Understanding Us & Them: Interpersonal Cultural Intelligence for Community Building

Pennylyn Dykstra-Pruim, Ph.D. serves as a professor and associate dean for diversity & inclusion at Calvin University. Her enthusiasm for learning about cultures grew out of years teaching language and cultures and out of her personal experiences living in different cultures on four continents. She has designed and led workshops and courses on intercultural learning, cultural intelligence, intergroup dialogue, and Muslim Neighbors and Christian Hospitality. Her passion for creating brave, engaging learning spaces informs her approach to writing and presenting for broad audiences. In all her work, she seeks to engage people in learning about other cultures in order to provide both a lens and a set of skills to better understand ourselves and the world we live in. Penny has been nationally recognized for her work in language and culture teaching and is co-author with David I. Smith of the book Christians and Cultural Difference (Calvin College Press, 2016).