Name That Place: Reconsidering Diversity and Globalization through the Architecture of Ethnic Enclaves

Introducing students to a conversation about the disbursement of cultures through globalization is often difficult to approach. In this single-class activity, globalization is introduced through a virtual game which is focused on ethnic enclaves, the small immigrant neighborhoods that retain much of the immigrants’ original culture despite existing within a dominant one. Students will reconsider their intercultural communication, diversity awareness, and understanding about the effects of globalization and cultural assimilation by assessing stereotypes that emerge from the architecture of ethnic enclaves. By challenging students to identify the location of several ethnic enclaves through pictures, without the broader geographic context, a dialogue is started regarding the effects of globalization across the world and the microcultures that it can often create.