If empathy is not an end in itself, it is nevertheless a skill and a tool that can move people toward other positive ends. In situations of unequal power, empathy may help people with more power rethink and rework the imbalance. In situations of polarization, it may reduce tensions -- a potential start for collective problem solving. And victims of hateful and violent acts may find that it allows them to extend grace and forgiveness and in so doing reclaim agency and find some measure of freedom. With this collection, I don't want to suggest that people who have been wronged or who find themselves on the underside of a power imbalance need to cultivate empathy for their oppressors nor imply that empathy necessarily restores justice and creates structural change. Yet exploring the range of empathy's uses means considering how it has been mobilized to disrupt systems that seemed impervious and to disarm powerful people in situations where anger and the desire for retribution were more likely responses.

According to the AAC&U VALUE rubric for Intercultural Knowledge and Competence, the skill of empathy can be learned.  This collection includes presentations created to help learners develop this skill.

Empathy, or the ability to identify with or to interpret the world through the feelings and perspectives of another person, figures as a highly desirable skill for intercultural competence or effectiveness -- and rightly so if the goal is to bridge cultural differences. Yet Paul Bloom's The Case Against Empathy (2016) and Fritz Breithaupt's The Dark Sides of Empathy (2019) suggest that empathy is not an end unto itself. In fact, it is also used as an intentional or unintentional tool for exploitation and reinforcing power differences. The activities and articles in this collection include an exploration of the shadow side of empathy -- something that can help intercultural learners grasp the complexity of intercultural relations and consider their own values and motivations for developing and using empathy.