Intercultural Communications 2200F
Navigating Intercultural Roommate Conflicts: Student-Created Guides for Everyday Life
In Intercultural Communications 2200F: Not Lost in Translation (Fall 2025), students imagined and explored real-life intercultural conflict scenarios involving roommates, both on and off campus. Using key theories of intercultural conflict, we turned abstract ideas into concrete, step-by-step strategies and captured them in eye-catching infographics. We then stress-tested these infographics by swapping them across groups and applying them to completely different scenarios. These posters are designed as practical tools you can use not only for roommate tensions, but for many kinds of intercultural misunderstandings in your everyday life. Check them out to spark reflection, gain new insights, and maybe even discover a better way to navigate your next tough conversation.
Navigating Intercultural Roommate Conflicts: Student-Created Guides for Everyday Life
We explored key ideas from Face Negotiation Theory and Identity Negotiation Theory (S. Ting-Toomey), Coordinated Management of Meaning (W. Barnett Pearce), Integrated Threat Theory (W. Stephan and C. W. Stephan), and Dialogic Mediation and Intergroup Dialogue (X. Zúñiga and R. Nagda). Building on these frameworks, we turned to practical tools for dealing with everyday intercultural conflicts, such as finding ways to help people save face in tense conversations or reduce tensions between groups. Our aim was to highlight straightforward practices that support understanding, reflection, and constructive responses to intercultural conflict in real-life settings.
