This volume features a collection of papers from the first annual Intercultural Horizons conference held in May 2011 in Siena, Italy. The 2011 conference was entitled Best Practices in Intercultural Competence Development and featured speakers and participants from over 15 countries, including leaders in the field such as Janet Bennett of the Intercultural Communication Institute, Alvino Fantini of the School for International Training, Andrew Furco of the University of Minnesota, and Carol Ma of the Center for Service-Learning at Lingnan University, Hong Kong. The authors of these papers provide perspectives on intercultural communication and related issues from viewpoints as varied as the traditional researcher, the teacher in fields as diverse as second-language acquisition, music and the culinary arts, and the administrator of a specific program or at the senior level of a college or university. Together they form a representative sample of the themes discussed during the 2011 conference. The editors consider this first meeting to be the dawn, so to speak, of Intercultural Horizons, which aspires to become a respected venue for scholars and practitioners to exchange ideas, techniques and pedagogies on intercultural communication in years to come.
About the Author: Eliza J. Nash is a founding partner of Nove Culturae Ventures LLC, and the Associazione Culturale Ulisse, which collaborate with the International Center for Intercultural Exchange to organize study and cultural experiences in Siena, Italy. She currently serves as the Intercultural Development Coordinator at the International Center for Intercultural Exchange, working on the development and implementation of future study programs, conferences and publications. She has most recently co-authored and published an article with Lavinia Bracci regarding intercultural competence development. Nevin C. Brown has built an extensive career in the fields of urban and international education as well as urban policy. He has worked with several US-based education organizations such as the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges (NASULGC), the American Association for Higher Education (AAHE), The Education Trust, and Achieve. More recently he served as Dean of Academic Programs and President of the International Partnership for Service-Learning and Leadership (IPSL). Nevin has published numerous articles in the areas of higher education, global civic engagement and service-learning. At the International Center for Intercultural Exchange he acts as a Senior Fellow, contributing to the development of publications, conferences and related initiatives regarding intercultural exchange and service-learning. Lavinia Bracci is founder and director of Siena Italian Studies and the International Center for Intercultural Exchange. She has most recently co-authored a book on the FICCS (Full-Immersion: Culture Content and Service) instructional approach that she developed with the core team of instructors at SIS for the development of reflective intercultural competence entitled L'educazione riflessiva interculturale: L'approccio FICCS allo studio della lingua e cultura italiana. She has also published several articles on language learning and intercultural competence development, as well as an Italian language text called Dimmi Tutto!