Ecointerculturality : Communing with the More-than-Human World

Ecointerculturality introduces an original approach that brings the more-than-human world—nature, living beings, and Earth itself—into intercultural communication, education, and research (ICER), expanding the field with planetary consciousness and relational care.

Ecointerculturality introduces an original approach that brings the more-than-human world—nature, living beings, and Earth itself—into intercultural communication, education, and research (ICER), expanding the field with planetary consciousness and relational care. At a time of ecological crisis and widespread disconnection, this transformative book invites readers into ecotranslanguaging, a relational and embodied practice of ecointerculturality. By communing with the more-than-human world through encounters with forests and fungi, grief and ceremony, buffalo and crow, ecotranslanguaging moves us beyond human-centered frameworks. It reimagines language, culture, and meaning as living, ecological practices. Grounded in Indigenous epistemologies and sacred feminine wisdom, this urgently needed work underscores the voices and knowledges of historically marginalized groups in ICER. It asks how we might learn to engage more responsibly in a shared world of interdependent relationships. Through an eclectic blend of theory, contemplative practice, autoethnography, and reflective exercises, Byrd humbly offers ways to remember language as an invitation to participate differently—to unlearn, return, and renew within a deeply interconnected world, not as a prescriptive method to implement. Essential for scholars, educators, students, and practitioners of intercultural communication and education, this timely work illuminates pathways toward more mindful, reciprocal, and compassionate ways of relating to one another and to all life.