Overview of Course

Want to better engage the important people in your life? In this course, we’ll explore connections with our friends, family members, co-workers, romantic partners, and the random strangers we might ultimately interact with. By looking deeper into our own identities and the ways we use words and body language, we’ll discuss how to navigate complex connections and difficult situations with social grace. Are you trying lock down that job interview? Maybe you’re trying to get that “special someone” to think that you are special, too? By studying the ways that we send and receive messages in interpersonal and small group contexts, we can better understand the theories and practices that create meaning in our social world. With a participatory and engaged classroom format, you’ll get to know the diversity of Semester at Sea participants as you apply course concepts directly in your day-to-day shipboard life. By better learning how people communicate in intercultural contexts, you’ll also be more prepared to navigate the connections that you form internationally and on your own campus back home. This course explores interpersonal communication in all forms, from attraction and relational development to maintaining connections and the difficulties that you might encounter along the way.