Intercultural Communication
Pathways to Better Interactions
(Second Edition)
©2026, 316 pages
Paperback list price: $109.95
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Practical in focus, grounded in social interaction, and written in a strong narrative style replete with concrete examples, author David Boromisza-Habashi deftly explores the primary challenge of effective intercultural communication in our globalized world: the ability to properly coordinate interactions to achieve shared meaning. The vital importance of understanding cultural communication, and how it relates to being a responsible member of society, is stressed throughout. The weaving of scholarly work and everyday encounters highlights the role of inquiry as not just an academic endeavor but as an everyday practice. Strategies for coordinating intercultural encounters in the real world encourage readers to take action and recognize that this work and learning doesn't end when the course ends. Rather, it is a process, one that should be an ongoing part of their lives.
Key Updates to This Edition:
The pragmatic, thought-provoking approach of this book is timely, useful, and relevant. Intercultural Communication: Pathways to Better Interactions is the ideal textbook for students of intercultural communication who wish to create and foster meaningful social interactions.
David Boromisza-Habashi (Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Amherst) is an associate professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Colorado Boulder. His research explores how communication as language use is shaped by the cultural context in which it occurs.
Cognella Active Learning is available for this title! Adopting instructors can provide students with dynamic online learning activities that reinforce key concepts from the text, provide engaging educational experiences, and support various learning styles.
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The Cognella Active Learning content for Intercultural Communication includes:
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Please note: Cognella Active Learning can be bundled for purchase with the text or posted separately. Contact us to learn about bundle discounts.
The Cognella Active Learning content for Intercultural Communication includes:
- 14 decks of digital flashcards
- 14 key-term matching exercises
- 60 + discussion posts
- 14 lists of additional resources
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Adopting instructors will receive PowerPoints, test banks, and sample activities.
"Intercultural Communication: Pathways to Better Interactions (2nd ed.) reimagines Communication as a practical, ethical, and civic undertaking. My students have consistently embraced its emphasis on coordination as an ethic, not just a strategy; coming to see intercultural encounters as moments that demand responsibility, presence, and care. The book has empowered them to move from mere awareness to meaningful, situated action in their daily interactions."
Blessed E. Ngoe, Assistant Professor of Communication and Rhetorical Studies, Illinois College
"I taught intercultural communication (ICC) at a local university in Jakarta, Indonesia, using David's book. His ability to break down ICC jargon, without reducing their complexity, had a profound impact on the students. They're able use the terms in their daily lives!"
Sunny Lie Owens, Ph.D. California State Polytechnic University Pomona
Praise for the Previous Edition:
“[I was attracted to the Boromisza-Habashi text because] it is focused on interaction rather than just presenting theory. It makes the concepts feel closer to students’ lives and not something disconnected from lived realities. The focus on discovering intercultural differences via rich points and inviting students to interact with the process. Instead of giving up and saying that someone’s behavior didn’t make sense, they are invited to examine how it does make sense, just not to them at that time, and how to figure out the sense using the course materials presented and some research.
A fantastic introduction to Intercultural Communication from an interactional perspective, while incorporating traditional theories of intercultural communication. This book does this from a perspective that assumes others are making sense, just maybe not how we understand how to make sense in a variety of settings and situations.”
Bryanna Hebenstreit, Department of Communication, University of Albany, SUNY
“Boromisza-Habashi’s textbook has helped me resolve many challenges since many of the concepts are explained very clearly, with a language that students understand, and with many examples and short stories. My students and I love the two short stories (anecdotes) that introduce every chapter and that they are referred to throughout the chapter. I also like the activities at the end of each chapter: the discussion questions are very well prepared and meaningful. We discuss them during our “participation” sessions and students engage in very interesting discussions thanks to those questions.
Thus far, my students’ response and feedback to Boromisza-Habashi’s textbook has been very positive. …I am also very impressed with this textbook, so much that I started to recommend it to colleagues of mine in other universities.The writing style is very clear, and my students immediately fell in love with the book thanks to the clarity of the first chapter. … My students appreciated the examples very much, too. It is an excellent book on intercultural communication that speaks to real situations and that is rich of meaningful examples for students and practitioners."
Sabina M. Perrino, Department of Anthropology, Binghamton University, SUNY
"The concept of 'making culture' is a unique approach that I feel can appeal to undergrad students. I find Boromisza-Habashi's 'how-to' approach, that is, examining the inner workings of cultural interaction, to be particularly helpful in understanding larger systemic information/configurations."
Cheryl L. Nicholas, Associate Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, Berks
"The theoretical approach of Boromisza-Habashi is very consistent with my own, so I would feel quite at home teaching undergraduates from this perspective. I find ethnography of communication to be the most solid foundation for intercultural communication instruction, and I believe it is highly respected in the field by enough people that this view would be widely shared. I also found the consistent through line particularly easy to follow. This would be an enormous advantage for a beginning teacher, so if I had a novice TA to supervise, I could hand them this textbook, a template syllabus, some draft assignments and exams and feel quite comfortable that they would do well in their first semester of teaching. Also, if I were developing an entirely online version of intercultural communication I could see using this textbook because it’s easy to follow, coherent, and intellectually solid, requiring very little supplementation from me to make a complete course. I would feel comfortable that students in both cases would find the writing style clear and engaging and would want to, as I did when I read it, keep going."
Kristine L. Muñoz, Professor of Communication Studies, University of Iowa
"This book demonstrates the need to have this information provided for ALL students in college during their first year (rather than waiting to take it as an upper-level elective for some students, like majors only). For all colleges and universities that want to promote study abroad, this text should be REQUIRED reading (for students coming to the U.S. and going to other countries). In sum, its practical, pragmatic focus is the key strength and executed most impressively. … I would highly recommend that this be the text that is adopted for all intercultural courses taught at my college; as well as for all study abroad students."
Trudy Milburn, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Southern Connecticut State University
"The goals and premises are extremely clear and highlight key connections between scholarly research and everyday problems. …[The book] provides the key elements I have listed under my goals for the course, and additionally, engages the student with the process of discovery—something very few textbooks do! ... I like that a lot of theorists/concepts are not thrown in the beginning but weaved to highlight the history that informed concepts/paradigms. It does a wonderful job of developing a holistic account of the perspectives! ... This textbook responds beautifully to the needs of our students without compromising scholarly rigor. It highlights the everyday use of the research process and highlights critical thinking as not just a skill to add to a resume, but a practical tool for everyday use."
Nadezhda M. Sotirova, Assistant Professor of Communication, Media, and Rhetoric, University of Minnesota, Morris
"David Boromisza-Habashi does an excellent job of capturing the complexity of intercultural communication, and truly interrogating the process, while also working through intercultural communication concepts in a way likely to engage undergraduate students. Grounded in social interaction and concrete examples, and written in a strong narrative style gives this book a solid place among undergraduate texts in intercultural communication."
Alan Hansen, Professor of Communication, Carrol College-Montana
"Understanding intercultural communication is a global imperative, and Professor Boromisza-Habashi's work should be a good place to start that process."
Joseph S. Caputo, Professor of Communication, Gonzaga University
"David Boromisza-Habashi has produced an engaging textbook on intercultural communication from an ethnography of communication perspective. The practical and thought-provoking approach of this book is timely, useful, and much needed."
Tabitha Hart, Associate Professor, Communication Studies, San José State University
Blessed E. Ngoe, Assistant Professor of Communication and Rhetorical Studies, Illinois College
"I taught intercultural communication (ICC) at a local university in Jakarta, Indonesia, using David's book. His ability to break down ICC jargon, without reducing their complexity, had a profound impact on the students. They're able use the terms in their daily lives!"
Sunny Lie Owens, Ph.D. California State Polytechnic University Pomona
Praise for the Previous Edition:
“[I was attracted to the Boromisza-Habashi text because] it is focused on interaction rather than just presenting theory. It makes the concepts feel closer to students’ lives and not something disconnected from lived realities. The focus on discovering intercultural differences via rich points and inviting students to interact with the process. Instead of giving up and saying that someone’s behavior didn’t make sense, they are invited to examine how it does make sense, just not to them at that time, and how to figure out the sense using the course materials presented and some research.
A fantastic introduction to Intercultural Communication from an interactional perspective, while incorporating traditional theories of intercultural communication. This book does this from a perspective that assumes others are making sense, just maybe not how we understand how to make sense in a variety of settings and situations.”
Bryanna Hebenstreit, Department of Communication, University of Albany, SUNY
“Boromisza-Habashi’s textbook has helped me resolve many challenges since many of the concepts are explained very clearly, with a language that students understand, and with many examples and short stories. My students and I love the two short stories (anecdotes) that introduce every chapter and that they are referred to throughout the chapter. I also like the activities at the end of each chapter: the discussion questions are very well prepared and meaningful. We discuss them during our “participation” sessions and students engage in very interesting discussions thanks to those questions.
Thus far, my students’ response and feedback to Boromisza-Habashi’s textbook has been very positive. …I am also very impressed with this textbook, so much that I started to recommend it to colleagues of mine in other universities.The writing style is very clear, and my students immediately fell in love with the book thanks to the clarity of the first chapter. … My students appreciated the examples very much, too. It is an excellent book on intercultural communication that speaks to real situations and that is rich of meaningful examples for students and practitioners."
Sabina M. Perrino, Department of Anthropology, Binghamton University, SUNY
"The concept of 'making culture' is a unique approach that I feel can appeal to undergrad students. I find Boromisza-Habashi's 'how-to' approach, that is, examining the inner workings of cultural interaction, to be particularly helpful in understanding larger systemic information/configurations."
Cheryl L. Nicholas, Associate Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences, Pennsylvania State University, Berks
"The theoretical approach of Boromisza-Habashi is very consistent with my own, so I would feel quite at home teaching undergraduates from this perspective. I find ethnography of communication to be the most solid foundation for intercultural communication instruction, and I believe it is highly respected in the field by enough people that this view would be widely shared. I also found the consistent through line particularly easy to follow. This would be an enormous advantage for a beginning teacher, so if I had a novice TA to supervise, I could hand them this textbook, a template syllabus, some draft assignments and exams and feel quite comfortable that they would do well in their first semester of teaching. Also, if I were developing an entirely online version of intercultural communication I could see using this textbook because it’s easy to follow, coherent, and intellectually solid, requiring very little supplementation from me to make a complete course. I would feel comfortable that students in both cases would find the writing style clear and engaging and would want to, as I did when I read it, keep going."
Kristine L. Muñoz, Professor of Communication Studies, University of Iowa
"This book demonstrates the need to have this information provided for ALL students in college during their first year (rather than waiting to take it as an upper-level elective for some students, like majors only). For all colleges and universities that want to promote study abroad, this text should be REQUIRED reading (for students coming to the U.S. and going to other countries). In sum, its practical, pragmatic focus is the key strength and executed most impressively. … I would highly recommend that this be the text that is adopted for all intercultural courses taught at my college; as well as for all study abroad students."
Trudy Milburn, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, Southern Connecticut State University
"The goals and premises are extremely clear and highlight key connections between scholarly research and everyday problems. …[The book] provides the key elements I have listed under my goals for the course, and additionally, engages the student with the process of discovery—something very few textbooks do! ... I like that a lot of theorists/concepts are not thrown in the beginning but weaved to highlight the history that informed concepts/paradigms. It does a wonderful job of developing a holistic account of the perspectives! ... This textbook responds beautifully to the needs of our students without compromising scholarly rigor. It highlights the everyday use of the research process and highlights critical thinking as not just a skill to add to a resume, but a practical tool for everyday use."
Nadezhda M. Sotirova, Assistant Professor of Communication, Media, and Rhetoric, University of Minnesota, Morris
"David Boromisza-Habashi does an excellent job of capturing the complexity of intercultural communication, and truly interrogating the process, while also working through intercultural communication concepts in a way likely to engage undergraduate students. Grounded in social interaction and concrete examples, and written in a strong narrative style gives this book a solid place among undergraduate texts in intercultural communication."
Alan Hansen, Professor of Communication, Carrol College-Montana
"Understanding intercultural communication is a global imperative, and Professor Boromisza-Habashi's work should be a good place to start that process."
Joseph S. Caputo, Professor of Communication, Gonzaga University
"David Boromisza-Habashi has produced an engaging textbook on intercultural communication from an ethnography of communication perspective. The practical and thought-provoking approach of this book is timely, useful, and much needed."
Tabitha Hart, Associate Professor, Communication Studies, San José State University
