J. César Félix-Brasdefer
Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies, Department of Spanish and Portuguese (College of Arts & Sciences)
Academic Director, IU Mexico Gateway, Office of the Vice President for International Affairs
As the new academic director of the IU Mexico Gateway Office, César works with colleagues at IU Global to promote research and academic activities between IU faculty and students and institutions of higher education in Latin America.
He aims to engage faculty in academic discussion of issues such as the revitalization and diversity of Indigenous languages; further promote the internationalization of IU study abroad programs; foster intellectual exchange through collaborative conferences; and connect IU faculty, students, and alumni with researchers in Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.
César is a professor of linguistics and Spanish in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and an adjunct faculty member in the Departments of Linguistics and Second Language Studies, all within the College of Arts and Sciences. His research includes pragmatics and discourse analysis, which examine how meaning is expressed and negotiated through language use in context. He is mainly interested in the intersection between language use, language and cognition, the negotiation of meaning, multilingual contexts, and intercultural and cross-cultural communication. He is currently investigating the pragmatics of intercultural competence from a discursive perspective in foreign language and study abroad contexts.
The author of nine books and many other publications, César has served as the executive secretary of the American Pragmatics Association and is currently on the editorial boards of the Journal of Pragmatics, Applied Pragmatics, and Spanish in Context. He has also served as director of the Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, director of the Graduate Linguistics Program in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, and he is a member of the Overseas Study Advisory Council.
César earned a Bachelor of Arts from the Universidad Autónoma de Tlaxcala, México, a Master of Arts from the University of Illinois at Chicago, a Master of Science from Georgetown University, and a Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota.
Q: What drew you to the IU Mexico Gateway Office, and what are your plans for the months ahead?
A: In May 2018, I was invited to participate in a panel about Indigenous languages during the opening of the Mexico Gateway. Since then, I’ve been following the gateway through in-person and online events with colleagues at IU and at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM). The gateway has led me to engage in research collaborations and conference presentations with colleagues at UNAM, to share opportunities with my IU colleagues and students, and to lead a study abroad group to Mexico through the Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Multicultural Affairs in May 2022. Since then, the professional team at the IU Mexico Gateway has been supportive, facilitating logistics and connections with other colleagues within and outside of UNAM.
As the new academic director of the IU Mexico Gateway, I plan to connect IU faculty and students with research opportunities and collaborations in various departments and schools at the UNAM and in institutions of higher education in Brazil, the Caribbean, Central, and South America. This month (March 2023), I will travel to Mexico and Colombia to continue our commitment with UNAM and explore new opportunities with other institutions of higher education. In May, I will attend and participate in a conference at the Mexico Gateway to further collaboration with faculty at the UNAM and other universities.
There are many aspects that attracted me to the gateway: the working environment of the team, my passion to connect faculty with other researchers in institutions of higher education in Latin America, and the opportunity to represent Indiana University internationally and attract faculty, students, alumni, and NGOs to IU.
Q: How do you see your research intersecting and interacting with your new role?
A: Given the interdisciplinary nature of my research in linguistics and Hispanic studies, I see many ways to support and engage with IU faculty from different departments, schools, and campuses. My research in topics related to linguistic diversity allows me to expand collaboration with IU faculty and students interested in researching the revitalization of Indigenous languages in Brazil, Mexico, Central, and South America. As a linguist interested in topics such as language and cognition, inferential communication, study abroad research, computational linguistics, global citizenship, intercultural competence, and social and historical issues in Latin America, I see many ways to connect with my colleagues from the College, the School of Education, the Hamilton Lugar School, the O’Neill School, the Kelley School, and the Luddy School.
I’m currently writing a book on intercultural competence and global citizenship. This research will allow me to expand my vision of globalization, faculty engagement, and student mobility in intercultural interactions in Brazil and other regions in Latin America. I look forward to connecting faculty across the various IU campuses to foster awareness of the existing research from our amazing IU faculty and to share grant opportunities offered in research collaboration through the Mexico Gateway. I plan to organize in-person or online forums to learn more about what our faculty are currently researching so that I can explore ways to connect with faculty who are interested in organizing conferences, short-term faculty exchanges, and faculty-led programs in Latin America.
Q: In one of your books, "The Language of Service Encounters," you examine how people use speech during transactions in Mexico and the United States. What aspects of that research did you find most interesting and exciting? And how can we speak more kindly in service encounters?
A: In this book, I examine cross-cultural differences and similarities between Mexico and the United States during the negotiation of service in commercial (buying and selling goods) and non-commercial (asking and providing information) settings such as supermarkets, small stores, and information centers.
Cultures vary in their orientation to how individuals view themselves and others.
In collectivist cultures, such as Mexico, individuals perceive themselves in relation to others; as a result, communication is often more indirect, and decisions are based on what is good for the group. In individualistic cultures, such as the U.S., people place more importance on independence and freedom and are focused on the rights and concerns of each person.
What I found most interesting about this research is that the negotiation of service in U.S. settings is characterized by a conversational style that favors indirectness, brief interactions, a preference for transaction over relational talk, and institutional power that grants power to the service seeker. In contrast, Mexican service encounters are characterized by a conversational style that favors directness, closeness, longer interactions, and a preference for relational over transactional talk, where the focus is on interpersonal relations. My analysis also sheds light on the sociocultural expectations and social norms of Mexican society that are oriented toward respect and deference, expressed in the selection of forms of address, mainly the formal (usted "you formal"), and the use of diminutives and forms of endearment.
In a global world, as people communicate with speakers from other cultures and in different languages, we need to become competent intercultural speakers to communicate effectively and appropriately, developing an awareness of the skills necessary to communicate and relate, as well as a knowledge of cultural values, beliefs, and an attitude towards acceptance and tolerance that conveys respect and promotes understanding.
As a way of illustration, if a person from the U.S. travels to Mexico, another country in Latin America, or Spain, they need to understand the sociocultural norms, social conventions, behaviors, and ways to interact as expected in the target culture. For example, in Mexico and other regions of Latin America, one or more insistences by the host after a person refuses an offer for food or declines an invitation is considered polite behavior and a sociocultural expectation, whereas in the U.S., this behavior would be viewed as rude or impolite. Knowledge of intercultural competence and an awareness of the social norms and conventions of other cultures will help us become competent intercultural speakers, better global citizens, and will even help us seem kinder to those we interact with.
Q: What do you enjoy most about your work with the Overseas Study Advisory Council?
A: One of the most rewarding activities since my early career at Indiana University has been my service to the Study Abroad Advisory Council in the Office of Oversees Study. In this role, I have been responsible for advising on issues of safety and responsibility to ensure that our students and faculty abroad are safe and aware of current travel policies. I have learned about international issues related to study abroad education, advising our faculty in the conceptualization and planning of study abroad programs, meeting with study abroad advisors from other campuses, serving our underrepresented students, and the satisfaction that studying abroad makes our students better global citizens. My favorite part of this work is my conversations with the vice president of overseas study and fellow staff members when we meet to discuss policy, exchange ideas, and review faculty-led study abroad proposals. It has been a pleasure serving IU in this capacity.
Q: Do you have any favorite places on campus? In Bloomington?
A: The Showalter Fountain and the Lilly Library. I enjoy running on different trails around Bloomington — the B-Line Trail, Jackson Creek Trail, and Bloomington Rail Trail. I also enjoy spending time with my family and dog at Lake Lemon and Griffy Lake.
