Critical Interactional Competence Network (CritIC Net)
Developing better social interaction and social relationships in the posthuman era
9th October, 2025 (CritIC First Online Event Zoom)
The session featured three talks that explored criticality in social interaction through the lens of time.
Dr. Simin Ren, Prof. Li Wei, and I presented our recent paper examining how a physiotherapist develops professional interactional competence over a 14-month period. Prof. Yongyan Zheng from Fudan University discussed her exciting new project on human–AI relations through semester-long interactions. Keyu Liu, a PhD student at UCL co-supervised by Prof. Carey Jewitt, Prof. Sara Price, and myself, showcased her innovative research on critical engagement with digital touch communication across generations.
We were very fortunate to have Prof. Carey Jewitt serve as our discussant. She drew out some important themes in the interrelated relationships among time, criticality, human sociality and technology.
18th June, 2025 (Warwick)
Keynote on Critical Interactional Competence (CritIC) in Human-AI Interaction at the Warwick International Conference in Applied Linguistics (WICAL).
11th April, 2025 (Vienna)
Invited talk at the Institute for Intercultural Communication in the Vienna University of Economics and Business on Critical Interactional Competence in AI powered intercultural professional communication training.
22th March, 2025 (Denver)
Presentation titled “Liquidizing Interaction: Repositioning Interactional Competence for Transpositioning” at the American Association for Applied Linguistics conference in Denver, USA.