|
 Schreiner
University theatre arts professor Dr. Claudia
Sullivan will present the second Robert P.
Hallman Chautauqua Lecture of the 2006-07
academic year Monday, Sept. 25.
Her topic, “You Just Don’t Understand: Cross
Gender, Cross Cultural Communications in the
21st Century” is based in part on the book “You
Just Don’t Understand” by Deborah Tannen.
The discussion will begin at 7 p.m. in
the Floyd & Kathleen Cailloux Campus Activity
Center Theatre.
Dr. Sullivan will discuss the role that inborn
gender differences, as well as cross-cultural
differences, play in communications between men
and women. In her book on gender differences,
Tannen observes, "For males, conversation is the
way you negotiate your status in the group and
keep people from pushing you around; you use
talk to preserve your independence. Females, on
the other hand, use conversation to negotiate
closeness and intimacy; talk is the essence of
intimacy, so being best friends means sitting
and talking. For boys, activities, doing things
together, are central. Just sitting and talking
is not an essential part of friendship.”
Dr. Sullivan adds a cross-cultural perspective
based on her extensive experience in this area,
noting that, “Communicating across cultural
distances adds to the complexity of male-female
communications. A western woman in a business or
professional situation in the Middle East, for
example, faces not only the challenge of being a
woman in a cultural context in which very
different behavior is expected of men and women,
but also faces the challenge of being an
American in a cultural context where American
communication style can easily come into
conflict with the norms of Middle Eastern
cultures – directness vs. deference, body
language issues, and many other potential
pitfalls.”
This event is free and open to the
public.
The Robert P. Hallman Chautauqua Lecture Series
brings together members of the Hill Country
community and the scholars working, writing, and
publishing at Schreiner University. The topics
are varied, engaging, and intended to stimulate
academic discourse and dialogue. Hallman
was a longtime English professor at Schreiner.
For more information, contact Martha York,
director of the
Center for Innovative Learning, at
830-792-7352 or visit the Schreiner Web site at
www.schreiner.edu. |
