Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz is Director of the Center for Intercultural Dialogue, under the auspices of the Council for Communication Associations (the 8 national or international associations in Communication based in the USA). In that role she is currently helping US scholars connect with their international peers. Leeds-Hurwitz is also Professor Emerita of Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, where she taught for 28 years. She has served as an expert for the Division of Cultural Policies and Intercultural Dialogue of UNESCO (Paris, 2009), and presented at the World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue (Baku, Azerbaijan, 2011). Leeds-Hurwitz presents frequently at international conferences as well as guest lectures at academic institutions (in China: the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Peking University, Beijing International Studies University, Zhejiang University, Northwest University, and Shanghai International Studies University). Leeds-Hurwitz has been Invited Scholar at the Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon, France, Senior Fellow at the Collegium de Lyon Institute for Advanced Studies, and Fellow at the Center for Twentieth Century Studies (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee). She has served as chair for the International and Intercultural Communication Division of the National Communication Association, and chaired the organizing committee for the NCA Summer Conference on Intercultural Dialogue (Istanbul, Turkey, 2009).
Leeds-Hurwitz is interested in central questions of how people construct meanings for themselves and others through interaction; how cultural identity is constructed and maintained; and how conflicting identities or meanings can be conveyed simultaneously. She studies disciplinary history to learn why scholars examine particular topics in specific ways; often stops to consider particular research methods or theories; and always takes an interdisciplinary approach to problems. Her article “Notes in the history of intercultural communication” published in Quarterly Journal of Speech (1990) provides the standard introduction to intercultural communication in the USA. Among her major publications are these books: The Social History of Language and Social Interaction (edited in 2010), Socially Constructing Communication (co-edited in 2009), From Generation to Generation: Maintaining Cultural Identity over Time (edited in 2005), Wedding as Text: Communicating Cultural Identities through Ritual (2002), Social Approaches to Communication (edited in 1995), Semiotics and Communication (1993), and Communication in Everyday Life (1989). Leeds-Hurwitz earned her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania. |
