F2023

Communication Studies * / Cultural Encounters *

master course

English

Sign up for study activities at STADS Online Student Service within the announced registration period, as you can see on the Study administration homepage.

When signing up for study activities, please be aware of potential conflicts between study activities or exam dates.
The planning of activities at Roskilde University is based on the recommended study programs which do not overlap. However, if you choose optional courses and/or study plans that goes beyond the recommended study programs, an overlap of lectures or exam dates may occur depending on which courses you choose.

The course gives a broad introduction to different themes related to intercultural communication, i.e. communication with a focus on inclusion and diversity. We will work with topics, such as gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, discrimination, etc., in order to provide students with knowledge about how they can strengthen their (professional) communication in a time influenced by globalization and diversity.

Intercultural communication is practice-oriented, which means that communication, with all that it entails, takes place in specific situations and media. It is in the actual interview, the #campaign, the television series, etc. that meanings are formed and created. Throughout the course, students will translate course theories into practical context and specific communication products. The course will highlight specific situations and specific media products and look at how race/ethnicity, gender, class, disability, etc. play into concrete communication practices - and how such practices can be improved. Throughout the course, we continuously ask: What kind of communication is being produced? Who is being included and excluded, and how?

The course employs a dual focus via its combination of, on one hand, emphasising the introduction to heavy and complex theory, while, on the other hand, providing students with practical tool enabling them to transfer the theory to actual communication production and communication analysis.

The course integrates students’ prior knowledge about media and communication with emerging scholarship on race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality, class, etc. in order to broaden the students’ understanding of communication. After the course, the student will not only be able to make better communication and communication products, but also make more inclusive communication. Our societies are becoming increasingly diverse and global; the course in intercultural communication helps students understand contemporary communication and make better communication in a diverse world.

Students are expected to meet prepared (i.e. having thoroughly read the course literature) and to participate actively in the teaching (i.e. participate in discussions and exercises).

The course is a full time course; i.e. students are expected to study (combination of reading course literature, do exercises, and class time teaching) full time.

Students must be able to read and understand academic texts in English.

Expected workload in relation to the course:

• 24 hours: Confrontation hours divided between lectures and assignments

• 60 hours: 2.5 hours preparation per confrontation

• 40 hours: Exam assignment

• 11 hours: Other activities

135 hours in total (1 ECTS point = 27 work hours)

This is an illustration of how a syllabus might look. The final syllabus will be uploaded at Moodle.

Introduction, culture and communication Hall, Stuart (2003): Representation. Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices, SAGE Publications 2003. ISBN 0-7619-5432-5, pp. 15-65, 225-238. Welsch, W. (1999): “Transculturality – the Puzzling Form of Cultures Today”, in: Spaces of Culture: City, Nation, World, Featherstone, M. & Lasch, S. (eds), Sage, pp. 192-213. Byram, M. (2002): “On Being ‘Bicultural’ and ‘Intercultural’”, in: Intercultural Experience and Education, Alfred, A., Byram, M. & Fleming, M. (eds), Multilingual Matters, pp. 50-66.

Gender and sexuality Butler, Judith (2007) (1990): “Subjekt, køn og begær”, i Dorte Marie Søndergaard (red.) Feministiske Tænkere, pp. 27-56; 65-67. ISBN 13: 978-87-412-2315-5. Ahmed, Sara (2004): "(Dis)comfort and norms", in The Cultural Politics of Emotions, Edinburg: Edinburg University Press, pp. 146-155. ISBN 0-7486-1847-3.

Race and Whiteness Ahmed, S. (2007). A phenomenology of whiteness. Feminist theory, 8(2), 149-168. E-ISSN: 1741-2773 - Tilgængelig gennem Rex Wekker, G. (2014): “Introduction”, In: White Innocence: Paradoxes of Colonialism and Race, Duke University Press, pp. 1-29. Murji, K. & Solomos, J. (2005): “Introduction: Racialization in Theory and Practice”, In: Racialization: Studies in Theory and Practice, Murji, K. & Solomos, J. (eds), Oxford University Press, pp. 1-27.

Post-colonialism Said, Edward (2002/1978): Orientalisme. Vestens forestillinger om Orienten, Gylling: Roskilde Universitetsforlag, kap. 1, ISBN: 87-7867-134-5. Mohanty, C. (1988). Under Western Eyes: Feminist Scholarship and Colonial Discourses. Feminist Review, (30), 61-88. doi:10.2307/1395054 Andreassen, Rikke (2011): “Representations of Sexuality and Race at Danish Exhibitions of “Exotic” People at the Turn of the Twentieth Century”. NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, 20(2), 126-147.

Masculinity Sedgwick, E. K. (1985). "Introduction", in Between Men: English literature and male homosocial desire. Columbia University Press. Nebeling, M., & Hvidtfeldt, K. (2020). "The best men can be”. New configurations of masculinity in the Gillette-ad “We believe". Kvinder, Køn & Forskning, 20(1).

Intersektionality Phoenix, A. (2006): “Interrogating intersectionality: Productive ways of theorising multiple positioning”. Kvinder, Køn & Forskning, 2-3, 21-30. Davis, K. (2014): “Intersectionality as Critical Methodology”, In: Writing Academic Texts Differently: Intersectional Feminist Methodologies and the Playful Art of Writing, Lykke, N. (eds), Routledge, pp. 17-29. Davis, K. (2020): “Who owns intersectionality? Some reflections on feminist debates on how theories travel”. European Journal of Women’s Studies, 27(2), 113-127.

Critical data studies Zuboff, S. (2015): “Big Other: Surveillance Capitalism and the Prospects of an Information Civilization”. Journal of Information Technology, 30(1), 75-89. Benjamin, R. (2019): “Engineered Inequity”, In: Race after Technology, Polity, pp. 49-78. Roberts, S. (2019): “’Modern Heroes’ – Moderating in Manila”, In: Behind the Screen: Content Moderation in the Shadows of Social Media, Yale University Press, pp. 170-200.

Gaming Nakamura, L. (2009): “Don’t Hate the Player, Hate the Game: The Racialization of Labor in World of Warcraft”. Critical Studies in Media Communication, 2(2), 128-144. Altenried, M. (2022): “The Factory of Play”, In: The Digital Factory: The Human Labor behind Automation, The University of Chicago Press, pp. 63-92. Bulut, E. (2021): “White Masculinity, Creative Desires, and Production Ideology in Video Game Development”. Games and Culture, 16(3), 329-341.

Throughout the course, students continuously receive oral feedback. This feedback is provided for instance in relation to exercises.

Students will be graded on their final exam on the Danish 7-point scale and will have the option for a more detailed feedback.

The student(s) will receive teacher and peer feedback in class discussions, exercises and group work. In addition, the student(s) receives feedback from the teacher in connection with the exam. This feedback will focus on weaknesses and strengths of the student work.

Every 3rd year, a formal evaluation takes place. The evaluation takes the form of a digital questionnaire that is sent to the head of studies as well as the study board.

The teacher may carry out their own informal evaluation (during or after the course). Informal evaluations stay with the teacher unless they find it relevant to share it with the head of studies.

IKH Registration & Exams (ikh-exams@ruc.dk)

Magnus Andersen (magnusa@ruc.dk)

5

• Knowledge of fundamental theories in intercultural communication, including post-colonialism, whiteness studies, gender studies, and disability studies

• Insight into how culture, race/ethnicity, gender and power are constructed and maintained in different forms of communication

• Skill to analyse existing communication products (campaigns, news, political initiatives, films, etc.) as well as various communication genres (visual, verbal and written) through a critical intercultural optic

• Proficiency in communicating analytical and theoretical insights related to specific intercultural issues to colleagues as well as non-colleagues

• Competence to provide and recommend ways to proceed in relation to the specific challenges related to intercultural communication in a diverse, global and mediatized society

• Competence to independently take responsibility for own professional development and specialisation within intercultural communication

The course aims to provide the student with a basic academic insight and competence in intercultural communication, while enabling the student to translate the professional knowledge into practical communication. Therefore, the course is continually being worked on to translate the theories and abstract knowledge of contemporary media, incidents and concrete events, so that the student will be able to both critically analyse their environment and strengthen their own intercultural competences.

The course begins with an introduction to the concepts of culture and intercultural communication. A number of key theoretical texts are then worked with, giving a background understanding and knowledge of basic theories within, e.g., gender theories (queer theory and masculinity studies), post-colonialism, critical race studies, whiteness studies, disability studies, etc.

This knowledge is key to being able to analyse, produce and work successfully with culture, race/ethnicity, gender, class, power, inclusion, exclusion, discrimination, representation and communication.

The course in intercultural communication is practice-oriented, which means that the communication, with everything that this entails, takes place in specific situations and media products. It is in the interview itself, the campaign itself, the television broadcast itself, that opinions are formed and meanings are created. Therefore, the course will shed light on very specific situations/media products and look at how race/ethnicity, gender, class, disability, etc. play a part in the specific practice – and how practice can be improved. We constantly ask: Which communication includes and excludes who, what, and how?

The course consists of a mix of lectures and exercises, such as exercises in which the student needs to work analytically and practically to develop new communication products.

Students must be able to read scientific texts in English.

Mandatory course

Individual written take-home assignment given by the lecturer.

The character limit of the assignment is: 9,600-14,400 characters, including spaces.
The character limit includes the cover, table of contents, bibliography, figures and other illustrations, but exclude any appendices.

The duration of the take-home assignment is 5 days and may include weekends and public holidays. The assignment must document that the student possesses a confident mastery of the written English language, including grammar and linguistic correctness..


Assessment: 7-point grading scale.

Samme som ordinær eksamen / same form as ordinary exam