Tom F. Wright's Transatlantic Rhetoric as an American Studies Teaching Resource

2021 ◽  
Vol 55 (4) ◽  
pp. 984-989
Author(s):  
SARAH RUFFING ROBBINS
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
American Revolution ◽  
Victorian Literature ◽  
American Studies ◽  
Late Summer ◽  
Transatlantic Literature ◽  
Teaching Resource ◽  
Global Brand ◽  
Graduate Seminar ◽  
Writing Major

I first read Tom F. Wright's Transatlantic Rhetoric: Speeches from the American Revolution to the Suffragettes in late summer 2020, while drafting the syllabus for a new undergraduate rhetoric course in my university's Writing major. I proposed “Writing across Cultural Differences” several years ago and had been waiting eagerly to teach it, only to find myself delivering the inaugural version over Zoom during the coronavirus pandemic. As I write this essay in December 2020, I am in the midst of syllabus-building email exchanges with a now-frequent teaching partner (Victorian literature specialist Linda Hughes), as we prepare to offer a graduate seminar in nineteenth-century transatlantic literature for the fourth time. (Our first foray into collaborative transatlanticism was in 2010.) While we plan for the upcoming class (also – sigh – being taught over Zoom), I am rereading Wright's book, this time focussed more on the “transatlantic” side of his title. A generative resource for my teaching in both these classes, Transatlantic Rhetoric enacts a global brand of American studies, modeling content and methodologies crucial to the field today. To illustrate, I will revisit some ways in which Wright's anthology is informing my pedagogy in this challenging COVID-shaped year.

scholarly journals Introduction

2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-327
Author(s):  
Joseph M. Pierce ◽  
María Amelia Viteri ◽  
Diego Falconí Trávez ◽  
Salvador Vidal-Ortiz ◽  
Lourdes Martínez-Echazábal
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Knowledge Production ◽  
Working Group ◽  
American Studies ◽  
The United States ◽  
Gender And Sexuality ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Gender And Sexuality Studies ◽  
Hemispheric American Studies

Abstract This special issue questions translation and its politics of (in)visibilizing certain bodies and geographies, and sheds light on queer and cuir histories that have confronted the imperial gaze, or that remain untranslatable. Part of a larger scholarly and activist project of the Feminist and Cuir/Queer Américas Working Group, the special issue situates the relationships across linguistic and cultural differences as central to a hemispheric queer/cuir dialogue. We have assembled contributions with activists, scholars, and artists working through queer and cuir studies, gender and sexuality studies, intersectional feminisms, decolonial approaches, migration studies, and hemispheric American studies. Published across three journals, GLQ in the United States, Periódicus in Brazil, and El lugar sin límites in Argentina, this special issue homes in on the production, circulation, and transformation of knowledge, and on how knowledge production relates to cultural, disciplinary, or market-based logics.

scholarly journals Teaching Politeness Strategies

2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 126-136
Author(s):  
Irina Petrovska
Keyword(s):  
Second Language ◽  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Hospitality Industry ◽  
Classroom Interaction ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Teaching Resource ◽  
Cross Cultural Differences ◽  
Subject Specific ◽  
Politeness Strategies

This paper deals with the politeness strategies potential in subject specific fields and highlights the role of learning politeness strategies as a powerful cognitive tool fundamental to further enhancing the second language learner’s ability to cope with this specialized verbal characteristic in hospitality industry discourse. The paper explores the close interplay between social (extra-linguistic) and structural (linguistic) factors shaping the linguistic idiosyncrasies of English and Macedonian politeness strategies in hospitality industry discourse. It has been argued that the awareness of cross-cultural differences concerning politeness strategies may be exploited as a valuable teaching resource for classroom interaction.

Introduction

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takeyuki Tsuda
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Ethnic Minorities ◽  
Asian American ◽  
Research Methodology ◽  
American Studies ◽  
Theoretical Background ◽  
Relative Distance ◽  
Japanese Americans ◽  
Asian American Studies ◽  
Ethnic Heritage

This introduction provides theoretical background for understanding ethnic heritage differences among different generations of Japanese Americans. It also addresses the importance of ethnic heritage for Asian American studies, as well as research on ethnic minorities, immigrants, and diasporas. The chapter interrogates the concept of generations and explores how ethnic heritage is relevant to analyses of homeland, assimilation, transnationalism, racialization, and multiculturalism. The research methodology section discusses the author’s fieldwork as a “native anthropologist” and argues that both native and non-native anthropologists are partial outsiders who are positioned at a relative distance from those they study in the field. Ultimately, the cultural differences anthropologists experience with “natives” are productive for fieldwork and essential for anthropological knowledge.

Peer Acceptance and Friendship Patterns among Italian Schoolchildren within a Cross-cultural Perspective

1997 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grazia Attili ◽  
Patrizia Vermigli ◽  
Barry H. Schneider
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Peer Relations ◽  
American Studies ◽  
Peer Acceptance ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
The Other ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
Cross Cultural Differences ◽  
Sociometric Choice ◽  
Peer Nominations

Sociometric choice nominations, as well as peer nominations for friendship, aggression, isolation, and prosocial behaviour, were administered to middle class Italian primary school youngsters. Socially rejected children were found to be more aggressive, more withdrawn, and less prosocial than members of the other social status categories, and to have fewer friends. The proportions of subjects in the neglected and controversial categories were very low, although the proportions of rejected and popular children were similar to those found in North American studies. These findings are discussed within the framework of cross-cultural differences in children’s peer relations.

scholarly journals Time to deconstruct the concepts of “foreplay” and “intercourse”: the real structure of human sexual encounters

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-64
Author(s):  
Julian Monge-Nájera ◽  
Mariana Rodriguez ◽  
Maria Isabel Gonzalez
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Latin American ◽  
American Studies ◽  
Sexual Activities ◽  
Video Recordings ◽  
Manual Stimulation ◽  
Self Reports ◽  
Complex Variety ◽  
The Usa ◽  
Stimulation Of

  Historically, the study of sexual behavior has been affect­ed by diffuse concepts such as foreplay and coitus; the unreliability of self reports; and Eurocentrism. Here we deal with those problems and present data on frequency of sexual positions and stopwatch measure­ments of foreplay activities from direct observation of video recordings by 604 heterosexual Latin American couples.The most frequent posi­tions were “woman on her hands and knees”; “woman on bed with man standing”, and “woman sitting on man”. The most frequent activities were fellatio; manual stimulation of the penis; and manual stimulation of the vulva. The longest mean durations of particular activities were 67 seconds for coitus, 37 s for fellatio and 34 s for petting. These frequency results differ from reports from the USA, possibly because of cultural differences but more probably because our results are based on what the couples actually do (rather on what they report, as in the American studies). Previous studies have merged a complex variety of sexual activities into a single imprecise category called “foreplay” and ours seems to be the first study to “deconstruct” foreplay into its individual components, and to use objective measurements of their duration

The Motive for Distinctiveness: A Universal, but Flexible Human Need

2009 ◽  
pp. 490-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vivian L. Vignoles
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
North American ◽  
American Studies ◽  
Perceived Value ◽  
Self Esteem ◽  
Need For Uniqueness ◽  
Human Need ◽  
Identity Motives ◽  
The Relationship

Existential and evolutionary reasoning converge to suggest that humans in all historical and cultural settings will have an enduring and universal need to distinguish themselves from others and their ingroups from outgroups. European and North American studies suggest that people use a variety of positive and negative strategies to maintain their distinctiveness and that these strategies tend to be intensified when distinctiveness is threatened or undermined. Yet, there also appear to be significant individual and cultural differences in distinctiveness seeking, as evidenced by “need for uniqueness” measures; an important question is to what extent these measures capture true variation in the strength of the underlying need for distinctiveness, as opposed to variation in the perceived value of particular forms of distinctiveness or in the particular ways in which feelings of distinctiveness can be achieved. Research suggests that distinctiveness seeking is not reducible to the effects of other identity motives, such as self-esteem concerns; however, the relationship between motives for distinctiveness and belonging is an important avenue for further research. Given that distinctiveness seeking appears to be a fundamental human need, positive psychologists should focus on trying to channel the effects of this motive into more productive routes (e.g., creativity) rather than harmful ones (e.g., discrimination against outgroups). To the extent that benign and beneficial forms of distinctiveness seeking are available, valued, and encouraged in society, more harmful responses potentially may be reduced.

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