'Ien Ang was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 25–29 September 2009 as a guest of the University of Malaya’s Research Cluster on Social and Behavioural Science. In Kuala Lumpur, she had a packed schedule, meeting academics and postgraduate students and holding a roundtable on research with local and visiting faculty. When she sat down for this interview, she had just the evening before delivered a well‐attended public lecture on the topic, ‘Towards a cosmopolitan multiculturalism: Intercultural dialogue without guarantees’.' (Introduction)