The International Association for Intercultrual Communication Studies consists of scholars from a range of the cultural sciences who are dedicated to doing research on communication across cultures. The group meets annually at different locations around the world. Its membership is made up of participants from over 32 countries. These participants meet annually to discuss common research interests. The results of their investigations are published in the journal of the organization, Intercultural Communication Studies (ICS). The organization is housed in the Institute for Intercultural Communication at the University of Louisville.
A History of the International Association for Intercultural Communication Studies (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:
Past and Present Conferences
- 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 2006
- Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China. 2007
- University of Louisville, Louisville, KY USA 2008
- Trinity University, San Antonio, Texas, USA. 1989
The goals of the conference:
- 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. 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
