Transitions Project

Your own identity and position in the world should still be a focus, even as the project asks you to encounter people and/or spaces that are culturally different from you.

Presentations should showcase how course concepts, theories, and models are relevant in describing an intercultural transition that you experienced. You are not actually researching a culture that you don’t belong to! Although you will learn something about that cultural group, it’s better framing to think that you are researching yourself as you navigate uncertainty, excitement, anxiety, discomfort, and more broadly, cultural difference.

Describe an intercultural experience/encounter that you have had. It could include a sojourn, an intercultural interaction, or exploring your identity in the context of our larger society (e.g., what does it mean to be biracial in the U.S.?). You experience can be past or present, in-person or online. The cultural differences could be related to the people or the space. The more there is cultural difference, the more there is for you to reflect on and write about. It’s also often better if your experience has happened recently (not the cross-country trip when you were 10 years old). For example, your project could involve visiting a place of worship, center of faith, ritual ceremony, or other special cultural space that you are not part of (e.g., if you are Jewish you should attend a Christian church, a Mosque, Hindu Temple, etc.).

Describe in detail the intercultural experience, including your feelings, and then apply relevant concepts. How does anxiety and uncertainty management theory apply to your experience? What strategies did you use to prepare for your experience and how did you adapt your communication in your new environment? Reflect on and analyze your intercultural experiences in this new (to you) cultural context. If there are people to talk to while you are there that is a good way to get more information for your reflection.

In this 5-8 minute informative speech, you will:

Provide a thesis statement that marks an intercultural transition you have experienced.
Mark your project as interpretive and your method as autoethnography. Briefly explain what that means and why the method is useful. Consider how identities (yours and not yours) play a role in your transition. Be self-reflexive.
Establish purposeful organization. You should use 2-5 main points in your speech. Make your organization clear, using previews, reviews, or visuals. Consider cultural variations in how stories or presentations are organized. A chronological approach or topical approach to organization are both useful. Models with stages can offer strategies for organization (i.e., each main point focuses on a different stage).
Apply at least 3 textbook concepts to support your thesis statement and help unpack the intercultural transition you experienced. Anything from the textbook and lectures can be relevant, but the list of concepts below highlight the more commonly explained and applied course content for this project. You must guide the class to a deeper understanding of who you are and how intercultural communication concepts and theories are relevant to navigating intercultural transitions.
Submit an outline here (see below for further guidance)
Post the presentation to the Canvas Discussion. Give your speech a short a creative title.
Content will be evaluated based on 1) vivid detail of your personal experience(s), 2) definition of key concepts, and 3) application of those concepts to your experience(s). Explain how these experiences (positive and negative) improved your intercultural communication competence.

For all projects it is helpful to continue thinking about how socio-cultural identities (Gender/ Sex/ Age/ Ethnicity/ Race/ Class/ Sexuality/ Nationality/ Religion/ Region/ Ability) play a role within specific cultural contexts.

In describing your intercultural transition, you can consider including any concepts from your textbook, however chapter 8 has the most relevant content:

cultural adaptation
assimilation
integration
segregation vs. separation
marginalization
Culture shock and the U-curve and W-curve theories
Anxiety and Uncertainty management model: uncertainty reduction, explanatory uncertainty and predictive uncertainty
Transition Model: fight vs. flight approach
Immigrants, migrants, sojourners, short-term and long-term refugees
Integrative model: social support, psychological health and functional fitness
phenomenological approach
Living on the border: liminality, multicultural identity, and transnationalism
Privilege and Power
Dialectics

You should include a brief and revealing title. You can be creative in how you put together your presentation, keeping in mind the expectations outlined above. The template below may be useful if you’ve never assembled a speech before.