Dr. Bob White – 2026 Sections

Despite the important role that anthropology played in early research on intercultural communication and cross-cultural psychology, and despite the fact that the vast majority of knowledge produced by anthropologists depends on the dynamics of intercultural encounters, anthropologists are more interested in the complexity of specific cultural communities than they are in the interactions between groups. This may explain why anthropologists are unaware that the field of cross-cultural psychology has developed a general theory of intercultural communication that spans more than 75 years, building from Allport's important early work on prejudice. After a general introduction to the paradoxical nature of anthropology's relationship with the field of intercultural communication, I will discuss how psychological work on contact theory may contribute positively to debates within anthropology and more broadly across the social and psychological sciences. Finally, I will present a new methodology, called "indirect ethnography," that anthropologists in Québec have developed to facilitate the documentation of intercultural dynamics in rapidly diversifying urban settings and to develop tools for designing intervention strategies for influencing intercultural policy in local government. Implications of the approach for applied social science research on intercultural relations are discussed

Bob W. White is a Full Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the Université de Montréal and Director of the Laboratory for Research on Intercultural Relations (LABRRI). Since 2012, he has led a multi-sector research partnership on the dynamics of inclusion in urban space in Montreal. He is the coordinator of the Québec Network of Municipalities in Immigration and Intercultural Relations (RÉMIRI), and a member of the G3 inter-university research network on migration (Université de Montréal, University of Geneva, Université libre de Bruxelles). His current research is dedicated to the development of a general theory of intercultural communication.