RLF Recap: Intercultural Communication with Professor Anguiano

This past Thursday, RLF had the pleasure of welcoming Claudia Anguiano from Dartmouth’s Institute for Writing and Rhetoric. Professor Anguiano’s session covered the importance of critically examining how we let impressions shape our understanding of others as well as the types of attribution errors we naturally make when communicating. Among these problems are our tendencies to judge others off of our own behaviors, attribute others’ mistakes to fundamental flaws, and outweighing positive attributes with negative memories of or experiences with a person.

The Fellows broke out into a group activity which allowed us to experience firsthand the frustration of trying to have a discussion when our goals and attitudes did not align with those of the other side. The lessons learned were extremely relevant given the Freedom Budget and the increased campus activism around bridging diverse groups in discussion and problem-solving.