Discovering One's (Inter)Cultural Identity

Abstract

In the undergraduate course titled “Intercultural Communication in a Globalized Society,” students have the opportunity to take a deep dive into their cultural identity and how it relates to their communication with people from other cultures. Students identify a perspective–family, community, race, ethnicity, occupation, or religion–that is the primary origin of their cultural identity and explore through scholarly literature and their personal reflections, how their cultural “self” interacts with their intercultural communication. As their final presentation in the course, each student prepares a video in which s/he explains how they discovered the nature and roots of their cultural identity through a study of scholarly research that helps them to contextualize and understand their cultural and intercultural experiences from their unique perspective. As part of their analysis, students are expected to (1) identify the beliefs, values, and norms of their own culture, as they articulate its dominant cultural patterns; and (2) articulate an ethno-relative state of understanding intercultural differences. Student videos are moderated by their instructor, Dr. Arla Bernstein.

Presenters

Arla Bernstein
Associate Professor, Liberal Studies, Mercer University, Georgia, United States

Details

Presentation Type

Paper Presentation in a Themed Session

Theme

Identity and Belonging

KEYWORDS

Intercultural identity, Ethno-relativity, Cultural lens, Religion, Gender