LAUSR

ABSTRACT The special issue on Performance Studies in Intercultural Communication research returns to the questions and critiques of scholarly validation to carve or (re)carve a space for Performance scholarship within Intercultural Communication. More specifically, this introductory piece explores why Performance Studies methods are stigmatized in Intercultural Communication research and makes the case for the sub-area of Intercultural Performance Studies in Communication. The performative turn in studying culture brought scholars back to the body as a central mode for research, of research, by researchers. What embodied research provides Intercultural Communication is a return to an ethical approach to studying culture through reflexivity and critical interrogations of power. We finish with a presentation of the contributors included in this special issue. The goal of this introductory piece is to contextualize the conversation that manifests a homeplace (hooks, 1990) for the academic homeless.