Post by Anna Rodriguez Casadevall

Can we really talk about intercultural competence and intercultural communication without talking about critical interculturality in Higher Education? After five days teaching at Université Savoie Mont Blanc (France), this is the question I keep coming back to. It was a privilege to work with lecturers and researchers from seven universities in France, Japan, Lithuania, Madagascar, Slovakia and Ukraine, exploring intercultural communication in Higher Education. But our learning journey didn't stop at communication. We began with our own frames of reference. We explored how we communicate, how we interpret others and why misunderstandings happen. We analysed real university cases and reflected on the invisible assumptions we bring into our classrooms. And then we asked a more uncomfortable question: whose knowledge do we consider legitimate? Because intercultural competence is not only about communicating better across cultures. It is also about recognising that universities are not neutral spaces. Every syllabus, every bibliography, every case study and every example reflects particular histories, narratives and ways of understanding the world. If we only talk about cultural differences, we risk overlooking the structures that determine whose voices are heard, whose knowledge is taught and whose perspectives remain invisible. For me, this is where intercultural competence naturally leads to critical interculturality. Not as an "advanced topic", but as the next step in the journey. A journey that invites us not only to teach in more culturally responsive ways, but also to question the assumptions that shape our teaching, our research and our institutions. And this is also why I believe that working with lecturers, researchers and non-teaching staff is one of the most meaningful ways to create impact in Higher Education. They are the people who work with students every day -future professionals, academics and decision-makers- and they shape the university experience in ways that are often much deeper than we acknowledge. Many thanks for a week of thoughtful conversations, genuine curiosity and the willingness to question certainties together, Ingrid Le Ru , Tadao Takada, Florence Besson-Reynaud , Iryna Panina , Virginija Gyliene , Camille COLIN, Laura Vittadello , Françoise LAUBEPIN , Hajarisena RAZAFIMAHATRATRA, Myriam Donsimoni , Noelia Chambaz , Katarina Revauyova and Yannick Vidal!