Cultural History Commons^™

Introduction: Foreign Films And Higher Education, Heba A.N. El Attar Ph.D.

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

No abstract provided.

Teaching About The Muxes In The United States: Cultural Construct Gender Identity, And Transgression In The 21st Century, Nohora V. Cardona Núñez Ph.D.

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

This study focuses on the manner in which gender identities challenge heteronormativity and are understood as a way to interpret the sexed body through culture in the documentary Muxes: auténticas, intrépidas, buscadoras del peligro (2005), directed by Mexican filmmaker Alejandra Islas Caro. In the context of a Gender Issues in Latin America course taught in a North American university, we explored how certain theories by thinkers such as Simone de Beauvoir, Pierre Bourdieu, and Judith Butler, among others, contend that sexual preference, gender orientation, and sexuality, can be built as a cultural constructs, contrary to popular beliefs on the subject. …

Approaches To Teaching Latin American Culture Through Film: Children’S Plight In Poverty- And Violence-Ridden Countries, Delia V. Galvan Ph.D.

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

Students at the beginning levels of foreign language study have many borders to cross and many challenges to negotiate. This paper reports the results of a preliminary study involving the use of full-length films to engender intercultural sensitivity and understanding among two groups of first-year students of Spanish. Both films depict hardships of children in Spanish-speaking countries—as a result of conscription or as a result of child labor. The paper discusses the contextualization of the films for the students, the students’ responses to questionnaires, portions of classroom discussion that indicate growth in the areas of focus, and implications of the …

Note On Special Issue, Antonio Medina-Rivera Ph.D., Lee F. Wilberschied Ph.D., Heba A.N. El Attar Ph.D.

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

No abstract provided.

El Paseo By Harold Trompetero: Approaching Popular Film From Colombia In A North American Classroom, Matias Martinez Abeijon Ph.D.

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

This article explores the manner in which popular films from Colombia—

specifically comedies, such as the movie El paseo, directed by Harold Trompetero in 2010, which has been the highest grossing movie to date in the history of movies produced in Colombia–may be used in the classroom in the context of a World Language, Literature, and Culture department in the United States. It is the contention of this study that such a choice is far from common due to diverse issues, which include the limited access to international distribution of the majority of the so-called “national film” or, in …

Understanding Arab Culture Through Cinema, Abed El-Rahman Tayyara Ph.D.

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

The article examines the use of cinema as a tool for teaching about Arab culture and assesses the process in which learners acquire a higher level of intercultural communicative competence. The essay draws primarily on multilayered class activities and students’ responses to pre- and post- screening surveys related to eight Arab films. The article reveals that the evaluation of the learners’ intercultural competence and their familiarity with Arab culture in particular is a long process that filled with misunderstandings, gaps, inconsistencies, and contradictions on the part of the learners. To successfully conduct this type of teaching, the article also points …

Can Films Speak The Truth? Mathieu Kassovitz’S La Haine (1995) And Philippe Faucon’S La Désintégration (2011), Annie Jouan-Westlund Ph.D.

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

La Haine, (Dir. Mathieu Kassovitz, 1995) and La Désintégration (Dir. Philippe Faucon, 2011), set in France’s urban periphery, depict the struggle of second and third-generation immigrants growing up in the housing projects and their desire to live like ‘other’ French young people. The analysis offers a comparative study of the films’ reception with a community of viewers made of American students in a Contemporary French Culture course. Following the three paradigms of exclusion (social, racial, and cultural); gender representation; and aestheticism and realism, this study demonstrates that, within certain limits, these cinematic propositions, of similar prophetic nature but different …

Intercultural Communicative Competence: Literature Review, Lee F. Wilberschied Ph.D.

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) is a cluster of capabilities that will become even more essential, not only to negotiate borders of many dimensions as globalization proceeds, but also to enhance the ability to maneuver one’s way in a world that changes by the minute. The process of developing ICC prepares the learner to manage and appreciate border crossings on many levels. This brief review of the literature offers a summary of the components of ICC, how it is similar to and different from other competences, and recommendations on how to assess it. This overview may be helpful when considering the …

Table Of Contents, Antonio Medina-Rivera Ph.D, Lee F. Wilberschied Ph.D., Heba A.N. El Attar Ph.D

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

No abstract provided.

Go Nation: Chinese Masculinities And The Game Of Weiqi In China (Book Review), Wenqing Kang

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Down South In/Of Dixie: Rethinking The Tourist South, J. Souther

History Faculty Publications

Karen L. Cox, ed. Destination Dixie: Tourism and Southern History. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2012. ix + 315 pp. Illustrations, notes, and index. $74.95 (cloth); $26.95 (paper). Harvey H. Jackson III. The Rise and Decline of the Redneck Riviera: An Insider’s History of the Florida–Alabama Coast. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2012. 334pp. Illustrations, maps, essay on sources, and index. $28.95 (cloth); $19.95 (paper). Henry Knight. Tropic of Hopes: California, Florida, and the Selling of American Paradise, 1869–1929. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2013. xii + 266 pp. Illustrations, tables, notes, bibliography, and index. $74.95. Catherine …

Book Review: Vacationland: Tourism And Environment In The Colorado High Country, J. Mark Souther

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Introduction

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

No abstract provided.

Latino Catholicism And Indigenous Heritage As A Subfield Of Latino Studies: A Critical Evaluation Of New Approaches, Elizabeth C. Martinez Ph.D.

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

Posed through critical theory on "third-space," and a brief history of Latin American Studies, this article pursues analysis of recent interdisciplinary scholarship in English, to delineate the emergence of a new subfield in Latina/o Catholicism, connected to greater understanding of Indigenous legacy. The article also demonstrates the path of study toward creation of a themed academic issue.

Religiosity In Constitutions And The Status Of Minority Rights, Brandy G. Robinson

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

Minority rights and religion have never been topics that are simultaneously considered. However, arguably, the two have relevance, especially when combined with the topic and theory of constitutionalism. Historically and traditionally, minorities have been granted certain rights and have been denied certain rights under various constitutions. These grants and denials relate to cultural differences and values, arguably relating to a culture’s understanding and interpretation of religion.

This article explores the relationship and status of minority rights as it relates to religiosity and constitutionalism. Essentially, there is a correlation between these topics and research shows where certain nations have used religion …

Immigrant Social-Economic Landscape Changes And Ethno-Racial Border Formation In Columbus, Ohio, David M. Walker Dr., Jack Schemenauer

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

In this study we analyze new immigrant gateways in the U.S. and the role African and Latino immigrants play in reinventing urban spaces while culturally and economically regenerating neighborhoods juxtaposed to orthodox city planning practices. Through this research we aim to further understand how urban space is produced at divergent scales in the era of heightened globalization. Through this understanding we analyze how the contestation over how urban space is used and consumed leads to distinctive forms in the production of urban space and the subsequent unintended formation of newly perceived cultural borders, often based upon race and ethnicity. Through …

The Representations Of Arab-Muslims Through The Language Lens, Abed El-Rahman Tayyara

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

The article examines the use of Arabic as a sociolinguistic marker in American films that were released around the time of the events of 9/11/01 and investigates the extent to which stereotypical factors have been continuing in the same vein as in the past. Specifically, this study is a textual analysis of the application of Arabic in five recent films: Three Kings (dir. David O. Russell, 1999), Hidalgo (dir. Joe Johnston, 2004), Kingdom of Heaven (dir. Ridley Scott, 2005), Syriana (dir. Stephen Gaghan, 2005), and Body of Lies (dir. Ridley Scott, 2008). The article demonstrates that …

Table Of Contents

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

No abstract provided.

Australia’S Boatpeople Policy: Regional Cooperation Or Passing The Buck?, Christopher C. White

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

The Australian government implemented a new policy in July 2013 in an attempt to more effectively address the recent spike in irregular migrants trying to reach its shores. In this paper, I examine the panic over migration in Australia concerning asylum seekers arriving by boat. The discussion is divided into two main themes. First, I look at how the Australian government is attempting to manage irregular immigration with a specific focus on the regional arrangement with Papua New Guinea. I argue that instead of mutually beneficial efforts at regional cooperation, the Australian government is merely shifting its responsibilities to a …

Intergenerational Conflicts In Iran: Myth Or Reallity?, Mohammad Hossein Panahi

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

One of the important social issues attracting the attention of social thinkers in post WWII era has been the issue of intergenerational conflict. Presented by scholars such as Karl Manheim and Margaret Mead, it was thought that in post WWII era intergenerational conflicts or gap rose to a degree that it made the communication and understanding between pre and post WWII generations very difficult. It was theorized that this unbridgeable gap between the two generations was due to grave and rapid social changes that occurred in that era, so that these two generations experienced and lived in two totally different …

Immigrants, Roma And Sinti Unveil The “National” In Italian Identity, Francesco Melfi

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

This essay picks up a few threads in the ongoing debate on national identity in Italy. Immigration and the intertwining of cultures locally have stretched the contours of the nation state to a breaking point. As a result, the social self has become a sharply contested terrain between those who want to install a symbolic electronic fence around an imagined fatherland and those who want a more inclusive nation at home in a global world. After discussing the views of Amin Maalouf (2000), Alessandro Dal Lago (2009), Abdelmalek Sayad (1999) and Patrick Manning (2005) on national identity and migration in …

More Than A Tribesman: The New African Diasporan Identity, Stephen M. Magu

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

Current global levels of immigration stand at about 300 million persons; of these, IFAD estimates that 30 million Africans are in the Diaspora. The contributions of diasporic Africans to their communities and to the cultural experiences of the United States are multimodal. To their domiciles, they contribute economically, empowering their families to become more active and less dependent on the state, while transmitting ideas about democracy and better government. At the same time, they contribute to their adopted homelands through social and cultural activities, cultural festivals and other indicators of cultural connectedness to their motherlands. The African diaspora of necessity …

Daily Border Crossings: Negotiations Of Gender, Body And Subjectivity In The Lives Of Women Workers In Urban Malls., Rachana Johri Dr., Krishna Menon Dr.

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

The last two decades have seen the emergence of not just new markets but new market spaces that provide a visual experience of products and persons that closely approximates the field set up by the global media. Malls represent the concrete representations of unabashed celebration and acknowledgment of desire. Malls are one of the spaces that shape everyday lives suggesting the rightfulness of fulfilling sexual, cultural, social and gastronomic desires. One ‘category’ of persons presumably shaped by these spaces are those who work in them. Our concern is particularly with the negotiation of body and subjectivity as women travel daily, …

Table Of Contents

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

No abstract provided.

Introduction, Antonio Medina-Rivera, Lee F. Wilberschied Ph.D.

Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions

This introduction precedes the initial issue of the journal Cultural Encounters, Conflicts, and Resolutions.

Ça Commence Aujourd' Hui, Être Et Avoir Et Entre Les Murs: Une Vision Diffractée De L'École Républicaine Française, Annie Jouan-Westlund

World Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Faculty Publications

The essay is a detailed cinematic and cultural analysis of Ça commence aujourd'hui by Bertrand Tavernier (1999), Être et Avoir by Nicolas Philibert (2003) and Entre les Murs by Laurent Cantet (2008). It contrasts the cinematic depictions of three French schools in rural, urban, and suburban France. Through a comparison of locations, pedagogy, and student expectation, the essay shows a contrasted and diffracted vision of the French educational system portrayed in the films. In the context of school reforms debated in France, the essay points out the variety and complexity of different schools visualized through the cinematic lens, and it …

Parish, James Heaphey

Cleveland Memory

Memoir by James Heaphey, recalling growing in Cleveland, Ohio during the Great Depression.

Book Review: Authentic New Orleans: Tourism, Culture, And Race In The Big Easy, J. Mark Souther

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Making The "Birthplace Of Jazz": Tourism And Musical Heritage Marketing In New Orleans, J. Souther

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.