  Philosophical, conceptual, and applied issues

Stream F: Dina Berman
The many meanings of acculturation

12.15     Lunch

13.15     Session 4

Stream G: Pawel Boski
Becoming a bicultural person: A cultural psychology approach

Stream H: Colleen Ward
Standing on the shoulders of giants or re-inventing the wheel? Reflections on the way forward for acculturation theory and research

14.00     Coffee break

14.30   Session 5 (joint session facilitated by Shuang Liu and Adam Komisarof)

Where to go from here? Reports from streams and identification of next steps and potential research collaborations

16.00     End of workshop

Access the PhD Workshop Schedule here

IAIR PhD workshop 2023

The popular IAIR PhD school will be returning again in 2023. The PhD workshop will run the weekend immediately before the IAIR conference.

Target Group

The PhD workshop is aimed at current post-graduate research students (PhD students). Space permitting, we also welcome MA/MSc students and/or post-doctoral researchers.

Dates & Location

The PhD workshop will run as a face-to-face event on the campus of Temple University (Philadelphia, PA). The workshop will run over 2 days, starting at 9am on Saturday 22^nd of July and finishing at 5pm on Sunday 23^rd of July. This is the weekend immediately preceding the IAIR conference (Monday 24 to Thursday 27 July 2023).

Content

Across the 2 days, there will be a mixture of teacher led activities (such as talks and training) and student led activities (student presentations, round table discussions). Specifically, you will engage with methods, participate in discussions with other participants and listen to state-of-the-art lectures, all delivered by experts in acculturation and intercultural communications.