"Living and Learning in the Contact Zone” will be Kate Spike’s topic for Bluffton University’s Civic Engagement Forum on Tuesday, March 24, in Founders Hall. Her 11 a.m. presentation is free and open to the public.

Each year, the university focuses on a significant contemporary issue that is related to its mission and becomes the subject of cross-disciplinary exploration. This year’s civic engagement theme is “Education Matters! Learning for Life, Vocation and Responsible Citizenship,” which Spike, an assistant professor of English and the 2014-15 civic engagement lecturer, will address from a cross-cultural perspective.

The term “contact zone” in her title “refers to any time two cultures come into contact with one another,” notes Spike, whose classes include Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)—the area in which she also holds a master’s degree.

“It is within these contact zones that members of a given community are confronted with difference and must reconcile this difference with their own systems—systems previously assumed to be ‘normal’ or ‘universal,’” explains the 1993 Bluffton graduate, who now chairs the university’s cross-cultural committee and is pursuing a Ph.D. in rhetoric and writing.

“It is in this alternating discomfort, excitement and confusion of the contact zone that we find ourselves stretched and learning,” the frequent international traveler adds. “The contact zone is also where we often learn to understand why we hold certain perspectives and values, and, in this confrontation of difference, we can learn to articulate why these are so important to us.”