“Why Are You Shoving This Stuff Down Our Throats?”: Preparing Intercultural Educators to Challenge Performances of White Racism

Abstract

In general, white students respond intensely to explorations of racism. Intercultural educators are often unprepared for the challenges white students assert during conversations about racism and are unsure how to reply appropriately. Herein, we offer examples of student responses to critical race pedagogy in order to assist teachers in addressing similar stories told in their own classrooms. Based on data collected from over 300 student assignments collected between fall 2003 and fall 2006, we present a typology that categorizes patterns of white student resistance, including acknowledgement of racism, white self-preservation, diversion from structural power, and investment in white supremacy.     

From a Means to an End: Patenting in the 1999 Danish ‘Act on Inventions’ and its Effect on Research Practice

This paper examines the potential pitfalls for academic research associated with goal displacements in the implementation of goals and indicators of research commercialization. We ask why patenting has come to serve as the key policy indicator of innovative capacity and what consequences this has for the organization of academic research. To address these questions, the paper presents a case study from Denmark on, firstly, why and how the 1999 Danish ‘Act on Inventions’ introduced patenting as a central instrument to Danish science policy and, secondly, the effects the Act has had on Danish university organization and research practices. We trace why and how commercialization was introduced as an important objective in Danish science policy since the 1980s. The increased focus on patents is explained as an isomorphic adjustment to an international ‘science policy field,’ manifested in particular through OECD statistics, where patenting has come to serve as a key metric in international rankings. In a second step, we examine what effects the patenting requirements have had on organization and research practice at a Danish university. We show that in practice ‘number of patents’ changed from serving as an indicator of innovative capacity to being a policy goal in itself, thus in effect producing a goal displacement that is potentially damaging for both academic research and innovation capacity of the surrounding society. As a consequence of this goal displacement, active scientists now increasingly engage in patenting primarily as a means to fulfill organizational targets and to increase their ‘fundability,’ rather than to promote commercial applications of their research. In conclusion, we discuss how these unfulfilled policy ambitions have led to a retrospective redefinition of policy goals rather than an adjustment of the actual policy tools.     

What does it take to survive in a digital world? Resource-based theory and strategic change in the TV industry

Journal of Cultural Economics - Traditional linear television has been a long-standing success story. However, the digital revolution is rapidly transforming the TV industry, in terms of...     

Attending to the “face of the other” in intercultural communication: Thinking and talking about difference,identity, and ethics

This essay contributes to the discussions in intercultural communication scholarship on key intercultural urgencies, issues, and challenges in today's world through the ethical framework of Emmanuel Levinas and his discussion of “absolute otherness” that informs and expands the dialogue on interculturality, cultural humility, and ethics. Levinas's discussion of “absolute otherness” aims to preserve difference—the otherness of the other—by asserting the ethical relation prior to the ontological relation and carries significant communicative implications in terms of the relation of the self and the other as well as making sense of difference and identity, and offers a new way of talking about these issues in the field of communication studies, specifically in intercultural communication. An illustration of attending to the other beyond reduction to the same is offered through a pedagogical application of the Levinasian framework in the intercultural communication class.     

Transfiguring identity: Social relationships and intercultural communication between foreign “children” and Japanese “parents”

This paper examines how intercultural communication and interpersonal relationships between Japanese “parents” and African “children” are capable of destabilizing status quo notions of identification. Using qualitative ethnographic data, this paper demonstrates how intercultural interactions unfold in ways that engender new forms of sociality, which underscore the diversifying nature of majority–minority relationships in Japan. Drawing on theoretical insights from applied linguistics and communications studies, this paper suggests that the material products of these relationships warrant increased scholarly attention because they are capable of positing compelling challenges to existing understandings of identity, as well as to the ways various groups conceptualize themselves in relation to others.     

“A Delicious Way to Help Save Lives”: Race,Commodification, and Celebrity in Product (RED)

Abstract

The Product (RED) campaign raises money to fight AIDS in Africa by helping to sell brand-name merchandise to affluent consumers. This paper examines the racialized representations of the (RED) website and the campaign's use of a consumer–celebrity fund-raising model. Through the analytical lens of critical cultural studies, I argue that (RED) commodifies Africans and “African-ness” under a celebratory guise, and reinscribes a narrative of Africa as a “problem child.” The campaign paradoxically trades on the very disparities of global capitalism that propel the AIDS crisis. It is central in (re)producing the human consequences of globalization, shoring up a symbolic and material marketplace marked by extreme poverty and extreme consumption.     

An integrated approach to the study of a reworked painting “Madonna with child” attributed to Pietro Lorenzetti

The painting “Madonna with Child”, attributed to Pietro Lorenzetti (14th century) and reworked around the middle of the 16th century, was studied by several techniques in order to characterize the materials used in the original and in the repainted areas. FORS, light microscopy, ESEM-EDX, ToF-SIMS and GC-MS were used. Red ochre and raw sienna earth were identified by FORS in the original parts of the painting. On the repainted parts of the panel, cinnabar, ultramarine blue and lead white were found. By means of GC-MS and ToF-SIMS measurements it was possible to identify the organic binding media used in the preparatory and painted layers.     

Structural engineering and geology applied to the static problems of the Etruscan “Tomba dell’Orco” (Tarquinia,Central Italy)

The Etruscan Tomba dell’Orco was discovered in 1868. However, soon after discovery, part of its ceiling collapsed. An investigation was thus conducted with a view to assessing its safety conditions and permitting visitors’ access. Petrographic and physico-mechanical features of the local weak sandstones and mechanically more resistant calcareous sandstones “macco” were determined. Field mapping, drill-holes and geophysical prospecting helped reconstruct the stratigraphy of the volume where the tomb was excavated. The stability of the tomb basement is given by a thick macco layer. A few dm macco layer was identified above the ceiling. A model was then prepared with the Plaxis 2D V8.6 software. The safety coefficients calculated along two cross-sections of the tomb indicated that the margins for the tomb stability are reasonable.     

Viscoelastic and mechano-sorptive studies applied to the conservation of historical violins: A case study of the Guarneri “del Gesù” violin (1743) known as the “Cannone”

To assess the possible effects of mechanical loading on the conservation of historical wooden musical instruments, a research project was carried out on the violin Guarneri “del Gesù” (1743), known as the “Cannone”. This paper refers to the results obtained by studying the deformations to which a violin is subjected after being tuned, with special attention to the viscous and mechano-sorptive behaviour (as in a concert environment for example). The amount of viscoelastic creep was quantified under normal tuning conditions, and the mechano-sorptive creep was quantified using a dead mass resulting in 55% of the elastic deformation obtained after tuning. The viscoelastic and mechano-sorptive deformations were clearly observed. These deformations were completely recovered once the violin was unloaded, demonstrating that this violin structure is appropriately dimensioned for the applied stresses.     

The “sacred” standing for the “fallen” spirits: Yasukuni Shrine and memory of war

This essay examines the rhetoric/politics of Yasukuni Shrine as an experiential memory-scape, a material and discursive ground to frame and enact banal patriotism and militant nationalism. As a powerful mnemonic and rhetorical institution, Yasukuni Shrine (re)produces a nationalistic narrative and identity by (con)fusing natural feelings of individual grief and cultural tradition of commemoration with national heritage of banal patriotism. By (con)fusing what is “particular” and “universal,” Yasukuni Shrine establishes its rhetorical ground to justify a “banal” sense of patriotism that slips into the “ordinary yet honorable” fervor of militant nationalism, while effectively evading its moral/ethical reflexivity.     

Infrared thermography and Georadar techniques applied to the “Sala delle Nicchie” (Niches Hall) of Palazzo Pitti,Florence (Italy)

Two noninvasive geophysical techniques, infrared thermography and georadar, were used in this study to investigate the internal walls of the “Sala delle Nicchie” (Niches Hall) of Pitti Palace, in Florence. The aim of this work was to verify that the original architectonic setting of this Hall was as reported in a planimetry of anonymous author dated late 1700. This document shows that the “Sala delle Nicchie” was characterized at that time by 10 niches instead of the six that are visible today. Both the infrared thermography and georadar surveys confirmed the presence and location of the niches as indicated in the planimetry. This study results prove the importance and benefit of using nondestructive techniques in sites of artistic and historical interest.