By the end of the course, students can:
1. Demonstrate critical understanding of the theories, approaches, and practices of intercultural communication in the contemporary world.
2. Critically apply these theories, approaches, and practices to intercultural communication phenomena in the contemporary world.
3. Critically assess your intercultural awareness and skills.
4. Analyze visual, written, and face-to-face intercultural situations, and effectively report their findings and opinions.

Specific for the Community Engaged Learning (CEL) component:
5. Create in an international inter-university team activities to foster the linguistic, cultural, and social inclusion of young migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in the host society (the city of Siena in Italy), according to the principles and aims of the project Home 4 the World.
6. Pilot the activities on location in Siena, evaluate the process and the outcomes together with the other students and the stakeholders, and propose adaptations where necessary.
7. Cooperate with people with different cultural backgrounds using appropriate language, communication, and multilingual skills.

Evaluation in the course is based on these components:

Midterm exam	15%	1, 2, 4
Group work	25%	1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7
Term paper	30%	1, 2, 3, 4
Portfolio	20%	1, 2, 3, 4, 6
Active preparation and engagement	10%	1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7

The mobility of people within and beyond national borders, both in real and virtual life, has created the need for people to understand and interact with others who have a different (cultural) background. In these new situations, individual identities and established “recipes” for (intercultural) interaction are challenged and contested, often requiring (re)construction and (re)negotiation, or even abandonment. Individuals must develop new ways of learning and interacting, and skills of adaptation and adjustment, to engage competently in intercultural encounters. This course develops students’ knowledge about and experience in dealing with interculturality and intercultural communication. You will learn about the role of culture, language, and power and how they impact human communication, the complexity of identity, the causes and consequences of processes such as stereotyping, and how people manage intercultural communication processes in these new situations. This course reframes intercultural communication through a power-based perspective that highlights how macro structures and forces (governmental, historical, economic, media, institutional forces) interrelate with micro-communication acts, encounters, and relationships between and within cultural groups. Such a macro-micro power focus reveals the complex, dynamic, and multi-layered nature of contemporary intercultural communication. Meaning, this course will introduce you to both the visible aspects of power (what we see but take-for-granted given its naturalized appearance) as well as the hidden (beneath-the-surface) ones, that constitute intercultural communication encounters and relations.

However, you cannot become a competent intercultural communicator only through knowledge: it is important that you experience directly how people act, interact and communicate – from their perspective. In this course, you will get opportunities to learn through experience. Class discussions, student-led case presentations and activities such as games will be complemented by the critical analysis of traditional media and social media, enhancing your awareness of your own values, norms, and biases. This will prepare you to engage and work together with ‘Cultural Others’ through a community engaged learning project.
This semester this will be realized through a collaboration with international students studying in Siena, Italy, in a community engaged learning (CEL) project, aimed at creating and piloting activities to foster the linguistic, cultural and social inclusion of young migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in the local host society (the city of Siena), according to the principles and aims of the project Home 4 the World. This project is run by volunteers, both international students and locals. The aim of the project is to collaboratively create a handbook of activities that can be implemented and developed in the Home4TheWorld project sites both by volunteers from outside the engaged organizations and by students and volunteers doing service learning activities through this project.
There will be the opportunity to travel to Siena during the midterm break to work on location. You will be offered accommodation in host families, so you will get the chance to have a full immersion in the local culture, while at the same time developing cross-cultural communication skills.
Finally, you will learn to critically self-reflect on, and evaluate, your own intercultural competence. You will reflect on your intercultural exchanges and encounters in assignments and in the term paper, critically linking the theories and notions learned in the course to your personal experience.


Format
Classes will be dedicated to the discussion of readings and the discussion of intercultural experiences, where we will discuss personal cases and experiences, we all will bring in, linking them to the theories and notions of the week theme(s). Guest speakers might be invited to join our discussions. Topics that we will discuss are culture, diversity competence as opposed to intercultural competence, power and ethics in communicative situations and diversity-sensitive communication. We will engage in discussions, peer-reflection sessions, and activities to make sense of our experiences, drawing from the readings. This sense-making will be further elaborated in in the term paper.
We will also engage with the ‘wider community’ outside of our classroom and/or our UCU ‘bubble’ by collaborating with people and institutional partners in addressing (inter)cultural communication challenges.

CEL project:
The first part of the project will be online (once a week for five weeks): in mixed groups students will analyze the migratory process to Europe and to Italy, its dynamics, and steps, to then explore patterns of (self) representation of and by migrants and refugees. The second part of the project will take place on location in Siena during the midterm break (1 week). Students will co-create and propose activities for intercultural dialogue to the participants to the Home 4 the World project. They will reflect on the process and the outcomes, to then finalize the activities for collection in the handbook.
Students who won’t opt for the on-location option will carry out alternative CEL tasks.

Costs if students opt to travel to Siena
A package with accommodation in host families, most meals, activities, and excursions in Siena will be offered by our partner institution for ± € 600,00. Travel expenses will depend on how student will travel.
The instructor will look for possible funding for covering (part of) those expenses.
My expectations: I am looking forward to this course and working and learning together with students about intercultural communication. The success of this course depends to a great extent to your attitude towards the course. Communication is something you do together, so we need students to actively join classes and discussions to be able to learn from each and with each other. Reflecting on our own experiences may pull us out of our comfort zone: it is very important to collaborate in creating an open and safe class environment. To gain sufficient depth in the discussions, we also need to prepare for classes and engage critically with the assigned readings and activities.

UCU course

Active preparation and engagement

Verplicht | Weging 10% | ECTS 0,75

Group work

Verplicht | Weging 25% | ECTS 1,88

Term paper

Verplicht | Weging 30% | ECTS 2,25

Portfolio

Verplicht | Weging 20% | ECTS 1,5

*midterm FEEDBACK*

Niet verplicht

Midterm exam

Verplicht | Weging 15% | ECTS 1,13

Ingangseisen

Je moet minimaal 60 punten van het bachelor programma hebben behaald

Voorkennis

Er is geen informatie over benodigde voorkennis bekend.

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