As an entity designated to further the IC research and disciplinary development for the university, the SII has focused on linking the resources across the university toward developing competitive research projects, publishing quality research articles, facilitating the publication of important overseas IC textbooks, and launching its own Intercultural Research thematic IC series.  

Designing and carrying out relevant research projects is the focus of any institute. Though the SII started with a small, young staff, each of the research fellows has been awarded their first projects, and is active in designing new ones. Projects include work under such funding agencies as Resource Exchange International, Inc. (USA), a 4-year “Intercultural Communication Series Research” (SISU Institutional Key Research Project), a “Special IC Collections Library” Subsidiary Project of the Third Public Service Construction of the SISU 211 Project, an IC-oriented “Foreign Language Teaching: Theory and Practice” (211 Key Discipline Project) and several “Young Scholar” projects. >> More

Research findings also need to be reported, and the faculty of the SII all work at producing quality conference presentations, journal articles, book chapters, and monographs to broaden and deepen intercultural communication (jiaoji yu chuan bo) research in China. To date, more than 20 articles have been published in leading journals at home and abroad, and important chapters have been invited from SISU scholars for publication in several international handbooks and encyclopedias. >> More 

Thanks to the vision of the leading Chinese IC founders, Professors Hu Wenzhong and Jia Yuxin worked with the Shanghai Foreign Language Education Press (the publishing house attached to SISU) to acquire rights to publish influential overseas textbooks in China. Prof. Steve Kulich is included on the Board of Vice-Editors (fuzhuren) and Professors Zhuang Zhixiang and Michael Prosser on the Editorial Board (bianweihui de weiyuan). 11 volumes of this important textbook series have now been published, and more are in press to provide quality English resources for China’s IC teachers and researchers. In addition, a series in Chinese was launched under the same Editorial Board (bianweihui), and three volumes have appeared so far, including Prof. Zhang Hongling’s influential text on IC Education and Foreign Language Teaching (2007). >> More

Beyond these imported or indigenous resources, it was also deemed necessary for the IC field to have its own topical handbook series, providing important “state of the art” chapters in each volume centered around one of the key themes of intercultural communication (jiaoji yu chuan bo) research. In conjunction with the research training conference of 2006, Professors Kulich and Prosser launched the Intercultural Research series. Three volumes have been published to date, one providing an overview of  “Chinese Communication (jiaoji yu chuan bo) Studies” (Vol. 1), two addressing “Intercultural Identity Research” (Vols. 2 and 3), with more in press, two on “Intercultural Values Studies (Vol. 4 and 5), and two in development (Vols. 6 and 7). Future volumes plan to address “IC Comptence,” “IC Research Methods,” and other important topics for strengthening the research base of this emerging discipline. >> More

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