Overview of Course

What do high-fives, the clothes you wear, and that lingering glance from someone across a crowded room all have in common? Each of these behaviors or characteristics communicates important information without using any words at all. This course unpacks the ways that we use our bodies and our contexts (whether intentionally or accidentally) to send messages about attraction, interest, respect, or even conflict across local and international contexts. By using the Semester at Sea ship as a living laboratory, we’ll explore and observe the ways that people use nonverbal communication to engage one another in familiar and novel situations. We’ll discover how the ways we look, act, and move through our environment can impact our relationships with the people we encounter regularly. In addition, you’ll explore some of the theories of nonverbal communication that will help you to be better equipped to convey meaning in relationships, to manage your image in the workplace, to navigate diverse cultures, and to deeply connect with one another while shipboard for the Semester at Sea experience. By completing this course, you’ll acquire the knowledge and skills to help you better successfully navigate the social situations that you encounter across familiar and novel contexts.