Narrating Intercultural Capital: Constructing Political Correctness, Negotiating Identity Capital, and Expanding Terrains of Possibility for Student Engagement

ABSTRACT How does identity capital influence student engagement in the classroom? This article examines the narratives of sixty-three first year undergraduate students enrolled in a cross-cultural communication course to provide a portrait of the ways students envision identity capital influences their ability and willingness to engage in meaningful dialogues. Through semi-structured interviews, students demonstrate the importance of real and perceived intercultural capital as a condition for engaging in intercultural dialogues. Through a lens grounded in political correctness and identity capital, student voices illuminate ways faculty can expand the terrains of possibilities for authentic intercultural communication, increase opportunities for the development of realistic cultural empathy, and enable the negotiation of intercultural capital that transcends cultural boundaries and allows for the continued exchange and accumulation of identity capital.