Interactant-Based Definitions of Intercultural Interaction at a Multicultural University

Abstract

Through 80 in-depth interviews with university students of varied backgrounds, this study investigates how racially/ethnically different students define, make sense of, and evaluate intercultural interaction at the multicultural university. The findings reveal that student interviewees define and interpret intercultural interactions based on their specific perceptions of the nationality, race, or ethnicity of their interactants. Such a differential interactant-based definition of intercultural interaction yields great insight for the complexity of how intercultural interaction is understood and experienced in culturally heterogeneous settings.

KEYTERMS:

• in-depth interviewing
• intercultural interaction
• multicultural university
• race