Towards Critical Intercultural Communication
Crafting the ways in which intercultural communication research could embrace questions of power, privilege, and social justice

Speaker:
Eila Isotalus has worked since 2005 through her company Unidos Ltd. in personnel development for organizations both in the private, public and third sectors for groups ranging from teachers to doctors, from HR personnel and multicultural team leaders to officials working with migrants. Trainings and development processes provided by Unidos Ltd. are tailored for different professional settings and aim to generate cultural change both in the ways in which individuals work and in which organizations operate. The main target group in recent years has been teachers and trainers, aiming to support building inclusive learning environment, enhancing anti-racist pedagogies, and belonging both when working with individual teachers and more broadly in educational institutions. In addition, Eila has coordinated the Master Program in Intercultural Encounters at the University of Helsinki, Finland, been Head Lecturer in Intercultural Communication at Aalto University, Finland, and lectured in various Universities in Finland and abroad. Besides Finland, she has worked or studied in London UK, Switzerland, Sami region of Norway, Sweden, France, Russia, Bolivia, Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Tanzania and Mali. She has written several articles to scientific publications and published also a guide on intercultural competence development.

M.A. Eila Isotalus received her Masters degree in Intercultural Communications and International Relations from the University of Jyväskylä, Finland and is currently furthering her studies. For her PhD, Eila did a fieldwork in an asylum centre which made urgent to deep dive her journey to inquire, question and further develop the fundamentals of the Intercultural Communication, and Intercultural Competence Development theorizations: To what extend the context of forced migration is included? What kind of contexts, epistemologies and knowledge production processes these theories are actually embedded in?

As a member of SIETAR UK she is involved in the project team which organizes ”training program and training materials designed to enhance the intercultural understanding and competencies of those working with and supporting refugees and person(s) who seek asylum (RAAS)” (https://sietar.co.uk/raas-2/). These trainings are directed to volunteers working with refugees and people seeking asylum through different NGO’s in UK. In addition to the generic training, Eila participated also to creation and implementation of trainings specifically about volunteering with Ukrainian refugees.