ICC 2026: Call for Proposals

Intercultural Competence in a Rapidly Changing World:

Supporting Inclusive and Sustainable Futures

The Tenth International Conference on the
Development and Assessment of Intercultural Competence

February 27 – March 1, 2026
A Hybrid Event in Tucson, Arizona, and Online

Proposal Submission Deadline: July 21, 2025

Our planet is on fire! Around the world, we are witnessing a surge in ecological disasters, the degradation and depletion of natural resources, the loss of biodiversity, the pollution of land and water, the spread of hunger and disease, the rise of violent geopolitical conflicts, and the widening of long-standing inequalities for billions of people.

In 2015, 191 United Nations (UN) member states adopted the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and their targets to improve life on our shared planet by 2030. Goal 4 calls for quality education for all, and Target 4.7 calls for increased education in two key areas: global citizenship and sustainable development, which have recently received increased attention in language education.

Global citizenship and sustainable development in SDG 4, Target 4.7 are recommendations of the what but not the how. The UN recognizes the need for a pedagogical shift because “for education to be truly transformative, ‘education as usual’ will not suffice” (2016, p. 163). It must “foster thinking that is more relational, integrative, empathic, anticipatory, and systemic” (2016, p. 163).

In this moment of global reckoning, what does it mean to be a global citizen and how do we, as language educators, help students make sense of the histories that have brought us to this moment? These issues are not new, they are interconnected and require transformative solutions that bring about systemic change. The SDGs can provide a blueprint for examining the intersectionality that exists among pressing global issues and a common language for educators to critically engage with these goals and move from transmissive and conformative to transformative education.

We ask: What role might intercultural communicative language education play in promoting a more inclusive and sustainable world for all? What might an intercultural communicative language education for a more inclusive and sustainable world look like? What might be the implications for teachers and learners of moving towards intercultural communicative language education for inclusivity and sustainability?

With these issues and questions in mind, CERCLL invites language educators to reflect on how they could re-envision what they teach and how they teach it to meaningfully address these crises with the goal of building a socially and environmentally sustainable world for all.

The organizers of ICC 2026 seek presentation proposals that focus upon these questions. Authors will be asked to choose from among the following strands:

  • Theoretical and conceptual approaches
  • Assessment
  • Curricula, Materials, and Instructional Approaches
  • Technology
  • Policy and institutional initiatives
  • Exchanges (physical and virtual)
  • Service/Community-based learning
  • Professional learning of language educators

 

All proposals will be submitted online, with the submission form opening on January 1, 2025.

The Proposal Submission Deadline is July 21, 2025, 11:59 pm (Pacific Standard Time).

Questions? Contact CERCLL: cercll@arizona.edu.

This is the tenth iteration of the ICC conference organized by the Center for Educational Resources in Culture, Language and Literacy (CERCLL), a Title VI Language Resource Center at the University of Arizona.