Interculturality and the Munchausen Effect: What is it? And why does it matter for research on the intercultural?

This talk inspired by Interculturality and the Munchausen Effect: On the Need to Rethink the Speaking Subject and Community in Interaction (2024: Routledge) addresses two interrelated theses in research on interculturality; namely that the speaking subject in interaction reproduces the egocentrism and phonocentrism of the Munchausen Effect. In considering the first, I trace the ways in which interculturality research has historically supposed the ‘speaking subject’—that is, the research participant—as the basis of truth and knowledge, not giving context to the discursive layers or paratexts involved in analyzing the subject’s speech. This notion of the ‘speaking subject’ being taken at face value prompts my second interrelated argument on representation and historical conceptualizations of community in interculturality research, whereby, in trying to represent their subjects, researchers often impose a sense of community affiliation onto their subjects and end up negating their subjective identities. The talk serves as a conceptual and practical response to calls for epistemological diversity and plurality in advocating for a critical interdiscursive approach to research on interculturality.

Dr Ashley Simpson is a Lecturer in Language Education at Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh, UK.  Dr Simpson is also Co-Head of Institute of the Language Education at Moray House School of Education and Sport, University of Edinburgh, UK. He has published extensively on Intercultural Communication.