fulbright Taiwan online journal

fulbright Taiwan online journal

Month: November 2018

Looking at Modern Art in Cambridge and Around

This project, “Picturing Animals in Paris: Manet’s Bestiary and Naturalism” was conducted from August 2015 through July 2016, and made possible by the generous research grant from TUSA (Top Universities Strategic Alliance), Ministry of Education, of Taiwan, in association with Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies at Harvard University, as well as a partial grant from Fulbright Foundation. As a TUSA and Fulbright scholar affiliated to the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University, I have been able to expand the scope of my research in modern art and culture, as well as professional contact. This project investigates the connections in Manet’s animal subjects and contemporary naturalist observations. As planned, I study how Manet depicted dog breeds and postures, as well as cat theatrics, in relation to the identity of personages, within the context of France’s response to the new interest in biology during 1830-1880. Manet’s bestiary shall be compared to contemporary illustrations of La Fontaine’s fables, primarily the works of J.J. Grandville, Gustave Doré and Eugène Lambert. Beyond that, I probed into the understanding of East Asian art in Manet’s circle. The project seeks to explain how Manet reflected the changing relationship of humans and animals within

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Becoming an Insider: My Journey in Taiwan’s Social Welfare Movement

     This past year has been a whirlwind of changes for me. When I first landed in Taiwan, I only had a surface-level understanding of its people and culture. I had just finished a year-long program in China and was excited to experience something different. At the time, I had expected to enjoy my stay in Taiwan, but I did not expect it to dramatically alter my views about the world or my path in the future. Studying in Taiwan      At the beginning of my first semester at National Chengchi University (NCCU), I felt that the coursework was structured much differently from how I imagined a master’s program. The onus was on the students to push themselves with the content, and the professor did not explicitly put many requirements on the students.      Nonetheless, I found the classroom discussion to be incredibly fascinating and something that I would not have been able to find in many other programs. This was because the cohort was made up of students from all around the world. I was often the only American in the room, and thus, I heard many different perspectives. Moreover, my professors were often current or

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Michelle Phillips: Repairing (and Exploiting) the Underclass Image

Michelle Phillips spent her Fulbright year in Taiwan to research on the maid trade system and compares it with the one in Hong Kong. Because of her multilingual background, she can act as a bridge between employers and domestic workers. After trust was built with the domestic workers, she successfully interviewed over 150 people in total. Later, she will bring the experiences and observations from her research to propose changes in Taiwan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and the Philippines regarding better protections for migrant workers and their employers. Michelle Phillips is a 4th-year Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology at UC Berkeley. Her current research is focused on the intersection of business, politics and human rights, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region. She is focusing on questions ranging from the role of the state in international trade and migration, the effectiveness of certain policies as well as their unintended consequences, and the impact of business interests on the implementation and consistency of government intervention. In an increasingly interconnected global economy, she believes it is crucial to understand what motivates the people behind these institutions, as well as the de facto impact of strategies they implement.  

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Andrew Paulsen: Implementing Eastern Pedagogical Approaches to Teaching Math in Urban High Schools

Paulsen received Fulbright ‘Distinguished Awards in Teaching’ Scholar to research eastern mathematics pedagogy. Conducting most of his research on hundreds of classroom observations throughout Taiwan. Including Taiwanese teaching techniques, education policy, and culture, and offered recommendations on how to implement these ideas in urban schools throughout the United States. Andrew Paulsen is currently the Lead Math Teacher and an Instruction Coach at East Side High School, the largest comprehensive high school in Newark, New Jersey. Originally from Levittown, New York, Andrew received his B.A. from Marist College, his Master is in educational leadership, management, & policy from Seton Hall University, and his Ed.M. in public school leadership from Columbia University’s Teachers College.  

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Pei-Fen Chang: Effectiveness of the Occupation-Based Cultural Heritage Intervention

With the accelerating of an aging society, more and more people experience relocation in their late life. Dr. Pei-Fan Chang examined occupation-based cultural heritage intervention techniques for older adults who experienced recent relocation to see whether the occupational adaptation improves their quality of life. Pei-Fan Chang is an associate professor in the school of Occupational Therapy at Texas Woman’s University. Her host institution in Taiwan is the department of occupational therapy and the Institute of behavioral science at Chang Gung University.  

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Research & Reflections

fulbright taiwan online journal