Conflict Awareness and Management Training Through Bicultural Lens for Asian American Students

This session will focus on a new project of the CUNY Dispute Resolution Consortium titled, Conflict Awareness and Management Training through Bicultural Lens for Asian American Students. The presenters will discuss how the project will create a culturally-relevant conflict resolution curriculum which will provide Asian American students at CUNY with crucial conflict resolution skills vital for a culturally diverse society. As mediation and conflict resolution processes gain increasing acceptance and viability in American society and as a critical mass of Asian American students grows in New York City and the country, this project will fill an important gap.

Grounded in the Asian American bicultural experience, this project will provide participants with skills that will better equip them to handle conflicts within themselves and with others in their environment. The unprecedented training course has the potential of providing Asian American college students, many of whom are immigrants, with crucial skills that can be utilized on campus, in their future careers, and at home. Project participants will learn effective communication skills in conflict situations and processes that enable them to handle conflicts more effectively. Specific attention will be given to foci that constitute critical requirements of an effective mediator and especially, one in bicultural contexts.