Diversity Week
Special Events
This year Macquarie University will hold two special events during Diversity Week. The University is committed to building a diverse community, and these events celebrate the ongoing work of academics and community members every day of the year.
Building Inclusive Communities Awards
In partnership with the Ethnic Communities’ Council of NSW (ECC), the inaugural Building Inclusive Communities Awards will be held at Parliament House on Wednesday 3 August.
The awards recognise individuals and groups in New South Wales, whose work makes a significant contribution to building a diverse Australia. Individuals, community groups and organisations who serve, work on behalf of, contribute to, or represent Indigenous Australians and/or people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds have entered. Awards will be presented by Premier Barry O’Farrell, Vice-Chancellor Professor Steven Schwartz, Pro-Vice Chancellor Professor Gail Whiteford and ECC Chair Jack Passaris OAM.
“Intercultural Communication” book launch
Diversity in the community is an important area of academic research at Macquarie University, and Professor Ingrid Piller from the Department of Linguistics will launch her book, “Intercultural Communication” at an event on campus during Diversity Week.
“Ingrid Piller’s book will be seen as a landmark in a ‘second wave’ of studies on intercultural communication,” says Jan Blommaert, of Tilburg University.” Solidly grounded in discourse analysis and sociolinguistics, clearly and accessibly written and compellingly argued, it revives a field not always well served by its scholars, and we are now at last in a position to see intercultural communication for what it is: a historically situated and politically sensitive complex of communication modes, analysis of which requires attention to the smallest details as well as to the biggest things in the world – globalization processes.“
Combining discourse analytic and sociolinguistic perspectives, this introduction provides students with a comprehensive, up-to-date and critical overview of the field of intercultural communication. Ingrid Piller explains communication in context using two main approaches. The first treats cultural identity, difference and similarity as discursive constructions. The second, informed by bilingualism studies, highlights the use and prestige of different languages and language varieties as well as the varying access that speakers have to them.