On Tuesday, 16 July, the Department of Linguistics and English Language hosted the second annual conference of the cross-faculty Culture and Communication network (CULCOM).

CULCOM connects Lancaster University staff, students and visiting researchers interested in any aspect of culture (broadly defined) and communication.

In the first half of the day, guest speakers Doris Dippold (University of Surrey) and Jane Lockwood (Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and co-founder of the communication consultancy Future Perfect) spoke about ‘AI chat bots and culture’ and ‘Intercultural virtual teams’, respectively.

Where is culture in AI chatbots? What are the challenges accessing and analysing AI chatbot data? How to successfully book an appointment with an NHS chatbot? Will people get better at adapting to AI chatbots, or AI chatbots at adapting to people? were some of the questions Doris Dippold raised in her talk.

Next, Jane Lockwood explored different categories of virtual work (virtual global, virtual local, working from home) and virtual teams (e.g., reporting, working together) and some of their key shared challenges - low levels of intercultural sensitivity and low use of accommodation strategies.

The second half of the day featured shorter, ‘lighting’ talks from research staff and students from the Department of Languages and Cultures (DELC), Engineering, Linguistics and English Language (LAEL), and Sociology.

Drawing on personal experience of studying and working across languages and countries, Tim Douglas (Engineering) presented a series of provocations around English as a Foreign Language versus English as a Lingua Franca.

Patricia Lanners-Kaminski (LAEL) presented methods for integrating cultural elements into online classes to augment cultural awareness (using the case of teaching German as a foreign language).

Mi-Jin Chung (LAEL) presented research-in-progress towards developing assessment of L2 pragmatic competence in English for intercultural workplaces (focusing on Korean engineers transferred to Poland).

Nicola Greenhalgh (DELC) discussed cultural magazines as sources of cultural memory which enrich the existing canon of texts from and about their era and made a case for the translation of magazine texts from the 1980s Spanish cultural movement la movida Madrileña.

Lily Jinxian Wu (Sociology) showed how women’s voices and feminist expression have become increasingly audible in the popular culture of contemporary China through the analysis of reality TV show Sisters who Make Waves, the online series Hear Her and a Women’s Day ad.

The day ended with a talk by MA Intercultural Communication student Denis Rodionov (LAEL) who shared his emerging findings (based on interviews and ethnographic observations) on the role of Russian-speaking tour guides in London as cultural mediators between the visitors and the city.

Dimitrinka Atanasova