Seminar series aims to strengthen cross-cultural communication across Northeastern
Global Learner Support launches a new seminar series to help Northeastern faculty and staff build intercultural skills and empathy.
A new seminar series from Global Learner Support aims to help faculty and staff across the Northeastern University global network strengthen intercultural skills they use every day in classrooms, advising and leadership roles.
“It’s our belief that supporting global learners — which includes all students, faculty and staff — starts with supporting the people who work with them and alongside them,” said Jeremy Walter, director of Global Learner Support.
GLS serves students, educators and other Northeastern community members across the global campus network by providing high-quality language, cultural and academic support, while promoting intercultural competence and global understanding.
The GLS Seminar Series will include four workshops dedicated to intercultural competence, cross-cultural communication and empathy in day-to-day teaching, advising, leadership and collaboration. By participating in the series, Walter said, people will gain greater self-awareness and confidence in intercultural interactions, develop actionable strategies for navigating cross-cultural communication, and a renewed connection and reconnect with practical approaches to practicing intercultural empathy with students and colleagues.
The idea for the seminar series grew out of feedback from faculty and staff who attended the Intercultural Empathy Symposium in July.
Editor’s Picks
“We surveyed the attendees, also faculty and staff, and we heard from them, ‘We would like more opportunities,’” Walter said. “There’s a need for this continued type of practical support.”
GLS team members are based on most of the campuses outside Boston, he said, and regularly speak with faculty and advisers about cultural misunderstandings or challenges they encounter in the classroom, as well as the need for guidance and resources.
The first workshop, scheduled for Feb. 19, will focus on the four foundations of belonging and how they inform the work of GLS as a department.
“The goal there is to encourage the participants to think about how they can apply those four foundations to their roles,” Walter said.
The second session on March 23 will explore ways to build meaningful cross-cultural connections.
During a workshop on April 13, participants will learn about specific strategies and tools to develop intercultural competence through reflection on their own identities, assumptions and biases.
The fourth and final session on June 11 will combine theory and practical strategies for creating inclusive environments and communicating effectively across different cultural contexts.
“These individual, stand-alone sessions tell a coherent story,” Walter said.
The workshop series will lead into the next annual Intercultural Empathy Symposium in July.
Participants can register for the full series or select individual sessions online.