About IAICS
History | Leadership | Constitution
History of the IAICS
The International Association for Intercultural Communication Studies (IAICS) originated from a series of Asian-American conferences run by the late Dr. John Koo at the University of Alaska and Arizona State University. In 1985, the first international conference on "Cross-Cultural Communication: East and West" was held in Seoul, Korea. The group met every two years, alternating between North America and Asia. Asian conferences were held in Harbin (China), Tainan (Taiwan), and Hong Kong (China). In North America the conferences were held in San Antonio (Texas), Tempe (Arizona), and Louisville (Kentucky). Since 2003, the conference has been held on an annual basis. The following is the list of the conferences sponsored by the association:
• Seijong Hotel. Seoul, Korea. 1985
• Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, USA. 1989
• Chung King University, Tainan, Taiwan. 1991
• Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, USA. 1993
• Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China. 1995
• Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, USA. 1997
• University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, USA. 1999
• Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong. 2001
• California State University at Fullerton, USA. 2003
• Universidad de Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. 2004
• Chinese Culture University, Taipei, Taiwan. 2005
• Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, USA. 2006
• Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China. 2007
• University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky, USA. 2008
• Kumamoto Gakuen University, Kumamoto, Japan, 2009
• South China University of Technology, Guangzhou, China. 2010
• Universidad Intercultural De Chiapas, Chiapas, Mexico. 2011
• Yuan Ze University, Chung-Li, Taiwan. 2012
The goals of the conference are:
• To bring together international educators and scholars
to share ideas and experiences from diverse interdisciplinary perspectives
on communication across cultures.
• To provide a forum for the exchange of scholarly research on issues
relating to communication across language and culture.
• To disseminate through monographs, journals and websites recent research
and thinking on emerging issues relating to language and culture.
• To bring different academic disciplines together to share theoretical
insights and findings about communication across cultures.
In 1991, the conference changed its focus in several ways. It created an organization known as the International Association for Intercultural Communication Studies (IAICS) that is housed with the Intercultural Studies Institute at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. It also established its own journal of Intercultural Communication Studies (ICS) with Bates L. Hoffer (Trinity University) as its General Editor. The home base of IAICS and its journal ICS moved to the University of Louisville in 2007, with Robert N. St. Clair continuing as Executive Director and Margaret D'Silva becoming General Editor. IAICS was moved to the University of Rhode Island in 2008, with Guo-Ming Chen as Executive Director and Margaret D'Silva as General editor. Currently, Guo-Ming Chen (University of Rhode Island), L. Brooks Hill (Trinity University), Nobuyuki Honna (Aoyama University, Japan), and Robert N. St. Clair (University of Louisville) are the other members of that editorial team. In addition to creating an organization, the conference shifted its focus towards interdisciplinary models of communication across languages and cultures.
Leadership
IAICS Board of Directors:
Sarah Corona Berkin, Universidad de Guadalajara
Guo-Ming Chen, University of Rhode Island
Ling Chen, Hong Kong Baptist University
Margaret D'Silva, University of Louisville
L. Brooks Hill, Trinity University
Robert N. St. Clair, University of Louisville
Yuko Takeshita, Toyo Eiwa University
JIA Yuxin, Harbin Institute of Technology
Officers of IAICS:
President: SONG Li, Harbin Institute of Technology (2011-2013)
President Elect: Robert N. St. Clair, University of Louisville
Past Presidents:
- L. Brooks Hill, Trinity University (2009-2011)
- Nobuyuki Honna, Aoyama Gakuin University (2007-2009)
- Bates L. Hoffer, Trinity University (2005-2007)
- JIA Yuxin, Harbin Institute of Technology (2003-2005)
- D. Ray Heisey, Kent State University (2001-2003)
- Masanori Higa, Ryukoku University (1999-2001)
- L. Brooks Hill, Trinity University (1995-1999)
Executive Director: Guo-Ming Chen, University of Rhode Island
Treasurer/Secretary: Priscilla Young, University of Rhode
Island
Newsletter Editor: Priscilla Young, University of Rhode Island
Webmaster: Le Yang, Texas Tech University
International Advisory Board:
Ran AN, South China University of Technology, China
Maria Lebdko, Far Eastern National University, Russia
Changyuan LIU, Harbin Institute of Technology, China
Youzhong SUN, Beijing Foreign Studies University, China
Svetlana Ter-Minasova, Moscow State University, Russia
Robert W. Vaagan, Oslo University, Norway
Lin-Wen Wang, Yuan Ze University, Taiwan
Judy Yoneoka, Kumamoto Gakuen University, Japan