Cultural Links (Asynchronous - Online Only)
"I’m Not That Person Anymore": The Covid Years Through Student Eyes View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Nancy Fox Edele
A new window of opportunity for disruption and change also opens the door to further growth and transformation possibilities. Parth Bhaka, student. Our struggles with Covid have not ended, and no one knows this reality more clearly than our students. Their writing – reflective; decisive; factual; nuanced; often heart-wrenching -- demonstrates a keen recognition of how their lives have changed. As a small team of researchers in the Humanities we are proposing a multimodal, multimedia project that documents and explores students’ experience of Covid through their artwork, music, and writing. We are looking at ways they come to terms with this critical and often traumatic time of isolation and social fracture by exploring their engagement in HIPs that enable them to build communities and create meaning and a sense of security together, as “they see what they have become when the world seemed to give them a reason to slow down” (Kathryn, UWF junior). We propose a study and analysis of these stories as examples of High-Impact Practices because that is what these stories have turned out to be, created by our students themselves. We emphasize the vital importance of validating our students’ experience and establishing it as part of the public discourse, both in the classroom and the larger community beyond campus. In this respect these stories represent engagement and service beyond the self, and our student’s stories are replete with this sense of connection, despite their frequent solitude.
Exophony and Multilingualism in Contemporary Belarusian Literature: A Review of Language(s) and Identities in Today's Literary Panorama View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Angela Espinosa ruiz
While multilingualism has been a relevant concept in the creation and analysis of Belarusian literature throughout history (with reasons that vary from the numerous official.and cultural bans imposed on the local language to the territory's multicultural atmosphere, having recognized as many as four official languages at once in the early 20th century), the idea of exophony, or foreign-language literary creation, is still relatively new in philological studies in general —it first appeared in Germany in 2007—, and much more so in the context of Belarusian literature. The purpose of our research is to present a panoramic review of two different groups of writers who are currently influencing the establishment of a new Belarusian literary canon: on the one hand, those born in Belarus who use a combination of languages in their work or choose a language different from Belarusian (most prominently, Russian), such as Valžyna Mort (Belarusian-English), Viktar Marcinovič (Belarusian-Russian) or Dzmitry Strocaŭ (Russian); on the other, authors of foreign origins who choose Belarusian as their language of creation, like Alaksej Arciomaŭ, Źmicier Bartosik (Russia) or Van Šyvej (China). Our analysis is carried out on the basis of the writers' original texts and, when possible, through interviews with them in order to reveal a clearer picture of the languages and identities that concur in the literature of today's Belarus.
Corpus of Czech Prose of the Nineteenth Century View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Richard Zmelik
In my contribution, I focus on corpus methods in literary science, especially on ones associated with the Czech prose of the 19th century, which significantly thematizes Prague. The corpus of Czech prose of the 19th century is building for this target and their parameters are especially suggestive. The corpus has two main parts, one concentrates on literary cartography maps of fictional spaces, second on quantitative models of narrative speech, motifs analysis (word clouds) and some others quantitative research parameters, which are useful for formal DH analysis of this special set of literary texts. In my contribution I will present not only all of corpus parameters, but on chosen examples I demonstrate usefulness of chosen tools. The corpus of Czech prose of the 19th century represents a type of Digital Humanities research, a Digital Literary Studies project. The results of this project are on the one side a digital database of literary texts and on the other side the tools for their analysing and interpretation.
The Power of Multimodal Pedagogy in Humanistic Education View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jacqueline Ng
Learning can take place outside of the traditional classroom. It can be made meaningful and effective anytime and anywhere if students can actively immerse in Humanistic Education by maximizing their potentials in the learning process, applying their learned knowledge in real world contexts, and critically reflecting on their learning outcomes and experiences. This paper introduces the pedagogical design of an English for Academic Purpose (EAP) course that incorporates multimodal practices and cultural experiences to enhance English language learners (ELL)’ academic trajectories and success. Building on the transformative multiliteracies pedagogy (Cummins, 2009), this case study discusses how ELLs develop their literacy skills and construct their cultural identities through multimodal activities including the creation of identity texts, academic blogs, and video reflections. This paper concludes with implications highlighting the potential values of multimodal pedagogy that can validate and affirm ELL students’ pre-existing knowledge, engage them in meaning-making processes, and empower them linguistically, culturally, and intellectually in the new learning space.
Aquin8as and Love among the Rock - and Roll View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Michael K. Green
This study explores a new direction in the humanities by using the creations of popular culture to test the analysis of concepts undertaken in the traditional humanities. To see how this works, Aquinas’ analysis of love is tested using rock love songs from the 1960s. Aquinas in Summa Theologiae Prima Secundæ Partis, Q. 26-28xf identifies eight characteristics of love. These are: 1. Commonality - the existence of similarities between lover and beloved, ultimately creating a common identity, 2. Union - wishing to be with the beloved in emotion, thought, and action, 3. melting - a softening of the heart, whereby the heart shows itself to be ready for the entrance of the beloved into his/her identity, 4. Enjoyment - the beloved is present and possessed, and pleasure or enjoyment ensues, 5. Languor - sadness and anger at the absence of the beloved., 6. Fervor - an intense desire to re-unite with the beloved, 7. Ecstasy - existing outside of oneself, and 8. Zeal - the intensity of love and the strength of the desire to do whatever is necessary to overcoming any obstacles standing between the lover and the beloved. If these are valid aspects of love, then one should be able to identify them in common expressions and descriptions of love. Love is a frequent theme of 1960s rock songs. However, no song can be expected to capture all aspects. Thus, different love songs are used to highlight different aspects of love.
Video Games Aimed to Enhance and Motivate Academic Learning : Learning Through Fun and Engagement View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Dr. Kenneth Jones
My research examines how effective video games could motivate students to learn through cognitive, motivational, behavioral, and social-cultural interactions. My study centers on African American males who have statistically ranked at the bottom of academic achievements and to understand the emotions and behaviors of why African American males have continuously performed below average in public education. My study implemented situated learning as a theoretical framework to examine how individuals receive direct knowledge through peer interactions. The data from my research indicate that video games can motivate and enhance anyone to learn through their ability to allow individuals to collaborate while participating in a task. Individuals demonstrated principles of learning through critical thinking, strategy, logical determinations, discovery, and exploration.
