“Managing across Cultures” 2018
Welcome to the official “Managing across Cultures” 2018 blog. Summer 2018 marks the 6thanniversary of this captivating program, and we explored culture around us as a group of six people this year. This three-week-long University of Colorado Denver summer study-abroad course in Southern Italy focuses on global communication, development of intercultural awareness, in particular for Italy, and the exploration of hands-on cross-cultural management with a global mindset. While the course equips us with the theoretical tools, we set off on navigating contemporary Italy step by step, with all its natural beauty, cultural richness, technological challenges, and complex heritage. Based in the charming town of Sorrento, nestled between the Amalfi coast and vibrant Naples, we explored culture close and far. Together we explored the art-historical wonders and modern vibrancy of Rome and Naples, the beauty of the world heritage sites of Positano, Amalfi, and Ravello, the living geological complexities of the active volcano Vesuvio, as well as Pompeii, the island of Capri, and all the charm of Sorrento itself. We explored various aspects of Italian life as a small group, feeling like an adventurous family, una piccola familglia americna a Sorrento. And all this was accomplished while being keen intellectual learners, making the most out of the comprehensive theory researched and presented together in class, doing ethnography work and interviewing local professional in various fields, as well as taking Italian language classes offered by our host in Sorrento, Sant’Anna Institute.
The aim of this course, of transforming the participants into culturally aware world travelers, with a heightened sense of comprehension of Italian national identity was more than successfully reached: The individuals grew together as a group in a challenging environment that often pushed them past the boundaries of their comfort zones, and managed to link up all the empirical experiences gained with the theoretical tools learned. The end product is now a group of experts ready for future cross-cultural exploration and leadership challenges that the modern business world and globalized study and work environments will throw at them.
Through reflective sessions, journal writing, culture-specific readings, field work for final research projects, and this blog development, we used critical thinking skills to help us better understand and locate our personal experience in Italy. Intercultural dialogues with the global mindset led us to examine our individual and collective identities as citizens of the world and members of a global community and economy. This experience also made us revisit and rethink our perceptions of “self” and “other”.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Julia Khrebtan-Hörhager is professor of Communication, as well as director and leader of this study abroad program, “Managing across Cultures”. She is a former lecturer of Italian and German studies, with particular focus on Italian national identity and film. Julia greatly enjoys the experience of teaching and growing together during this study abroad course, and exploring one of the most culturally rich places on earth, Italy, with such brilliant young minds.
Grazie milleto Lisa B. Keränen(Chair, Department of Communication), Stephen John Hartnett (Chair Emeritus, Department of Communication), John Sunnygard (Director, Global Education), and the entire UCD team for the promotion and realization of the program. Grazie infiniteto Olga Stinga (Director, Sant’Anna Institute), for her support of the program. Finally, grazie di tuttocuoreto all our Italian partners at Sant’Anna Institute in Sorrento, and to our wonderful students, world-travelers eager to explore the fascinating world of the “other!”
Under the Sorrento Sun 