Investigations Into The Influence Of An Intercultural Communication Founder-Michael H. Prosser And His Contemporary Scholars

This thesis examines the contributions of Michael H. Prosser and his other early and contemporary intercultural communication scholars to the development of the study of intercultural communication, especially during the 1970s, and late 1990s– 2008.This thesis basically takes a historical approach, plus comparative studies. The discussion is approached from the following three aspects: (1) Comparing Michael Prosser's books (authored or edited) with books written or edited by other scholars of the same period; (2) Surveying Michael Prosser's former colleagues, and Communication, Research and Theory Network (CRTNET) readers. (3) Surveying Prosser's intercultural communication students in China.This thesis outlines Prosser's main ideas and features of mapping the foundations and early studies of intercultural communication, and his contributions to the cultural dialogue between China and America, for the purpose of which, the author has interviewed several of his intercultural communication students in Shanghai and did a study of his website: www.michaelprosser.com.This thesis comes to the tentative conclusion that Michael Prosser, as well as his early colleagues, indeed contributed significantly to the development of intercultural communication study. Prosser is one of the founding fathers who helped make intercultural communication a well established academic discipline in North America. Later, Prosser also helped to enhance the mutual understanding and reduce the cultural prejudice between Americans and the Chinese. His approach to intercultural communication is mainly rhetorical and interpersonal intercultural communication.