Workshop & Seminars

The following is the list of workshops offered through the Office for Language & Cultural Competence at the School of World Studies, VCU.

Bridging Differences: Cultural Norms and Communication Styles Across Cultures

This is a 90-minute highly interactive and participatory workshop designed to build participants’ awareness of how patterns of a particular culture shape and form one’s view of the world, and subsequently how experiences and events are interpreted. Participants will compare cultural norms and communication styles across cultures and discuss cultural variations in nonverbal communication. After completing this workshop, the participants will be able to: (a) point out differences in cultural beliefs, values, norms, and social practices; (b) learn and apply a relatively bias-free way of comparing cultures; (c) examine contrasts between American values and those held by other societies; and (d) recognize cultural variations in nonverbal communication.

Interpersonal Relationships Across Cultures

This 90-minute informative and participatory workshop is designed to continue building participant awareness and understanding of major cultural factors that affect interpersonal relationships across cultures. Hofstede’s cultural taxonomy is introduced as an effective tool for comparing cultural differences. The workshop’s focus is on the status of women and children worldwide. After completing this workshop, the participants will be able to identify differences between individualistic and collectivistic cultures, masculine and feminine cultures; large- and small-power distance cultures, as well as identify differences in relationships in Eastern and Western cultures.

Intercultural Conflict Management

This is a 90-minute highly participatory workshop that will increase your understanding of how cultural values influence people’s attitudes and desires of approaching or avoiding conflict. Participants will learn specific factors which affect the escalation or de-escalation of intercultural conflicts, identify specific strategies of successful resolutions of intercultural conflicts, and incorporate their cultural knowledge into recommendations for creating supportive climates in multicultural organizations.

Cultural Diversity in Health & Illness

This 90-minute informative and interactive workshop is designed for health care, social work, public health, and related providers who work with the growing number of immigrants, refugees, and minorities in the United States. The workshop will focus on cultural phenomena affecting health and healing traditions across cultures. The participants will learn how patients’/clients’ cultural values and beliefs affect their attitudes and behaviors in the healthcare settings, and become more familiar with magico-religious and holistic cultural approaches to health and illness. In addition, several practical communication tools will be offered to help providers establish a friendly and trusting rapport and consequently improve their cultural competence.