SPICE 2018: West Virginia University @ Universität Erfurt

"I pledge allegiance to my Flag and the Republic for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all." The initial Bellamy salute (right hand extended forward, not  pictured) might remind many readers of another (in)famous  way to salute one's flag -- a difference  that   likely  sits at the  root cause for US and German perspectives on nationalism. In August 1892, Baptist minister Francis Bellamy pinned this short passage in preparation for the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival to the Americas. Quickly reciting this passage to most US citizens will almost instantaneously result in a group recital, hands placed over the heart and eyes darting around the room for the nearest American flag. Over the last 100+ years, the Pledge of Allegiance has become a staple of the American classroom and likewise, a staple of how many Americans treat and respond to their flag. Becker et al (2012) rev...

Hello, Bruges gang. As we get ready, I wanted to set up a few more details about our first day in town. The previous blog post outlines our travel to Bruges , but below is our itinerary for the first day as well as the details of our scavenger hunt . Monday 25 June 7:30am  – Meet at Erfurt Hauptbahnhof Our train leaves at 7:50, but it'll be a potentially busy train so I'd encourage folks to get there as early as possible (I'll likely be there a bit earlier, and the Starbucks opens as early as 6:30am). Monday - ~3:00pm – Arrival at Bruges train station We’ll walk to your hotel and ensure that everyone gets checked in. You’ll have a few hours to yourself to get settled. Monday - 6:00 pm – Meet Jaime/Nick at the Palace de Bruges … There is a large statue in the center with all of the EU flags around the outer edge … look for us underneath the German flag. We’ll be taking you from there to a place we think you’ll love, and we’ll have class there. Great drinks, but...

Whenever one encounters a new culture, one of the things that they will notice rather quickly is the emergence of conflict. Commonly when traveling for example, foreigners will unknowingly violate social norms of behavior that might lead to embarrassing situations (such as using one's right hand to eat and greet in Islamic cultures, as the left hand is considered "unclean) while their hosts are left in a quandary - upholding their own cultural norms while still attempting to help the naive traveler save face so they are comfortable in the new environment. This is a coarse example, but it is the core of Face Negotiation Theory.  Developed by Stella Ting-Toomey, the theory "explains the culture-based and situational factors that shape communicators' tendencies in approaching and managing conflicts." When we say we are negotiating face, we mean to suggest that we are trying to balance the way in which others see us as well as the manner in which we behave ...

UPDATE 2 July 2018: We're going to go ahead and cancel this year's event, due to many of our US students being away from Erfurt this week. Enjoy your travels, folks! 

Erfurt, DE --  Our first week discussion will have us talking  Communication Accommodation Theory , first introduced to the field of human communication by noted scholar  Dr. Howard "Howie" Giles  of the University of California - Santa Barbara. In general, the theory attempts to explain how individuals come to adapt their communicative styles to one another as they spend more time with each other. While the theory is not specifically or uniquely restricted to the study of intercultural communication, it is not hard to see how the theory might help explain variance in both our initial and continued interactions with folks from another culture; after all, one way we can understand cultural differences is in terms of communicative behavioral differences (both at the verbal and  non-verbal  level). A particularly interesting phenomenon associated with this is that of  code-switching , which tends to really get at folks who are bi- o...

Morgantown, WV -- Below, Dr. Jaime Banks has organized some really cool recommended travel destinations throughout Germany. During your stay for SPICE 2018, consider visiting a few of these sites ... and remember that they're all eligible sites for your Culture Blog entries! Want to add your own? E-mail your suggestions to Dr. Banks at jabanks@mail.wvu.edu . Happy travels. =)