Difficult Dialogues: Transforming International Experience into Multicultural Citizenship
Event Date & Time
November 9, 2021 at 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.Location
Zoom WebinarEvent Details:
The International Relations Committee, along with the Offices of Academic, Faculty, and Student Affairs and International Services are pleased to have Dr. Milton J. Bennett as this year's International Education Week keynote speaker for UT Health San Antonio. Please join us as Dr. Bennett presents on "Difficult Dialogues: Transforming International Experience into Multicultural Citizenship" this November 9th at noon for this virtual session.
International programs do more than give a global context to medical practice. They also provide an opportunity for students (and faculty) to develop some skills in intercultural communication — e.g., analyzing cultural context, taking perspective, and adapting behavior. Those skills are not just useful abroad; they are also exactly what we need for living peacefully and productively in a multicultural society. This presentation and discussion will suggest how to use intercultural learning to participate in the “difficult dialogues” of making a multicultural society work.
About the Speaker(s)
Dr. Milton J. Bennett directs the Intercultural Development Research Institute located in Washington State, USA and Milano, Italy (http://www.idrinstitute.org) and holds an adjunct faculty appointment in sociology at the University of Milano Bicocca. He is known for originating the Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity and for his text, Basic Concepts of Intercultural Communication: Paradigms, Principles, and Practices (Intercultural Press, 2013). Dr. Bennett also has consulted extensively with the medical faculty of the University of Colorado School of Medicine on creating a climate of respect for cultural diversity, and he is leading the IDRInstitute’s contribution to the Erasmus+ EU project on Training Intercultural Nursing Educators and Students.
Dr. Bennett co-founded the Intercultural Development Research Institute in 2002 to support a “constructivist, developmental approach to global and domestic intercultural relations.” In addition to conducting grant-funded research in the US and Europe, he teaches courses through IDRInstitute on topics of “Developing Intercultural Consciousness” and “Building an Intercultural Future for Multicultural Societies.” Previously he was a director of the Intercultural Communication Institute in Portland, Oregon, and a professor of intercultural communication at Portland State University. His Ph.D. in intercultural communication and sociology is from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, and he also holds degrees in psycholinguistics and literature.
Dr. Bennett’s personal intercultural experience includes two years as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Micronesia, many years of living in multicultural neighborhoods in San Francisco and Milan, and interactive consulting with organizations on issues of global and domestic diversity. He is married to an Italian national, has a bi-cultural son, and maintains domiciles in Milan and Seattle.