ITAS 290 - Interculturality

In today’s globalized world intercultural competence has become a priority. Different professional sectors urge their companies and employees the need to promote intercultural competence and develop intercultural communication. Interacting effectively with people who have different values and ways of perceiving reality seems to be now a required soft or transferable skill not only to navigate successfully across geographical boundaries but also within environments/spaces where the confluence of diverse cultures is no longer bound to geographical stipulation.

This interdisciplinary course explores the powerful impact of culture in different professional sectors. Students will explore the processes involved in the dynamic formation of cultures. We will examine theories and conceptual frameworks surrounding ideas of multiculturalism, transculturalism, and interculturality. Each of these concepts and frameworks approaches the study of cultures, communities, identities, subjectivities, and agency differently. What are the limitations of these rubrics? Do they imply assimilation in disguise? Does intercultural communication contribute to conflict resolution and if so, to what extent?.

Students will acquire expertise in dealing with a wide variety of cultural situations, challenges, and paradigms, thus learning practical skills that will be useful for their personal and future professional development.

Credits 1

Notes
Cross-listed with HISP 290

Area
Humanities

Division
Arts and Humanities

Foundation
Beyond the West

Compass Attributes
Global Honors, Humanities, Structure/Power/Inequality, Taylor and Lane Scholars