Roger Nunn (English Scholars Beyond Borders)
Abstract
Intercultural “translatability” is a view that knowledge is reconstructed and used subjectively and inter-subjectively in any new context (Nunn, 2016; Nunn et al., 2015). Each new context is unique, so intercultural translation within the local context is inevitable. A phenomenological perspective (e.g., Husserl, 1931/1960; Merleau-Ponty, 1945/1962) underlines the way that ideas need to be interpreted from both insider and outsider perspectives. An impersonal approach, sometimes misleadingly labelled “objective,” ignores the reality that any “object” under investigation is translated by a self. Bias, whether personal or cultural, can only be countered, and possibly reduced, when we acknowledge it is inevitable and powerful. We cannot be neutral, because we cannot stand outside our own history, knowledge, emotions or values. Only if we accept that bias is inevitable can we start communicating meaningfully in conferences like this one. This acceptance is a means of escaping from the self in order to enrich the self. I will briefly link this to a socially responsible approach to teaching, with some examples from my own classrooms where I practiced project-based learning. At this conference we are also emphasizing compassion in education; my examples will reflect this. Compassion is arguably fundamental to intercultural understanding in our troubled world.
Duara (2014) emphasizes that what we share, “global commons,” is more significant than what separates us. As a historian, Duara critically examines the inward-looking nationalist perspectives of the nation state, providing a perspective of historical circulation beyond and across borders, even transcending borders. He outlines “the methodologies of linking the self to locality, community, environment and the universal” (p. 2). In international fields like ours, more successful learning might best be achieved when
- each of us makes a conscious effort to “bracket” inevitable pre-judgements and does not underestimate the difficulties involved in this;
- “locality” is seen as an important (perhaps the important) locus of action but is no longer seen as a barrier to circulatory forces of translatable practices;
- “community” is seen as a pluralistic multi-centric notion (linked to understanding “the self” and “the other” in a way that can cross borders, it is a notion impacted by circulation, emphasizing what we share, translatable “global commons”);
- our academic “environment” is no less “at risk” than our physical environment, when we do not fully grasp the relevance of circulatory forces.
Duara (2014) provides us with a conceptual ecology that can allow us to transcend our intercultural limitations. In this presentation, I will therefore discuss intercultural translatability and briefly discuss what this could mean for our teaching.
References
Duara, P. (2014). The crisis of global modernity: Asian traditions and a sustainable future. Cambridge UP.
Husserl, M. (1960). Cartesian meditations: An introduction to phenomenology (D. Cairns, Trans.). Martinus Nijhoff. (Original work published 1931)
Merleau-Ponty, M. (1962). Phenomenology of perception (C. Smith, Trans.) The Humanities Press. (Original work published 1945)
Nunn, R., Deveci, T., & Salih, H. (2015). Phenomenological views of the development of critical argumentation in learners’ discourse. Asian EFL Journal Professional Teaching Articles, 85, 90-116.
Nunn, R. (2016). Foreword: The self, anonymity and non-blind review: A circulatory perspective of academic global commons. ESBB, 2(1), 2-6.
Nunn, R. (2020) Project-based learning: Learning about PBL from successful freshman writing projects. English Scholarship Beyond Borders, 6(1), 41-56.
Keynote Session; In Person; 30 minutes
Culture & Cross-/Intercultural Perspectives
General Interest
About the Presenter
I recently retired from my final salaried position as a professor and head of the Department of English at the American University of Sharjah in the UAE. I have been really fortunate to have been able to live and teach in a variety of interesting international locations, including France, Qatar, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ethiopia, Japan, the U.K., and Germany. My personal and academic interest is in intercultural communication, supported academically by an MA and a PhD from the University of Reading, U.K., supervised by Ron White. I qualified as a teacher of French in the U.K. in 1976, changing to ESL outside the U.K. in 1979. As a former editor of the Asian EFL and ESP Journals and a founding member of English Scholars Beyond Borders, I have edited more journal issues than I care to count over the last 25 years. I have especially enjoyed presenting and publishing in a very broad variety of international locations beyond the countries where we lived. As an expatriate teacher/researcher in Asia and the Middle East, I have come to realise that these are the major centers of scholarship in my fields of interest. Although “retired” from full-time work, I don’t believe in retirement; I remain active in ESBB and have recently become a research fellow at Shinawatra University in Thailand. I have also resuscitated my creative work as a singer-songwriter, which I practiced in my younger years. Back in the U.K., I have also become very interested in supporting inter-community relations, and I chair a charity that supports intercultural understanding.
My own holistic approach to ELT scholarship, education, and life itself is an approach that engages us as “whole” people in lifelong learning and openness to other cultures. A socially responsible form of project-based learning has long been my teaching preference—an approach that students seem to love, as it puts them at the center of learning and fully engages them (and their teachers) both intellectually and emotionally. One of my related interests is phenomenology (a “philosophy of life”), with an intercultural twist. My aim is to help us better understand ourselves, “the self,” in relation to a very culturally diverse array of “others.” I enjoy forming strong research relationships with international and local colleagues and have always tried to publish and present in as many countries as possible and to engage in dialogue across borders—hence the development of a practice I call “intercultural translatability.” I do not believe in targeting a few “center” journals for publication. Publishing needs to be multi-centric in our interconnected world. Founding ESBB (English Scholars Beyond Borders) with other international scholars was therefore a natural progression for me. Our ESBB journal is indexed, and participants can submit after the conference, if they believe in a strong authorial voice, have a translatable intercultural message that they explain, and do not make spurious claims of “objectivity.” The obsession with indexing in its present form, and the requirement to publish only in indexed journals, is oppressive and something I oppose strongly. A more detailed profile is available here: https://www.englishscholarsbeyondborders.org/members-profiles/roger-nunn...
