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Highlighting LGBTQ+ International Students Activism via Participatory Theatre
No full textThis research explores the political activism of LGBTQ+ international students (LGBTQ+ IS) in the Greater Toronto Area in Canada. Building on critical scholarship in research with international students and drawing from queer, feminist, and decolonial frameworks, the study aims to create a space for collective voices and respond to the current political climate of crackdowns on free speech and rising anti-immigrant and anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments. The study employs participatory theatre to understand LGBTQ+ IS’s activist practices in relation to their intersecting identities. The production may contribute to raising public awareness about the challenges faced by these students and their leadership in broader student movements. The expected findings may inform policies at various levels, promoting justice-oriented approaches to working with international students
Alternative Multilingual Paradigms Using Translanguaging: Decolonizing Strategies for Blacks and Indigenous Literacies in the Global South
No full textAn Autoethnographic Study: Perspectives and Insights of a Cross-cultural Educator on Curriculum and Pedagogical Variation in Internationalization of Higher Education
No full textThis auto-ethnographic inquiry utilizes autobiographical narrative to delve into my experiences and narratives as a cross-cultural educator simultaneously teaching at a Chinese and Canadian university. The aim is to ponder the interconnections, differences, and challenges within formal cross-cultural curriculum design and pedagogy, informal curriculum, and hidden curriculum and engage with academic environments and broader communities. Specifically, the study will examine the content, teaching methodologies, student learning, assessment practices, and the learning environment based on my experiences in an intercultural educational setting, as well as my coping strategies. The constructivist paradigm serves as the theoretical framework to explore my perceptions and understanding of these lived experiences. Data is drawn from my journals, memories, teaching materials, chats, emails, and memos written during my teaching experiences. Through my reflections, this study aims to reveal motivations, knowledge, and organizational discrepancies encountered in cross-cultural education as cross-cultural educators, proposing strategies to promote effective cross-cultural and cross-racial educational practices in the internationalization of higher education
An investigation of international students’ satisfaction with their university experience using an expectation confirmation theory lens
No full textThis study examines how various challenges and support systems influence international students’ satisfaction, as reflected in their intention to recommend their university. Using the Expectation Confirmation Theory (ECT), it examines whether students’ initial expectations moderate the relationships between challenges and satisfaction, and between institutional support and satisfaction. Analysis of survey data (N = 712) indicates that the majority of international students report satisfaction with their university experience. Ordinal logistic regression analyses reveal that perceived institutional support and higher initial expectations are associated with increased likelihood of recommending the university. Conversely, academic and discrimination challenges are associated with decreased likelihood of recommendation. Additionally, the negative association between language challenges and satisfaction is moderated by initial expectations, such that students with higher expectations are less likely to recommend their university if they encountered language difficulties. These findings highlight the critical role of institutional support in shaping students’ experiences. Policy implications include enhancing academic, language, and anti-discrimination support services to address barriers and improve the overall satisfaction and retention of international students
International education and spiritual emptiness A reflection from Europe
No full textThis essay is a revolt against a biased understanding called “internationalization” in education which grounds all historical, geographical, philosophical, ecological, and cultural distinctions in the world into a Platonic absolute. The key to this problem, this essay argues, lies in the drive to ontological, conceptual, or theoretical understanding in our approach to knowledge with its primacy in the Western thought. This essay calls into question this absolute sphere of influence, power and mastery enjoyed by the Western sciences, and a sense of space and authority it enjoys to make others impossible in the world. It does so by bringing different dimensions of learning and being found in the spiritual world
AI Governance: Overcoming Policy Barriers to Fairness and Privacy
No full textArtificial intelligence (“AI”) is increasingly influencing critical sectors such as housing and finance, and raising concerns about fairness, bias, and regulatory compliance. This Essay explores the policy considerations essential for operationalizing AI fairness, particularly in regulated industries. It examines the interplay between algorithmic transparency, privacy, and the responsible use of protected class data under existing legal frameworks such as the Equal Credit Opportunity Act (“ECOA”) and the Fair Housing Act (“FHA”). The Essay identifies key policy gaps and challenges in implementing fairness-enhancing techniques, offering actionable recommendations for policymakers, regulators, and AI practitioners. These recommendations propose a holistic framework that integrates technical safeguards with robust oversight to mitigate bias, foster accountability, and ensure public trust in AI-driven decision-making
Qualitatively different feedback effects in recurrent models of spoken word recognition
No full textWe explored the possibility that different loci of feedback in Elman networks (which have a limited memory \u27context\u27 based on previous hidden unit states) and Jordan networks (where context is based on previous output states) produce qualitatively different behaviors. These different kinds of context could theoretically yield qualitatively different outcomes, although we expected outcomes to be similar. We trained Elman networks and Jordan networks to activate the current word based on a sequence of phonemes. With a moderately sized lexicon (1000 words), training outcomes were highly similar, with high accuracy and patterns of activation and competition over time that resemble those found in studies with human participants. Both networks struggled to correctly handle embedded words and such pairs were the source of most errors. However, contrary to our expectations, there were also salient differences. Jordan networks required substantially smaller learning rates for successful learning, yet learned much faster than Elman networks. Most dramatically, Elman lexical activations were roughly related to the conditional probabilities of different words over time given phonemic inputs, though activations tended to decline at word offsets, while Jordan lexical activations approximated conditional probabilities very closely from early in training, and sustained target word activations even at the final input step. Tests for top-down influence using ambiguous and nonword inputs suggest that both models show high bottom-up priority but also that lexical knowledge strongly influences their interpretation of ambiguous inputs. We discuss the computational pressures that drive the observed differences and similarities between architectures
An Instruction Manipulation of a Set for Variability Task
No full textIn this study, we conducted an instructional manipulation of a reading-related task called the set for variability (SFV). This task measures phonological awareness and the degree to which students automatically access printed word forms by having them correct audibly mispronounced words. We hypothesized that children who received instructions that provided a reading context to the mispronunciations would perform better than the children who received instructions not related to reading. We also conducted an exploratory items analysis to see if performance would differ as a function of familiarity (operationalized as word frequency). Participants (n=34) were children who attend specialized schools for students with reading disabilities. They completed a battery of reading-related tasks, including SFV, administered in-person by researchers. About half of the students received the reading context instructions and the other half received standard instructions which did not mention reading. We found no significant differences in SFV performance between the two instruction groups. We also found no significant effect of word frequency on SFV performance. These findings indicate that providing a reading context in the instructions did not improve performance on this task and that performance is not influenced by word frequency. We present these findings in the context of prior related studies and discuss some implications and future directions
Reconstructing Art and Evidence: Forensic Architecture in Institutional Settings
No full textForensic Architecture (FA) is a London-based multidisciplinary research collective and human rights agency that uses digital modeling, architectural and spatial analysis, and open-sourced images to investigate and present visual evidence of human rights violations committed by state governments, militaries, and corporations. The team of architects, software developers, filmmakers, investigative journalists, scientists, and lawyers, collaborates with civil society groups, witnesses, and victims to establish a counternarrative in the service of human rights and social justice, exhibiting their investigations in institutional settings as varied as legal courts and parliamentary tribunals, citizen assemblies, mass media, universities, and art museums. My research focuses on FA’s critical reception within these institutional settings and questions how the evidentiary and aesthetic nature of such exhibitions impact the viewer’s experience, specifically within the space of the art institution. Comparing three FA exhibitions—The Long Duration of a Split-Second at the 2018 Turner Prize (London), Triple-Chaser at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s 2019 Biennial (New York City), and Forensic Architecture: Hacia una Estética Investigativa (2017) at the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (Mexico City)—I ask how the categories of “art” and “evidence” are upended, broadened, or otherwise transformed through the interaction between FA’s particular aesthetics and the museum spaces in which FA often exhibits projects. What are the social responsibilities of “art” in the face of human rights crises? How does the institutional setting impact the public’s aesthetic experience and understanding of human rights violations
Investigating Regulation of Neutrophil-mediated Inflammation in Mycoplasma pneumoniae Infection
No full textNo vaccine exists for Mycoplasma pneumoniae (Mp) infections, largely due to the
gap in understanding in the virulence and immunopathogenesis of this bacterium.
We have recently demonstrated that neutrophils are maladaptive in the context of
Mp infection, and drive disease severity while also impairing bacterial clearance.
Furthermore, we observed that B cells play a regulatory role in limiting disease
severity by modulating neutrophilic inflammation. We investigated this
phenomenon further to elucidate the mechanisms by which B cells regulate
neutrophilic inflammation. We utilized a monoclonal antibody to deplete B cells
during Mp infection and found that B-cell-depleted mice had elevated neutrophil
numbers in the airways compared to B-cell-sufficient controls, indicating
exacerbated suppurative pneumonia. We phenotyped airway inflammation via
flow cytometry and found an accumulation of Fas+ neutrophils in the airways of B-
cell-depleted mice; a population absent in controls. We observed no differences in
other assessed death receptors (TNF-R1, TRAIL-R, and PD-1). These data indicate
that B cells may regulate neutrophilia via the Fas/FasL pathway. Indeed, using a
flow-cytometric based Annexin V assay, we found that greater than 70% of Fas-
expressing neutrophils in Mp infected mice are apoptotic – and a small population
of B-cells appear to provide the FasL ligand. Collectively, our data indicate that B-
cells ameliorate Mp-induced suppurative pneumonia by inducing neutrophil
apoptosis via the Fas/FasL pathway. We are currently further interrogating this
mechanism via RNAscope staining to identify spatial patterns of expression of Fas
and FasL in the lung parenchyma. Understanding this regulatory mechanism can
advance immunological research by further characterizing the function of
regulatory B cells in disease and may provide insight into regulation of neutrophils
during infection. By contributing to basic and applied immunology and
microbiology, our work has broad implications for both fields