Intercultural Communication Institute

SIIC 2009 Description

A | Why Reentry Matters: Critical Lessons and Practical Advice

Returning “home” and making the necessary social and psychological re-adjustments can present challenges as significant as those faced when going abroad, not only for the individual, but also for cultures and institutions. This session will review the newest work on these complex issues, and it will provide suggestions and models for repatriation training appropriate for different audiences at different stages.

Faculty: Bruce La Brack

Dr. Bruce La Brack, a cultural anthropologist and South Asian specialist, has traveled to over 85 countries and has lived and conducted research abroad in India, England, Uganda, and Japan. For three decades he taught at the University of the Pacific, Stockton, California, where he designed and conducted their integrated orientation and reentry programs for study abroad. He was the director of Pacific’s Institute for Cross Cultural Training and chair of their Master of Arts in Intercultural Relations program, and is now a professor emeritus. He co-edits the Training Section of the International Journal of Intercultural Relations. Bruce has published extensively on cultural adjustment issues, especially the reentry process, including the chapter “The Missing Linkage: Orientation and Reentry Programs” in Education for the Intercultural Experience. He is the primary author and editor of the “What’s Up With Culture?” website (www.pacific.edu/culture), a free Internet resource for preparing U.S. American study-abroad students going to and returning from an international experience.