1. Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures
  2. School of Languages, Cultures and Societies
  3. Research and innovation
  4. Cultures and Societies
  5. Intercultural Studies
  6. Our Research

Our Research

Above view of several open books

Research in Intercultural studies at Leeds focuses on the intersection of interculturality with questions of belonging, borders, conflict, cultural production, decoloniality, diaspora, diplomacy, epistemic violence, EDI [equality, diversity and inclusion], gender and sexuality, globalisation, health, history, hospitality, identity, indigeneity, migration, minority and minoritised languages and cultures, mobility, multiculturality, multimodality, peacebuilding, place and space, popular culture, power, race and ethnicity, religion and interfaith relations, ‘small cultures’, social media and the digital, soft power, transculturality, and translanguaging, among others.

We also conduct research in and on the fields of intercultural business studies, intercultural communication, intercultural competence, intercultural education, intercultural mediation, intercultural pedagogies and intercultural theory and practice. Key methodologies include ethnography and critical discourse analysis. Our overall approach is informed by the critical turn in Intercultural Studies and the decolonial turn in relation to  traditional area studies.

Our research engages with a truly global range of (inter)cultural contexts, including the UK.

 

Impact and engagement

We are committed to widening public access to, and engagement with, the research that we do: at heart, all of our work in the field of Intercultural Studies aims to promote processes of social inclusion and the achievement of social justice. See, in particular, the Interculturality Podcasts series linked to the International Students Voices project.

Our research also feeds into the work of – and benefits from collaboration with – Leeds-based, national and international partners, including NGOs, arts and cultural organisations, community groups, public services and spaces such as swimming pools, markets and museums, as well as cultural agents such as artists, performers and curators. 
We have also made available an open-access online course: Introduction to Intercultural Studies.