Walking in Liquid Territory 1

The opportunity to become involved with the Sharing Cultures Project represented for me, among other things, the chance to make a connection with the people, places and cultures of South Africa. It's not often that faculty members get a chance to reach so far beyond the institution, location, and culture within which they teach, and I felt both honored and a little intimidated by the prospect. Certainly, involvement in the Sharing Cultures Project would mean a chance to take a giant step beyond my customary teaching responsibilities and interests, and so I welcomed the chance to pursue new directions in teaching and learning. At the same time, I didn't know exactly what I was signing onto and in what ways I would be challenged to go farther in my teaching and academic pursuits. And I didn't know exactly what being connected to South Africa would mean for me personally and professionally.

As my colleagues will attest, it took a long time for us to become acclimated to the Sharing Cultures Project. There was the whole pedagogical idea of the Sharing Cultures Project and the challenges of establishing a transnational curriculum linking faculty and students here and in South Africa. There was the awkwardness of not knowing or having had face-to-face contact with our colleagues in South Africa and the kind of difficulties you might expect in trying to work with faculty you've never met, who live in a place you've never been to, and who come from cultures we have known only through biased American media. So often we felt like we were spinning our wheels and unable to get a grip on something so vast and unfamiliar. We began our first semester teaching the Sharing Cultures Project, and it felt like we were walking in liquid territory, a fluid place that almost seemed to defy sure-footedness and the kind of certainty, confidence and familiarity within which we ordinarily teach.