Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Two of the most widely discussed subjects in the “virtual” space might be ‘politics’ and ‘religion,’ which has been tabooed to discuss in “real” space. People express their religious beliefs, values, and meanings through the Internet utilizing the benefits of relative anonymity and less social responsibility, associated with the Internet technology. The technology does not only provide people with religious symbolic resources but also with a public space in which they articulate the religious meanings they have made out of interactions with cultural resources. Therefore, in addition to Helland’s two uses of the Internet for religious purposes (“information about” and “participation in”), this paper suggests another use: “expressing.” It explores conceptual and methodological issues to theorize the potential of the Internet for religious expression. The religious expression on the Internet should be understood in relation to the project of the self in late modernity as a reflexive strategy employed by people to deal with late modernity. The technology fits well with the contemporary religious landscape, represented by reflexivity, subjectivity, and autonomy. Based on the discussions, this paper suggests directions for the study of religious expression on the Internet: (1) The meaning making process needs to be revisited with consideration of the Internet’s distinctive stage of articulation; (2) Religious expression should be examined with the interest in community, which is based on the understanding of the network culture provided by the technology; (3) Ethnographic research is called for, which can achieve the contextuality through relational approach between online and offline interactions.

Publication Type: Session Presentation
Abstract: One of the main objectives of the foreign language class is to facilitate the understanding between the native culture of the student and the foreign language culture. This presentation will address different resources to approach the culture of Spain: literature, music, art, etc. Activities that can be used in the Spanish classroom, including reading literary texts, listening to songs, and observing art works will be shared with the audience.

Publication Type: Proceeding

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Since democratization and liberalization after 1987, Taiwan’s media have gradually escaped from direct political control. Nevertheless, today the news media do not function independently but become extremely polarized according to their political preferences. This paper argues that we can trace the historical origin to the late 1970s and the early 1980s, when alternative media (dissident magazines) launched the rhetorical war against the authoritarian government and the mass media in Taiwan. I use the case study of two successive magazines—Formosa (1979) and Formosa Weekly (1981-1985)—to demonstrate the complicated relations between democratization and the change of national identity in Taiwan. More specifically, there was a rhetorical shift from the democratic vision of Formosa to Taiwanese nationalistic discourse of Formosa Weekly. The watershed was the government’s crackdown of free speech and free assembly in the Kaohsiung Incident of 1979. Since then, the democratic movement has been imbedded in Taiwan nationalist movement with the principle that the majority should rule. The alternative media’s fight for free expression fostered the seeds of democratization in Taiwan. But the war also presaged ethnic cleavages and political conflicts, which have deeply afflicted media’s performance up to now. Free from the external control, the media still indulge in the role as the organ of political forces and further reinforce existing social divisions.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Using a sample of college students (N = 301), this study examines students’ perceptions and evaluations of teacher anger. Our purpose was to investigate students’ assessments of internal attributions and explanations for teacher anger. Students described instances in which a teacher in college expressed anger in the classroom. Respondents identified the anger as aggressive (e.g., Distributive or Passive) or assertive (e.g., Integrative) and rated the intensity of the expression. Then students attributed causes to the teacher anger, rated the level of appropriateness and identified specific reasons for the teacher anger. Students’ perceptions of causal attributions and appropriateness were influenced by the way teachers expressed anger. Furthermore, students included both teacher- and student-caused reasons for the anger. Implications of and directions for future research are discussed.