Read all confirmed presentation abstracts for the conference.
Please note that all abstracts are printed as submitted. Any errors, typographical or otherwise, are the authors’.
The ‘Culture Hero’ in Literary Anthropology: A Gynocentric Perspective on the Narrative Cosmology Constructed in Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Earthsea Cycle
Anupa Lewis, Manipal Institute of Communication, IndiaGiven the compass of literary anthropology, the formulaic predilection for a male ‘culture hero’, charging at or circumventing obstacles while being engaged in a quest of epic proportions, has long dominated the narrative-scape in fantasy novels traditionally penned by male authors such as J. R. R. Tolkien, George MacDonald, and C. S. Lewis amongst others. However, this ontological propensity for a preposterously masculinist narrative where the solitary male hero seemingly penetrates and ultimately achieves dominion over the anthropocene trope of the wilderness – i.e. a long-drawn action consummated in the orgasmic ‘climax’ effected in the narrative – has received much criticism by post-modern feminist scholars, notably for the regressive phallocentric approach that these texts propound. While till recently, fighting or slaying dragons either real or metaphoric, mapped in desolate lands and pegged in a far past or a far future, has often taken center stage in fantasy narratives, a novel approach to the very subject has been sparked by eminent writers and critics, such as the likes of Ursula Le Guin who for one deemed it necessary to redesign narrative structures to suit a new-fangled ethic of creative expression. As such, the current research paper seeks to explore Le Guin’s conceptualization of a culture hero encapsulated in the narrative cosmology of The Earthsea Cycle, viewed predominantly from a gynocentric perspective.
Clients’ Cultural Symbols, Shields/filters and Spirit to Overcome Cultural Oppression
Maria del Carmen Rodriguez, Kean University, United StatesGina M. Miro, Kean University, United States
This presentation will focus on how to engage clients' cultural symbols, use cultural shields/filters and clients' spiritual concerns when being exposed to cultural oppression. Also, the presentation will discuss how to go beyond a superficial level of awareness when working with clients of diverse backgrounds, define basic terms related to cultural competence, discuss microaggressions, identify strategies that open or close conversations about diversity, illustrate cultural filters & shields as tools to connect with clients who live with cultural oppression and how to focus clients on their true desires/aspirations and gratitude for an empowered living. The significance of cultural humility on the part of the counselor will enrich the discussion on active listening (Shaw, 2016). Presentation will illustrate ways of mitigating these forces when working with clients from diverse cultural backgrounds. Working with clients’ cultural strengths will be showcased as an empowering counseling strategy (Rodriguez & Quijada, 2018; Timmins, 2002).References: 1) Rodriguez, M.del C., & Quijada, C. Latinos in counseling: cultural and spiritual beliefs/barriers-the road less traveled. ACA 2018 National Conference. Atlanta, GA: April 29. 2) Timmins, C. L. (2002). The impact of language barriers on the health care of Latinos in the United States: A review of the literature and guidelines for practice. Journal of Midwifery and Women’s Health, 47, 80-96. 3) Shaw, S. (2016). Practicing cultural humility. Counseling Today, Dec 27.
The Issue of Stigmatized Identity and Livelihood: Insights From a De-notified Tribe of Rajasthan, India
Hemraj P Jangir, Indian Institute of Dalit Studies, IndiaThe people of Nat community, historically known as entertainers for the Rajput patronages, are found in different parts of northern India. Although they are not significant in number, they tend to carry distinct group identities in contemporary society. From a historical perspective, Rajput lost their kingship in various states; in consequence, Nat people lost their traditional occupation. In such a given crisis for livelihood, Nat women of the community forced to get engaged in sex work. They have been practicing the profession over the years in rural hamlets as well as in urban red light areas. What initiatives have been taken to empower the community in mainstream society? With the stigma attached to the women in particular what changes have been there in their livelihood patterns? This paper draws on evidence from an empirical study on Nat Community in Ajmer district of Rajasthan to reflect on inimitable socio-cultural practices, and challenges faced by Nat women in their daily lives. The paper also brings in the issues of social discrimination and exclusion that the Nat community in general and the Nat women in particular face in day-to-day social interactions. The study is purely qualitative in nature and employed case study as approach to do in-depth study of Nat hamlet in Ajmer district of Rajasthan. Unstructured interviews had conducted with 25 Nat women. As revealed, the Nat women are not allowed in any religious place in the village, and also face discrimination in accessing the public and civic services. Sexual harassments like eve-teasing and molestation against Nat women and girls are common phenomena. The elderly women who are not active in flesh trade are forced to perform begging in nearby communities in the festive seasons. The paper argues that discrimination and exclusion particularly against Nat women at structural and societal levels, and lack of legal safeguards and government initiatives for their inclusion into mainstreaming society, make women from multiple marginalized groups like Nat community lack basic opportunities for a sustainable livelihood, and remain vulnerable to all form of human rights violations.
The Sultan/datu Images in Maguindanaon Folktales as a Means of Cultural Identity
Almira Menson, Mindanao State University, PhilippinesBasically, this study endeavored to ascertain the ideal attributes that could make an exemplary Maguindanaon ruler. It also aimed to probe through analytical criticism the folktales for the purpose of discovering what these reveal of Maguindanaon political organization and cultural identity. The findings of this study were obtained through the use of Joseph Campbell’s Heroic Archetypes as well as the socio-cultural approach in literary criticism. The folktales included were selected based on their apparent portrayal of the Sultan/Datu images which happened to be the main focus of the study. The vital analysis was done on the selected folktales clearly showed that the most often ruler hero portrayed were the noble ones who play superior or extreme concept of a datu role by using their power in order to oppress people of lower rank in their kingdom. Nevertheless, there were also ruler character portrayed with generosity, openhandedness, humility and piety that are basically intended to serve as identities of ideality worth emulating.
Too Exotic to Enchant? How the Femme Fatale was sent on Retreat
Michelle Genck, University of Augsburg, GermanyIn their latest adaptations of Japanese movies, producers such as Spike Lee, Adam Wingard, and Rupert Sanders all display the femme fatale in relation to the discourse of patriarchy and female empowerment. She is portrayed as a complex figure who is entangled in power, desire, femininity, self-determination, and deception. Ultimately, the femme fatale causes the downfall of the hero. Once dominating countless Japanese productions, this complex figure disappeared in Japanese films from the 1930s until the 1990s and did not yet make a notable return in contemporary cinema. I argue that the decline of the femme-fatale scenario ultimately began in Japanese popular culture and that she was transformed into a western figure in a foreign land where she was sent on retread. In my presentation, I examine the archetype of the modern girl and the Meiji school girl as presented in manga and anime originals and demonstrate how western producers transform them into femmes fatales with potent sexuality and destructive power. The materials to be discussed include Death Note, Ghost in the Shell and Oldboy.
Global Commons: Navigating Diversity in a University Classroom
Alexandre Avdulov, Saint Mary's University, CanadaAs students from different cultural backgrounds cross paths while studying in other countries, intercultural learning becomes an additional focus of pedagogy in higher education. It concerns domestic and international students, their parents, faculty, and staff of the universities today. The increased interest from international as well as Canadian students in contemplative practices offers an opportunity to expand existing courses, to connect curriculum with real life, to go beyond the curriculum and to offer all students a common shared experience. Getting students physically and emotionally involved in the learning process gives them better spatial and temporal awareness as well as awareness of each other. Sensory engagement offers students the therapeutic effects of cultural experience as well as better understanding of the subject. It may also offer a possible gateway to a better university experience and stronger mental wellness.
This presenter will share a few ways in which contemplative forms of inquiry have inspired students from arts, business and science as well as members of the local community. A number of issues will be addressed, in particular – the increased integration of international students into the university environment, the expansion of the limits of the traditional classroom to inspire global learning and the benefits offered to learners and teachers through the provision of tools to encourage wellness of mind.
Does the Japanese Language Reflect Self Immersed in the Whole?: A Linguistic Inquiry
Harumi Minagawa, The University of Auckland, New ZealandIde (2019) extends the notion of self in ba theory, which has been developed to illustrate how Japanese interact as part of a larger whole, into the cognitive sphere, claiming that there is a cultural preference in Japanese to adopt what she calls an ‘interior’ (‘non-objective’) perspective where ‘the unseen subject … exists… deeply immersed in the context’(4) and becomes part of the whole. She draws on three linguistic examples as evidence to support her claim. From a linguist’s point of view, however, this paper argues that Ide’s examples do not successfully support the ‘interior’ perspective of ba she theorizes on the following grounds: there is confusion of ellipsis of personal pronouns (a discourse based-decision) and subjective construal (conceptualization); argument structures were not accurately understood in the sentences examined; and different narrative modes in literature in Japanese and English were brought in for discussion and confused with ellipsis. Instead of losing self in the context of a larger whole, this study argues that it is evident in the linguistic expressions in Japanese that Japanese speakers successfully express self by tactfully negotiating between the desire to position self around the cognitively and physically motivated self-centered position and the cultural and social awareness to position self in relation to the whole which includes the addressee and the social relationship with the other who may also be involved in the event.
BeHere: Cultural Memory in the Informational Age
Natasha Lushetich, University of Dundee, United KingdomCultural memory is often defined as that part of culture that cannot be transmitted by genes (Assman 2008). In oral cultures, important information is stored in finite human beings and doesn't exceed the capacity of the information carrier. In the digital era, information is stored on external mnemonic carriers with unlimited storing capacity, which raises the question of excess and proportion. Both differ vastly from the traditional ordering of the culturally ‘relevant’ versus the ‘less relevant’, based on the periodically revised/re-articulated canons/margins. In the second decade of the 21st century, two problems stand in the way of re-articulation: acceleration and retroversion. Due to the exponential growth of the informational mass and its instability, today, we are faced with drastic reversals that render formerly beneficial actions useless(Rothenberg 2010).Both past and present are indeterminate (Gustafsson 2010) while the future is increasingly seen as over-determined(Han 2017). This paper interrogates the mutually configuring relationship of the universal and the particular, structural and idiosyncratic, standardised and accidental using Fujihata’s cultural-mnemonic project BeHere (2018-) which ‘resurrects’ the collective past of a Hong Kong district with the aid of ‘found’ personal images, randomly sampled from the internet and re-articulated through the use of augmented reality and photogrammetry. In querying the global informational-cultural enmeshment of public and private, purposefully preserved and accidental, and aligning Fujihata’s work with Nishida’s interexpression (1987) and Hansen's an-archive (2011), I examine the project’s mnemonic patterns in relation to a) semantics; b) individual assimilation of symbols via embodied interaction; and c) collectivisation via remediation.
Protests in Hong Kong: From Confucianism to Levinas’ Substitution
Ka Wan Cheung, Humboldt Univsersität zu Berlin, Germany2019 was a tumultuous year for Hong Kong. The protests began in June with the concern of the extradition bill, but throughout the time, demands have emerged: withdraw the bill, for officers to step down, an inquiry into police brutality, amnesty for arrested protesters, and free elections. The call for Hong Kong independence has also increased and activist Edward Leung, who was for Hong Kong independence and jailed for 6 years on account of social unrest in 2016, became the role model of protestors. Although Hong Kong was colonized by Great Britain for 155 years till 1997, Confucianism has been deeply rooted in Hong Kong and this is reflected in the thinking of Baby Boomers Generation and Generation X. Generation Y and Generation Z are acting however differently because of the use of technology and the rise of Christianity in Hong Kong. The differences between these generations can be easily seen in the protests since June. This presentation will first discuss the meanings and necessity of revolution from the perspective of Confucianism, then analyse the decision of Edward Leung about the application of asylum with Levinas’ ethic theory and the concept of “substitution”. After that, the focus will shift to how this influenced young protestors, especially those who are still studying in secondary school or at university but more willing to risk their future to fight for justices and democracy of Hong Kong.
Evaluating Socio-cultural and Spatial Impacts on Brownfields Recycling in Europe. What is the Effect on the City and Territory?
Federica Scaffidi, University of Hannover, GermanyThroughout the last decades, more and more attention has been given by scholars and practitioners to neglected and abandoned sites and their regeneration. In Europe, at the regional and municipal level, many innovative redevelopment policies and projects have been promoted to recycle these spaces and create an impact at the local scale (Bollenti Spiriti Programme of Regione Puglia, Boom-Polmoni Urbani, Culturability etc.). Starting from the analysis of the state of the art and the comparison of 11 European experiences of brownfields recycling (Germany, Italy and Spain), the study investigates these creative centres and how their actions and activities affect the places producing socio-cultural, economic and spatial impacts. In this regard, the research considers as a relevant example the recycling of the saltworks of Salinas de Añana, in Spain. The study has the purpose to explore and illustrate the impacts on the place of its reactivation and to understand the role of the local community, the local administration and the social enterprise as drivers of social innovation, new cultural activities and urban development. The research adopts qualitative, quantitative and comparative methods, with dialogic surveys, and semi-structured interviews, demographic and territorial analysis. Considering the analysis carried out, the research aims to observe how the recycling process can affect the city and its surroundings. In conclusion, the research may constitute a specific contribution to the existing body of knowledge and provide the basis for future researches, collaborations and practical guidelines for the socially innovative recycling of disused resources in urban–rural contexts.
When the “I” Becomes “We”: The Interplay of Individual and Collective Memories of Heritage in Greek Traditional Settlements
Ioanna Katapidi, University of Birmingham, United KingdomHeritage has been valued for its capacity to trigger memories about things created and practiced in the past (Paillard,2012; Rypkema, 2005; 2007). Heritage as memory is selective in terms of what to be remembered and it can be individual or collective (Lewika, 2008). Due to selectivity, the role of memories in the identification and evaluation of heritage has been often overlooked in conservation policies and practices, which have tended to favour historicity as a more ‘robust’ and objective value within an authorized narrative (Smith, 2006: 58). Despite the “increase in memory studies there has only been a passing concern with memory issues in the traditional heritage literature” (Smith, 2006:58). This research explores the role of memories in perceptions of heritage, focusing on traditional settlements in central Greece. Stemming from a wider research on the way in which people form perceptions of heritage in living heritage places, this part will particularly focus on individual and collective memories and their interactions. Expanding the idea that heritage exists as a collective and individual construct (Lowenthal 1979, p.550) the study shows how heritage may be a collective construct influenced by individual perspectives, reflecting on people’s memories. The study overall highlights the dynamics between individual and collective memories in the appreciation of heritage, raising questions on how these can inform conservation approaches.
Disintegration and Reshaping: Northeast Renaissance and the Working Class Narrative
Hao Zhu, Shaanxi Normal University, ChinaNortheast Renaissance refers to a cultural movement that reflects the spiritual outlook of youth in Northeast China in 2019. The common inspiration for this generation is the Northeast, which experienced the laid-off reform and guarded the last glory of the old industrial base, and was deeply affected by the popular culture of Hong Kong and Taiwan in the 1990s.This article explores the ways of the disintegration and remodeling of the Chinese working class by combing different media arts since the 1990s. The Northeast narrative of the 1990s is connected with the national industrialization trend. The films Tie xi District and The Piano in a Factory show the loss of eldest son of the Republic, the disintegration of the factory under market impact, and the call for the return of socialist collective labor. The Northeast narrative after 2000 reflects the fade of industrial background. The novels Moses on the Plains and Winter Swim show that the old industrial area was included in the consumer society, and the contemporary worker groups lost their revolutionary objects and forces in the post-revolutionary context. In 2019, the Northeast Renaissance triggered by rapper Baoshi Dong is closely related to Revitalizing the Northeast Old Industrial Base plan and the fast-growing Internet ecology. In the context of global capital logic and the disappearance of class discourse, these new worker groups who enter the world factory try to express low-level experience and reshape the working class culture.
Modern Japanese Girls Flying Into the Sky: Gender Norms and Aviation Fashion in the 1920s
Yu Umehara, University of Tsukuba, JapanIn 1952, the year of the end of the US occupation of Japan, Japan Women’s Association of Aviation (JWAA) was founded. It presented a milestone in Japanese aviation history. The sky was hitherto a predominantly male sphere. During World War II, men alone became soldiers and flew into the sky. Most women (perhaps except for nurses and “comfort women”) stayed at the home front. They could not fight on the war front because of the Military Service Law enacted in 1927, and there were no female military pilots. Even so, when peace came, women decided to fly planes, and they established JWAA. Some members had flown planes before the war. Historians such as Hiraki Kunio, Kano Mikiyo, and Matsumura Yuriko significantly recover the history of prewar Japanese female fliers. However, their researches remain mostly biographical. They tell a story of pioneer female fliers such as Hyodo Tadashi, who became the first aviatrix in Japan. Historians find the historical significance of female fliers because they deviated from traditional female gender norms. This paper would be less interested in how they departed from gender norms than how they refashioned literally or ideologically such norms. In this paper, I will examine the development of women’s aviation in the 1920s that significantly created a new nexus between the female body and speed. Specifically, I will analyze the photographs and images in newspapers. As I hope to show, the air-minded age helped refashion female gender norms in patriarchal Japan.
Afrofuturism 2.0 – A New Cultural Enabler for the Digital Age
Holger Briel, Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University, ChinaAfrofuturism as a concept is about 25 years old, with Mark Dery’s interview essay Black to the Future (1993) giving the movement its name and paving the way for further interventions. Afrofuturistic works typically include novels, paintings, photography, music such as Sun Ra's and the Marvel Comics superhero Black Panther. Over the last decade or so, a new kind of Afrofuturism has risen, coined Afrofuturism 2.0. While some of it harkens back to the earlier Afrofuturism, much of it is spearheading into an uncharted digital future. An early indicator for this change was the special issue of the Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry, 3(3), in September 2016 which provided studies of the work of important recent African Scifi writers such as Okorafor, Beukes, Laing, Bodomo, and Olukotun. In my presentation, I will chart the culture of this movement along with the now finished seminal Sci-Fi trilogy Wormwood (2018-19) by Nigerian writer Tade Thompson. The presentation will look at the digital culture surrounding it and put it into perspective vis-à-vis other recent cultural representations of Afrofuturism, including the hugely successful Black Panther film based on the comic series (2018). It will emerge that through digital cultural tools, Afrofuturism has successfully reinvented itself, thereby going beyond its erstwhile narrow fan base and successfully empowering and enabling communities in Africa, particularly so in Nigeria. It has also led to further acceptance of African Sci-Fi literature in the West, embracing difference.
Black African Immigrant Student’s Identities and Education: The Influence of African Indigenous Knowledge within Canada’s Multiculturalism
Hilda Fankah-Arthur, University of Alberta, CanadaCora Weber-Pillwax, University of Alberta, Canada
This study explains the influence of African Indigenous Knowledge in the education and identities of Black African Immigrant students within Canada’s Multiculturalism. Black African immigrant student’s identities are formed and shaped by their indigenous experiences, which influences their socio-cultural development in Canada. Canada recognizes and promotes diversity and inclusion through the Federal Multiculturalism Act (1988), which preserves and enhances the multicultural heritage of all Canadians. This exploratory research is to understand how the exclusion of African indigenous knowledge in the education of Black African Students impacts them; whether a shift to acknowledge and validate African Indigenous Knowledge would create a better educational impact for Black African Immigrant students; and how multiculturalism enables the diverse population to understand their Human Rights and support the reclaiming of self and identity. This qualitative research study uses an Indigenous Research Methodology to apply critical theories that are grounded in indigenous knowledge systems. The findings serve as educational resource for all immigrants in Canada who are on diverse pathways to bring about change in their communities; provides recommendations on inclusive education that demonstrates Canada’s efforts to advance multiculturalism; creates awareness and awaken the consciousness of immigrant students to an option for a successful educational integration; adds to the empirical evidence that position African Indigenous Knowledge as a source of factual knowledge. African Indigenous Knowledge is a significant part of the identity of Black African Immigrant students and the acknowledgment and validation of that knowledge system within a multicultural society creates a better educational experience.
Annotation and Practice of Reading: The Tale of Genji and Kakaisho
Kanako Yoshimori, University of Tsukuba, JapanThe Tale of Genji, by Murasaki Shikibu, is the most famous Japanese classic novel and the world’s oldest existing novel by a woman. My paper sheds light on the heretofore understudied Kakaisho, an earliest annotation of The Tale of Genji, written by Yotsutsuji no Yoshinari, in the late 14th century. Kakaisho is characterized by its abundant commentaries on historical facts to interpret the story. In modern scholarship, historical facts are assumed to serve as precedents that the author Murasaki Shikibu drew on in creating events in the novel. Yet, interestingly enough, some, if not all, historical events that Kakaisho notes to add additional context to The Tale of Genji actually took place after Murasaki Shikibu’s death. How are we to make sense of this?
This paper seeks to complicate the relation between fiction and history. Yotsutsuji no Yoshinari, a medieval scholar, read The Tale of Genji in a way that is different from the way modern scholars read the novel as a fiction. Through the act of annotating, the author of Kakaisho arguably mutated the fictional story into a history, in which events of the past in The Tale of Genji are linked with the present time of the author. The history of annotation of The Tale of Genji provides us with a good starting point for thinking why this novel is still being read and is coming alive. In the end, the history of annotation research in the past questions our own reading practice in the present.
Narrative Interpretation in Folklore Studies: Japanese Emigrants to Geomun-do (Port Hamilton), Korea, and Their Psychic World
Aki Tokumaru, University of Tsukuba, JapanWhen researchers encounter storytelling by informants during fieldwork, this serves as important research materials in folklore studies. Storytellers are by no means informants who simply provide indigenous information useful to researchers coming from outside. Rather, they are themselves mobile subjects, accumulating lived experiences while moving temporally and spatially across communities and relocating residences over time. This paper addresses the knotty questions that emerge in using storytelling and vernacular narrative as materials in folklore studies: that is, how to interpret stories without reducing them into pieces of objective information that are valuable only to researchers; and how to recover the internal psychic world and subjective thoughts from an oral or vernacular tradition.
In this paper, I choose as a case study Port Hamilton, or Geomun-do, a small group of islands in the Jeju Strait off the southern coast of the Korean Peninsula, where Japanese fishers began to emigrate in the end of the Edo (Tokugawa) period and formed Japanese settlements, which remained in place until the end of World War II. I will examine the storytelling and narratives by women who were born and lived in Geomun-do until they were repatriated to Japan after the war. I consider the ways in which women’s stories afford an insight into their psychic world that was formed as Japan underwent rapid changes in the prewar, wartime, and postwar periods.
Understanding and Promoting Gender Diversity Among Senior Faculty at the University of Tokyo: A Student Action Project
Maximilien Berthet, University of Tokyo, JapanSaeko Kawataki, University of Tokyo, Japan
Kozue Okamura, University of Tokyo, Japan
Mizuki Ishida, University of Tokyo, Japan
Karthik Varada, University of Tokyo, Japan
Despite active efforts by the University of Tokyo (UTokyo) to promote women's academic career development, the ratio of females remains low throughout the UTokyo community. In particular, the large drop in gender diversity from student level (20% female undergraduates) to senior faculty (7.6% female full professors), suggests the existence of a "leaky pipeline" along the academic hierarchy. In March 2019, a team of 9 UTokyo students initiated a Student Initiative Project (SIP) to evaluate this hypothesis. SIPs are student-led programs which provide students with funding to research and respond to cross-cutting social issues. This project aims to support ongoing efforts within UTokyo to promote gender equality (GE) by focusing on two objectives: (i) to understand causes and solutions for low female faculty rates, and (ii) to foster a change in campus culture via gender mainstreaming.
The methodology included interviews of female and male researchers at UTokyo, followed by feedback to two Executive Vice-Presidents and the Office for Gender Equality. In parallel, a trilogy of interactive workshops involving panel discussions and documentary screenings were delivered to over 40 UTokyo students and faculty. This paper provides an overview of major findings from the project. Key lessons learnt are that: (i) a leaky pipeline exists, caused by intersection between gender and wider systemic issues such as job precarity for young faculty; (ii) solutions can be achieved through synergies with top-level university priorities such as international research ranking targets; (iii) student-led initiatives offer an effective means of supporting institutional change on gender equality.
Identifying Quality Critical Thinking Apps for K-12 Students
Teresa Chen, California State University-Long Beach, United StatesRonnie Yeh, California State University, Long Beach, United States
This proposed presentation discusses the essential criteria for the evaluation of iOS-based K-12 critical thinking mobile applications (apps) and reports on the findings of an evaluation study. (The study examines iOS-based apps on the App Store because it offers most educational apps.) The study attempts to answer the following two questions: (a) what are the criteria that are conducive to the selection of critical thinking apps for K-12 students?, and (b) what are the apps available that meet the criteria? Scholars have widely recognized that critical thinking is key to students’ personal and professional success. Educators have accordingly developed curricula, instructional strategies, and assessments to enhance students’ critical thinking. Recently, the educational community has integrated technological innovations, such as apps, into instruction that fosters critical thinking. However, the lack of evidence-based guidelines in the selection of the apps can undermine instructional effectiveness. This study fills this void by adapting an evidence-based evaluation instrument and subsequently uses the instrument to identify quality critical thinking apps for K-12 students. The instrument contains three major evaluation categories (i.e., content, pedagogy, and design) that researchers consider essential in critical thinking instruction and app design. Each category includes a list of evidence-based items. With the assistance of the instrument, the study uncovers a limited number of apps that meet the criteria. This presentation shares the findings of the evaluation, highlights three critical thinking apps that are considered having educational values, and discusses implications for future practice and research.
Postcolonial Ecocriticism in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness
Minjeon Go, Sungkyunkwan University, South KoreaIn Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad portrays the African wilderness as a mirror of self-introspection for the human race regarding their material desire and exploitation of natural resources. The narrator of the novella, Charles Marlow, comes to realize as he ascends the Congo river towards Kurtz the moral corruption of Western Imperialism and horrors of colonial rule. In addition, the wilderness, an echoing theme in Heart of Darkness, is presented by Conrad as a “mighty and unconquerable entity” and a resisting force which endures for cessation of Western Imperialism’s invasion. Study of the two important themes calls for a new critical interpretation in a postcolonial ecocritical approach. Heart of Darkness is a perfect for the study of postcolonial ecocriticism in that it can be studied in the aspects of globalization, diversification, and sustainability, aspects which ecocriticism focuses on lately. In such context, this paper intends on first, exploring the postcolonial ecocritical approach in Heart of Darkness, as well as examining the illusion of Imperialism and the world of African nature which the westerner Marlow, in the times of Imperialism, experiences for the first time. The paper next investigates the existential meaning of the savage nature resulting from Kurtz’s avarice and of the wilderness represented as a defiant being through the examination of scenes in the novel where the wilderness and western Imperialism conflict. Finally, the paper observes how ivory is materialized and reenacted as a double metaphor of the illusion of Imperialist market development and colonialist exploitation of natural resources.
A Study on Agricultural Production and the Vicissitude of Settlements in Japanese Colonial Period – A Case of Kaohsiung Settlement in Taiwan
Yi Ling Chen, National Cheng Kung University, TaiwanIn the past, traditionally agricultural farming methods usually followed family members in Taiwan. To get cheaper crop materials, the Japanese government changed the way of agricultural production by capitalism in Japanese Colonial Period. The role of farmers changed gradually in the market mechanism, return to the complete producer in the market from producer, processor and salespeople. After the invention of changing structure of production and capitalist, the workforce lost balance. The Japanese government wanted to make up for Taiwan ’s workforce through immigration policies, get the shock from immigrants and worker, then changed Kaohsiung Harborside Settlement by immigration indirectly. This research studied by a geographic viewpoint, case analysis by historical data review, historical map, and statistical data in Dazhu Vil of Kaohsiung Harborside Settlement. Presenting changes in life support space and settlement area through Penghu immigrants in Kaohsiung. Data showed that the settlement location of Penghu immigrants was closely related to the development of Kaohsiung City. They usually chose on the edge of the city and living areas, changed life support way method accompanied by Southward Policy, and the composition of the migrant settlements was formed by the regional relationship of Penghu. The appearance of Kaohsiung Harborside Settlement mainly composed of regional immigrant settlements.
Pinking Female Sensuality, Sexuality and Subjectivity from “Girl Hell” to “The Handmaiden” – An Intercultural Perspective
Hoi Shan Ng, Independent Scholar, Hong KongThe proposed paper offers an intertextual analysis of Yumeno Kyusaku’s Girl Hell (1977, Japan) in juxtaposition with Park Chan-Wook’s The Handmaiden (2016, Korea) with a possible feminist critic. Pink Films could be associated with Sexploitation; Pink Films could well serve as a site for power struggle between the colonizer and the colonized, the aggressors and the victims, and an essential space for provocative and imaginative filmic representation for the silenced, marginalized, underprivileged and neglected in society of its own time, however tragic, pessimistic, gloomy and ground-breaking the ending could be. Although the chosen films were made by two respective male directors of distinctive generations and nationalities, a comparative textual analysis of the two films reveals striking echoes in the recurring themes such as female sensuality, sexuality and subjectivity; masculinity in femininity; revenge, violence and trickery; the question of humanities, etc.
Almost 40 years after the release of the Japanese director Yumeno Kyusaku’s sympathetic and gloomy Girl Hell (1977), the Korean director Park Chan-Wook’s The Handmaiden (2016) not only enriches the thematic vocabulary, plotting and technicality of the erotic thriller films, but also illuminates a possibility and an aspiration for an alternative and transcendent narrative of its own time.
Out of all, the paper envisions an exploration of what it means to be humanity, drawing references from Greek mythology to postmodern critical and psychoanalytical theories.