fulbright Taiwan online journal

fulbright Taiwan online journal

Tag: Interview

Brian Skerratt: Orphans of the Earth: Ecological Crisis and Local Imagination in Contemporary Taiwanese Poetry

https://youtu.be/RkdFm9GMq4E   Lillygol Sedaghat documented Taiwan’s waste management system and innovations in plastics and electronics recycling through film and digital media. She hopes to inspire conscious consumerism – the realization that every choice we make affects the environment – and spark a global discussion on trash with the #MyWasteMyWay. Using music videos, info-graphics, and maps to promote environmental education, she aims to transform people’s perceptions of trash from something disposable to something valuable.  Although she began her research with limited vocabulary, she believed in the importance of using Chinese as the language of choice for her field work and worked hard to improve her Mandarin. While she is still working on finding her voice, she acknowledges that the journey is long, but definitely worth it. Lillygol Sedaghat is a multi-media environmental journalist and speaker focusing on the intersection among science, systems, and people. She is a 2017-18 Fulbright–National Geographic Digital Storyteller. She is an active contributor to National Geographic’s “Planet or Plastic?” global campaign. Lillygol has spoken at UN World Environment Day, Influence Nation Summit DC, and National Geographic on her research. She completed a B.A. in Political Economy from the University of California, Berkeley and was named 5 Under

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Lynn Nakazawa & Elie Yu: Teacher Training & Research with Fulbright Taiwan

Lynn Nakazawa and Elie Yu work within the ETA advisory team which provides training and advice to the English Teaching Assistants (ETAs) and Taiwan local English teachers (LETs). Through weekly reports, bi-weekly workshops, class observations, and annual ETA conference, the team provides agile response and thorough training to enhance teaching quality of ETAs and LETs. Lynn Nakazawa holds an M.S. degree from the University of Pennsylvania. Elie Yu holds an M.A. degree from School for International Training (SIT) Graduate Inst., Vermont. They are both in the field of Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, and were grantees of the “FSE English Teacher Training & Research Awards.”

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Fredy González: Oppose the Qing, Restore the Ming: The Hong Men Fraternal Organization’s Malleable Nationalism

What does “Oppose the Qing and Restore the Ming”” mean in the mid-twentieth century? Fredy González analyzes the slogan in the context of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-45) and the Cold War (1945-91) to understand the political philosophy of the Hong Men (Triad) organizations. Fredy González is an assistant professor of history at the University of Colorado Boulder. He is the author of Paisanos Chinos: Transpacific Politics among Chinese Immigrants in Mexico, published this year.

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Rose Doerfler: Microfluidic Devices for the Detection of Genetically Modified Foods

Genetically modified (GM) foods are a hot-button issue for activists in both Taiwan and the United States; however, accurate information about GM foods is often inaccessible. New diagnostic tools provide a solution. Ms. Doerfler’s research helps develop those tools. Rose Doerfler studied chemical engineering at the University of Notre Dame, focusing on tools for biomolecule detection. She spent the year working on a collaborative project with researchers at Yuan Ze University, building microfluidic devices to detect DNA sequences associated with genetically modified food crops.

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Pei-Lin Yu: Behavioral Ecology and the Evolution of Indigenous Taiwanese Farming

Modern Amis farmers retain traditional ecological knowledge of wild plants and ancient crops. This knowledge could boost the resiliency of Taiwan’s food systems in times of economic and climate change. Dr. Pei-Lin Yu, an Archaeology professor at Boise State University, has a Taiwanese father and an American mother. Dr. Yu has worked in public archaeology for 28 years and lived with hunter-gatherers in South America for 2 years. She is eager to explore Taiwan’s cultural diversity past and present.  

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Gina Elia: Shifting Concepts of Religion and Modernity in Republican-Era Chinese Literature

Gina Elia’s research focuses on the emergence of religious modernity during the Republican Era of the ROC. The literature of Bing Xin, Su Xuelin, and Su Dishan depicts characters who exhibit modern characteristics but traditional religious ideas. These authors believe that a religious mindset is necessary for a truly modern society, a distinctive approach to modernity. Gina Elia is a Ph.D. student in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations at the University of Pennsylvania and a Visiting Scholar at Academia Sinica for the 2016-2017 academic year.

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Kristina Chyn: Indirect Effects of Roads and Road Densities on Native Island Reptiles and Amphibians

Kristina Chyn reflected on her Fulbright research year on the ecological impacts of roads on Taiwan’s biodiversity –ecological modeling, data collection in Taiwan’s montane jungles, and preliminary results. Kristina Chyn is an Ecology & Evolutionary Biology PhD student at Texas A&M University and is hosted by the Taiwan Endemic Species Research Institute. Her intentions in Taiwan are to research ecological impacts of roads, but also connect with local ecologists and contribute to the protection of Taiwan’s ecological heritage.  

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Christine Norton: Cross-Cultural Learning & Outdoor Adventure Therapy

Dr. Norton provides an overview of her Fulbright Teaching project, “Cultural bridging through shared adventure,” as well as other Fulbright-related projects, and the resulting personal and professional outcomes. Christine Norton, LCSW, has a PhD in Social Work from Loyola University Chicago, a MA in Social Service Administration from the University of Chicago and a MS in Experiential Education from Minnesota State University. She is an Associate Professor at Texas State University, and a Fulbright Scholar at National Taiwan Normal University.  

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Barbara Reed: The Transformation of Buddhist Education in Taiwan

Since the 1990s, new and transformed Buddhist educational institutions have developed in Taiwan to meet the needs of a modern, globalized society. Dr. Barbara Reed devoted her Fulbright year in Taiwan to teaching and researching how these new colleges and universities develop different approaches to integrating Buddhist values into modern society. Barbara E. Reed is Professor of Religion and Asian Studies at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. This semester she is a Fulbright Senior Scholar at Dharma Drum Institute of Liberal Arts in Jinshan District. She is teaching a graduate course on “Comparative Scriptures” and researching Buddhist colleges and universities in Taiwan.  

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Research & Reflections

fulbright taiwan online journal