Intercultural Rhetoric Inquiry Space

What are the tensions inherent in intercultural communication? What happens when intercultural interactions involve influence and persuasion? What roles can intercultural communication and influence play in social change? In this course connecting Middlebury College and MIIS students, we will create an inquiry space to investigate, and develop the practice of, intercultural listening and speaking. Class sessions will introduce rhetorical and multimodal techniques designed to help students negotiate power differences, deliberate collaboratively, and observe and question empathetically. Students will work together to create digital artifacts and live events that demonstrate their developing capacities as ethical communicators and agents of change. The format of the class will model the knowledge, skills, and dispositions discussed in the course - virtual interactions in diverse modes with students from two campuses.