The Office was asking for it: “that’s what she said” as a joke cycle that perpetuates rape culture

In this essay, we argue that the popular joke, “that’s what she said” is a symbolic representation of rape that contributes to and insulates rape culture. Drawing on Joseph Boskin’s notion of the “joke cycle” and extant literature on rape culture and misogynistic humor, we critique several instances of the joke on the popular television series The Office. From there, we extend our critique of the joke cycle, noting the conspicuous absence of concern over the joke and its implications in other scholarly treatments of the program. Our primary contention is that the joke cycle, which may be the most prominent cycle in recent decades, reinscribes rape culture by normalizing discourses that dismiss and silence rape victims, justify violence against women, and even blame victims for having been assaulted. “That’s what she said” avoids the critical eye because it disguises itself as a joke like any other.     

Writing in doctoral programs: examining supervisors’ perspectives

In the current context of doctoral education students are required to develop a range of complex academic literacy skills to accomplish optimal performance in their academic communities of practice. This has led to increase the interest in research on doctoral writing. However, research on how supervisors contribute to doctoral writing has not been extensive. The purpose of this study is to analyze the supervisors’ perspectives on doctoral writing by addressing three questions: a) What role do supervisors attribute to writing in doctoral training? b) What type of writing support do supervisors intend to provide to their students? and c) What are the relations between the role supervisors attribute to writing and the type of writing support supervisors offer to their students? Participants were 61 supervisors in the social sciences and humanities with diverse levels of expertise. Using a cross-sectional interpretative design, we collected qualitative data using an open-ended survey. Categories based on content analysis were established (Miles and Huberman 1994). The results demonstrated that supervisors attributed different roles to doctoral writing, ranging from process- to product-oriented and focusing on 1) producing appropriate academic texts, 2) generating epistemic activity, and 3) promoting communication and socialization. A significant number of supervisors did not attribute any role to writing but acknowledged writing as an important and neglected activity. Three categories of writing support were identified based on the type of activities supervisors reported and their involvement: 1) telling the students what to do, 2) reviewing and editing students’ texts, and 3) collaboratively discussing students’ texts. The results suggest that there are complex relations between the role that supervisors’ attribute to writing and the type of writing support supervisors are able to offer. The relations appear to be mediated by supervisors’ awareness and resources concerning doctoral writing.     

Amateurism and the Nature of Sport

The question of the relationship between amateurism and the essential nature of sport has long been the focus of significant debate within the sports studies literature. This commentary paper reflects critically upon the contributions to be found within four scholarly studies concerned with this issue—one historical, one largely journalistic, and two philosophical. Particular attention is paid to differentiations between those who participate in sports activities largely for the love of the game or other internal reasons and those who engage predominantly for external rewards. Following an extended analysis of points of both agreement and discord among the various authors, an exposition is presented of some important questions remaining to be addressed before the issue can be said to be resolved.     

Zweiwegintegration durch zweisprachige Bildung? Ergebnisse aus der Staatlichen Europa-Schule Berlin

Es gibt kein Rezept, wie mit der an Schulen in Europa h?ufig vorkommenden Sprachenvielfalt umgegangen werden sollte. Dieser Artikel pr?sentiert eine vielversprechende Alternative zum einsprachigen Unterricht. Die Staatliche Europa-Schule Berlin (SESB) ist ein Modell der Zweiwegimmersion (ZWI), das Kinder mit deutscher Muttersprache und Kinder mit einer anderen vor Ort gesprochenen Muttersprache in der gleichen Schulklasse vereint, und sie in zwei Sprachen gemeinsam unterrichtet. In diesem Modell, das in Berlin an 17 Grundschulen und 13 weiterführenden Schulen angeboten wird, lernen Kinder und Jugendliche in zwei Sprachen voneinander und miteinander. Auf der Grundlage einer haupts?chlich quantitativen, quasi-experimentellen Studie mit 603 Jugendlichen wird bewiesen, dass es eine Anzahl von friedenslinguistischen Vorteilen gibt, die neben pers?nlicher und gesellschaftlicher Mehrsprachigkeit soziale Zweiwegintegration f?rdern k?nnen. Dies führt zu dem Schluss, dass ZWI-Erziehung, so wie sie in Berlin praktiziert wird, als Bildungsmodell für andere mehrsprachige Regionen Europas dienen k?nnte.     

How do doctoral students experience supervision?

Supervision has been shown to have a high impact on doctoral students' development. However, little is known about how students perceive not only negative but also positive doctoral experiences, as well as their strategies for dealing with perceived problematic situations. The aim of this study is to analyse and relate doctoral students' significant supervision experiences to the strategies they use to cope with these experiences when they perceive them as challenging or negative. A total of 1173 doctoral students from different research-intensive Spanish universities responded to four open-ended questions about their most significant experiences in their doctoral journey, associated feelings and strategies to deal with them. We identified a total of 223 experiences related to supervision that were distributed into five categories: 1) central prerequisites for supervision, 2) supervisor choice, 3) supervision of the research process, 4) coaching and 5) project management. The results showed three distinct ways, as reported by the students, of handling the perceived negative supervision experiences: 1) no strategy, 2) local strategy and 3) regulatory strategy. The results suggest that analysing both positive and negative experiences may better capture variability in students' supervision experiences. A relation between experiences with supervision and students' satisfaction was also detected.     

科学资源对公众科学兴趣的贡献(上)

学校、科学中心、电视媒体、纸质媒体及网络是五种主要的公共科学教育资源。本研究以美国三座大城市的3000名成人为样本,调查了以上资源对公众科学兴趣的价值及认知倾向的作用。通过文献回顾,确定了以成人现在的科学兴趣价值观和认知倾向与其现在和过去使用相关科学资源的关系为研究目标,通过对洛杉矶、凤凰城和费城家庭样本使用CATI随机抽样得到的数据,采用主成分分析法得出最终问卷,并开展了相关人口统计学变量分析。