The social history of language and social interaction research

Wendy Leeds-Hurwitz is Director of the Center for Intercultural Dialogue, supported by the Council for Communication Associations, Professor Emerita of Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, and Associate Faculty at Royal Roads University, Victoria, BC, Canada. She has been Chercheur invité at the Ecole normale supérieure de Lyon, France, Senior Fellow at the Collegium de Lyon Institut d'études avancées, Fulbright Senior Specialist at the Instituto Politécnico de Coimbra, Portugal; and Harron Family Endowed Chair of Communication at Villanova University, Pennsylvania. She has served UNESCO as an expert on intercultural dialogue, presented at the World Forum on Intercultural Dialogue in Baku, Azerbaijan, organized a conference on intercultural dialogue held in Istanbul, Turkey, and a roundtable on intercultural dialogue in Asia held in Macau, China. Leeds-Hurwitz is interested in 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. She earned her B.A. from the State University of New York at Binghamton, and her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.