Futuring Interculturality: Between Aspirations and Structural Constraints

We are pleased to announce the upcoming Futuring Interculturality event, themed “Between Aspirations and Structural Constraints,” featuring talks by Dr. Ramzi Merabet and Jenna Isherwood

Location: Newlyn SR (1.01) (Room Details). Online attendance is also available via Microsoft Teams: Join the even

Registration: Registration Form

We are pleased to announce the upcoming Futuring Interculturality event, themed “Between Aspirations and Structural Constraints,” featuring talks by Dr. Ramzi Merabet and Jenna Isherwood. The event will take place on Monday, 9 June, from 12:00-2:00 pm in Newlyn SR (1.01) (Room Details). Online attendance is also available via Microsoft Teams: Join the event 

Feel free to bring your lunch with you!

Event Focus

How can we disentangle interculturality from internationalisation in university research, policy, practice, and services?

About the Speakers

We are delighted to welcome Dr. Ramzi Merabet and Jenna Isherwood, who will open the event by sharing their perspectives to stimulate discussion around possibilities, challenges, and critical reflections.

Dr Ramzi Merabet is a lecturer in EAP and Intercultural Studies and an early career researcher. His current research focuses on how notions of culture and interculturality are mobilised within higher education, and issues pertaining to positioning students and their experiences within policy, pedagogy, and research. Ramzi is the Research Officer of the International Association for Languages and Intercultural Communication (IALIC) and founder of Interculturality Podcasts (IPODs), a podcast series that aims to make interculturality and intercultural research accessible within and beyond universities. 

Jenna Isherwood is Deputy Head of International Student Office at University of Leeds. In 2022-23 she carried out a Professional Services Research Fellowship with Leeds Institute for Teaching Excellence entitled Global Community Conversations: exploring approaches to intercultural community-building at University of Leeds. In her spare time she is also a freelance film programmer and fiction writer.

Talk Blurbs

Dr. Ramzi Merabet – “Unpacking the International Label: Myths, Realities, and Future Directions”

How does it feel to be labelled ‘international’? What happens institutionally, pedagogically, and within research when the international meets the intercultural? Whose interests do these discussions mostly serve?

In this talk Dr. Ramzi Merabet problematises the ongoing reliance on the international label as a marker of a predetermined group of individuals. He raises concerns about the ongoing homogenisations of students labelled international, their experiences, and how they are positioned in research, policy, and classrooms as precultured individuals, whose very sense of being is informed either by where they come from or the presumed ‘cultures’ they bring with them, normalising a discourse of alienation and othering. 

Jenna Isherwood – “Between Aspiration and Structural Constraints: Perspectives on Interculturality from the University of Leeds International Student Office”

This presentation gives an overview of how the International Student Office’s work has been influenced over time by thinking about interculturality. It explores some of the constraints, structural or otherwise, that they've encountered trying to put ideas or principles into practice; introduces how a LITE research project using story circles helped them to gather students’ and staff’s perspectives and recommendations to further shape their approaches; and highlights what has been helpful to them when trying to link theory and practice. Finally, it offers some thoughts on the question of dis/entangling interculturality and internationalisation. 

About the Project

Futuring Interculturality seeks to engage colleagues and students from across the University in shaping the future of interculturality at Leeds. We aim to create a virtuous cycle in which research, teaching, professional services, and the lived experiences of students and PGRs inform and enrich one another. These events function as collaborative working groups for visioning, critique, and idea generation with all those interested in contributing.

We look forward to seeing many of you at the event!