Cross-Cultural Blog

This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Fall 2008 Cultural Interfaces class. For more about this assignment, click here. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.

My cousin is very lucky; he is 21 years old and currently finishing a sentence of 5 years at a state prison. As this in itself is not the most conventional depiction we make of luck, we should consider why indeed he is fortunate. Born into a rather poor, gang populated neighborhood located in the heart of Los Angeles, he was drawn to this gangster lifestyle after he became a relative academic failure and lacked family support—he was an only child raised by a mother who worked more than the standard 9-to-5. Participating in crime, associating with drugs, engaging in illegal ways of making money, he was quick to form relationships with correctional facilities starting at age 16. Being in and out of jail for several years, however, he developed a unique interpretation about a very compelling issue facing the Los Angeles area.
And it was through mentioning this brief summary of his gang involvement—along with many of the stereotypes we hear from the media as well as contemporary society—that sparked our conversation over the phone. He was restricted to only 10 minutes, but this short interview was critical to bringing a primary resource to my research topic that focuses on gang culture, and more specifically highlights how it is only through a shift in paradigms that we may understand the struggles of this subculture in order to progress in the fight against it. To do this, I plan to emphasize the incentives for joining a gang, the violence that affects many, what we may be able to do to hinder its advancement, and I might even narrow my scope from gangs in L.A. to Latino/Hispanic gangs in L.A. Considering that my cousin is indeed Hispanic, one thing he said that stood out to me was that a main belief of “my crew was you either kill, or let yourself be killed. They didn’t care what color I was and I didn’t care what color they were, I knew they would shoot me just as fast as I would shoot them.” Thus, surprisingly, he at times prefers to be “locked up because at least I don’t have to worry about being killed everyday on the streets. Yea we still fight in here like everyday but there are no real guns so it’s not as bad,” he states. This comment was interesting to me, as I did not normally think of prison as a safe haven, and this is why I found this interview particularly useful—it gave me a unique unexpected sense of knowledge that I can now integrate into my final project.

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This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Fall 2008 Cultural Interfaces class. For more about this assignment, click here. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.

My research subject focuses on Stanford baseball players and how they fare during professional baseball and after their baseball days end. My research will focus more on interviews than actual academic resources. The reason for this includes the amount of contacts I have in both Stanford and professional baseball. Secondly, there are not many books written or research done on such a specific subject. I will use articles and statistics for general case facts but a majority of my argument lays in the experiences others and myself. In this blog, I will focus on one interview in particular.

Continue reading "Stanford baseball" »

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This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Fall 2008 Cultural Interfaces class. For more about this assignment, click here. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.

Perhaps one of the most well-kept secrets from the mainstream western world is the daily, yes DAILY, plight of Christians in China. Since Mao Zedong instituted the People's Republic of China in 1948, the nation has adhered to an atheistic religious policy. As a result, those who profess any type of faith, Christian or not, have been subject to harsh treatment and heinous torture. Such an aggressive response is taken by the government because they view any form of faith as a threat, possibly galvanizing individuals under a creed different from the one promoted by the government.

Continue reading "Christian Persecution in China...the cause and the effect." »

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This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Fall 2008 Cultural Interfaces class. For more about this assignment, click here. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.

It goes without saying that the digital age is in full effect right now. Everything important, or so it seems, either is dominated by or comprised of digital/electronic counterparts. For example, college students have the option to submit their applications online or by mail. Voters can use touch screens or punch ballots, and the list continues. However, when talking about fantasy football, a game designed by Wilfred Winkenbach in 1962 with no digital aspect whatsoever, any subtle changes to the game are worth noting, especially when it is transformed into an online phenomenon. One of the most interesting section of information I have discovered thus far comes from Gerhard Falk's "Football and American Identity". Although fantasy football itself does not dominate the book (actual American Football does), Falk does a great job of linking his ideas on fantasy football to his larger message. As I perused the text looking for helpful information, something caught my eye. Falk, in describing how fantasy football went from an annoying "fill in and mail your picks" nuisance to a phenomenon online, also mentions that certain schools in Sacramento are trying to force fantasy football into their curriculums. Their reasoning, he explains, is that it could serve as motivation, especially when paired with mathematics courses.
Not only was this a complete surprise, but it also did not seem like the most beneficial idea, especially with respect to practical student learning. Nonetheless, for the scope of this research paper, it serves as fodder. Considering the central argument (of both my paper and this class) on identity formation via digital media, the fusion of school and digital fantasy football (at least the mere thought of it) is extremely relevant. Consider a classroom environment where students are actively utilizing the system of fantasy football (scores, strategies, forecasts) in math classes to help themselves along. It goes without saying that the power of fantasy football lies within its ability to transform a once boring math class into something that students might get excited about. So maybe attendance in certain classes might increase. However, my initial stance still applies. Higher level math classes, successful ones at least, simply do not have room for supplemental classroom activities.

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This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Fall 2008 Cultural Interfaces class. For more about this assignment, click here. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.

When I joined the CCR PWR2 this Fall, I was incredibly excited--I would finally get the opportunity to write, research, and speak about Soompi, the online forum that changed my life.

This is not to say that my other two research topic choices, Korean Hip Hop and Japanese Rock Culture were just for show; I simply would have found a way to include Soompi as a significant part of those research arguments as well ;)

Continue reading "My Place in CCR" »

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This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Fall 2008 Cultural Interfaces class. For more about this assignment, click here. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.

My project deals with exploring the realm of personal blogs. I am hoping to find people’s reasoning for posting diaries online for faceless strangers to read, as well as the allure of reading these posts.
I decided that the best way to research this topic is to explore multiple personal blogs, instead of focusing on academic research. With this method of research, I have created my own classifications of personal blogs, identifying the intended purpose of the blog through the writer’s rhetoric and recurring themes. For example, I have found that some personal diary blogs seem to act as a kind of therapy for the writer. Why they post it online instead of saving files to their computer or writing in a more traditional diary I have not yet determined. Perhaps the reasoning is simply the influence of technology. On the other hand there are personal diary blogs that seem to be seeking attention. The recurring pathos in these blogs is the first sign, along with encouragement for feedback and continued attempts at wit and humor. Other types of personal blogs include philosophical reflection, and what I classify as a “play-by-play” blog: a person who updates their blog constantly with minute details of their day, to the point where the postings seem obsessive compulsive.
I am planning on tracking 5 blogs within in each of my classifications. I will then be able to compare similar blogs with each other, as well as cross-analyze the blogs for differences in themes, rhetoric, and purpose. Ultimately I hope to be able to comment on the rationality surrounding personal diary blogs, and identify the motives behind the different categories of these bloggers.
The best part of this project is the entertainment. Each day I follow along with a stranger’s life, and quite often their life is silly, preposterous, ridiculous, or just fun to follow. Here are a few examples:

“The Gay Banker”- A homosexual investment banker in London, detailing the drama of his love life. http://gaybanker.blogspot.com/

“Tumadora”- A borderline play-by-play blogger, whose posts have no real value other than that she seems to enjoy rambling about senseless occurrences in her life. http://tumadora.info/?cat=3

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This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Fall 2008 Cultural Interfaces class. For more about this assignment, click here. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.

My research focuses on the role that PC bangs have played in Korean culture. PC bang is the Korean term for PC room. These numerous establishments are a hybrid between Internet Café and videogame arcade. Since their introduction in 1998, PC bangs have become the hub of Korean online gaming. Offering popular titles such as Starcraft, WarCraft and Diablo II, PC bangs have become an important part of leisure for youth in South Korea. The social aspects of PC bangs have been thoroughly analyzed. The economic impacts that PC bangs has had, however, has long been overlooked. In an article from the Journal of Education, Community, and Values, Byungho Park and Thom Gillespie of Indiana University present PC bangs as a business that has deep ties with the gaming industry in Korea.
Park and Gillespie first relate the rise of the PC bang to the expansion of the online gaming industry. Piracy had been a huge problem in South Korea and the lack of copyright laws discouraged software companies to establish businesses in the country. PC bangs provided these gaming software developers with a market. Because PC bangs were legal businesses, they could not use pirated material and thus were forced to purchase games for their computers. The success of Starcraft in South Korea helped to cement the profitability of PC bangs, as well as that of the software market in Korea. According to Park and Gillespie, “Just after one year since its introduction, PC-bangs became the center of the Korean software market, an inevitable change considering the PC-bangs purchase six million dollars worth of game software every month.” Once it found a market, the gaming industry then began to diversify its products offered in PC bangs to include online chatting. This was aimed at the female adolescents, “who were stereotypically thought to be unfriendly with computers,” but were more interested in socializing.
In this way, the gaming industry and the PC bangs worked together to target customers from ranging demographics. This is important to my topic because this helps to explain why PC bangs have such a widespread influence on Korean culture. From the journal, it would seem as if the gaming industry played a pivotal role in promoting PC bangs, which in turn, enhanced the gaming industry.

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This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Fall 2008 Cultural Interfaces class. For more about this assignment, click here. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.

So, this is the first blog i have ever written and I'm thinking ill talk about the topic i chose to research and how my actual research is coming along. I chose to do my research paper on a large, but not very well-known group in America: Gun owners. There are many different types of people who own firearms and many different reasons they have for owning them. I decided to write about this group of people because i realized certain stereotypes surround them that are untrue and i thought it would be good to show the many different people that actually make up this demographic.

Continue reading "First Blog Ever" »

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This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Fall 2008 Cultural Interfaces class. For more about this assignment, click here. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.

These days, “social entrepreneurship” is one of many new buzzphrases entering our lives, especially for those of us living near Silicon Valley. Companies like Grameenphone and Kiva have been praised for the impact they’ve had in developing countries, one of which is Vietnam. This past week, I have been exploring both journal articles and books relevant to my study of Vietnamese women entrepreneurs. The question I’m trying to address is how these women, specifically impoverished women, are leveraging emerging technologies and/or social entrepreneurship companies to help themselves and their families. The books I’ve explored give an overview on women’s issues in Vietnam, but I’ve had less success finding articles and books that focus specifically on women entrepreneurs in Vietnam – the one gem I’ve found is a collection of interviews, “Voices of Vietnamese Women Entrepreneurs.” The focus is on existing entrepreneurs and their legal, financial and societal hurdles overcome thus far and that still remain. It will be an excellent primary source, but I am also looking for materials about how future entrepreneurs can be enabled.

Continue reading "The Social Entrepreneurship Kool-Aid?" »

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This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Fall 2008 Cultural Interfaces class. For more about this assignment, click here. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.

My research project, as of now, has no true thesis. But the overall research project is geared towards breaking down and analyzing the structure, interaction and overall presence of the Ethnically Themed Dormitories at Stanford University. I want to mainly focus on the interactions between Muwekma-Tah-Ruk (the Native American Indian Theme Dorm) and Casa Zapata (the Latino/Chicano Theme Dorm). I will mainly generate research by collecting interviews.

In all honesty, I haven't started to research my project thoroughly. I have found a mild amount of primary sources, but I haven't gotten into the meat of the research yet. However, an interesting source fell right into my lap, and I didn't even realize it. Well, until now.

Continue reading "Sunrise Celebration" »

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This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Fall 2008 Cultural Interfaces class. For more about this assignment, click here. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.

I will consider my first week of research for my project on the cyber subculture of music pirating in my Cross-Cultural Rhetoric class at Stanford University a success. I went to the library and came away with books; I searched in online databases and discovered scholarly articles; I searched on Google and found the federal websites I had hoped for. The most interesting aspect of my research, though, has been my most unconventional: my blog activity. I created an account on AlbumHunt.com, a music directory website used by the 2008 pirate-types (not the same as your old school Napster or Kazaa users). Along with music download links, the site also has Forum and Community pages for its users. The forum topics range from new music to politics to relationships to ethics. In fact, I began to participate in a thread called “Is immorality something we learned?” A user named dreamz began the thread by stating: “We as humans have evolved. We've been changing since before Roman times. As times go on society changes. Do you believe that our morals have changed with time?” Before I joined the thread, the discussion ranged from the innate evilness of humanity because of Eve’s actions in Genesis to the influence of graphic music and video games.

Continue reading "My First Forum" »

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This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Fall 2008 Cultural Interfaces class. For more about this assignment, click here. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.

I’m not usually one to bandy the phrase “paradigm shift” around, but it really suits the early stages of my research this quarter. Prior to PWR 2, it was always the same deal: decide my topic on a hunch, and find the substantiating research later. Of course, the step that came in-between those two was “cross fingers tightly,” and I consider myself lucky that the routine always panned out. This time, though, I can truly say guided my topic decision, and not just personal experience. Not a surprise, considering the here-and-new nature of this PWR course. Chances have never been greater that I’d find something relevant in my normal routine, and that’s the story behind my first source. Who knows, I may have even put Cultural Interfaces at the top of my preference list with this New York Times article in mind.

The story was written by Clive Thompson, and focuses on one or two specific tools offered on Facebook—status updates, and pictures. The author then describes the pattern of user behavior associated with these features. By article’s end, he even pinpoints and labels what he views as the psychological phenomenon underlying this behavior.

Continue reading "My Very First Source: An Inspiring Read" »

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This entry was written in response to the Research Blogging Assignment for Stanford's Fall 2008 Cultural Interfaces class. For more about this assignment, click here. You can leave a comment on this post by clicking on the "comment" link below.

Just this past year when my age-old parents decided to convert our home to completely solar powered energy it struck me that if they are concerned with saving energy than things must really be getting serious where our environment is concerned. When I got back on campus this year, the posters and signs that decorate White Plaza and every bathroom stall became more noticeable to me and I became curious as to why Stanford is making such a strong effort to “go green”. I’ve always been one to turn of the lights and make sure my water bottles go into the recycling bin, but as I research further and am learning more about Stanford’s sustainability efforts I find myself asking why is this so important now but at the same time I want to do more…

Continue reading "The Facts or Just a Fad? Going Green at Stanford University" »

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This week, my students begin their research blogging assignment, which asks them to post a blog entry that focuses on their assessment of a specific source, interview, survey results, or even their own developing argument as part of their research process. All the student projects are focused on a particular culture or subculture as their starting point; however, from past experience, I know that they will evolve into very sharp, focused arguments over the next few weeks. Here's what you can look forward to reading over the next few weeks:

Week of Oct. 6th:
Green culture/environmentalism
Facebook/ social networking sites

Week of Oct. 13th:
Ethnic-theme dorms on Stanford campus (where students opt to leave with people of the same cultural background/race)
Stereotypes of gun owners in the US
Women entrepreneurs in Vietnams and gender ideology
Cyber Music Pirates (illegal music sharing online)

Week of Oct 20th:
Blogging culture
Online communities as emerging subcultures
Online information and social equality
Internet addiction and the PC Bangs (internet cafes) of South Korea

Week of Oct 27th:
Persecution of Christians in China
Online fan culture: fantasy football
American baseball - materialism vs recreation
L.A. Gang culture

We invite your comments or responses, particularly on those topics that interest you or intersect with research of your own.

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This entry is part of a research project for Cultural Interfaces and Cross-Cultural Rhetoric at Stanford University. For more about this assignment and the class projects go here: http://www.stanford.edu/group/ccr/blog/2008/04/cultural_interfaces_research_p.htm.

Over Spring Break I did not travel back home but instead stayed on the Stanford campus to do research. It was pretty quiet at night with of the students gone. I found myself needing a rest from studying, so I went online and surfed the Internet. I came upon MTV’s website. Laguna Beach, I saw, had videos online. Without any DVDs or a TV nearby I thought about watching an episode or two. This was, after all, a popular show I had heard about. Many of my high school friends watched it. In fact, they had entire parties where they would come to together to watch the show. What was all the hype? I decided to watch an episode.

Continue reading "My first encounter with Laguna Beach" »

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This entry is part of a research project for Cultural Interfaces and Cross-Cultural Rhetoric at Stanford University. For more about this assignment and the class projects, click here.

From Richard Twiss, a Native-American Christian:

“So one afternoon I asked one of the pastoral leaders how I was supposed to relate to my Native culture as a Christian. I distinctly remembering him opening the Bible he was carrying and reading from Galations 3:28… After reading the passage, this pastoral leader commented on how cultures should all blend together for us as Christians. The then concluded, “So, Richard, don’t worry about being Indian; just be like us” (Twiss, 34).

Many of you heard this quote during my research-in-progress presentation, and at that time, I explained that cultural tensions inside of a church setting often are amplified because arguments over culture “quickly become arguments about God” (Christerson 174). Since giving my research-in-progress presentation, I have been even more intrigued by ideas that relate to this notion of congregational settings intensifying cultural disagreements.

One aspect of this tension that many of my sources seem to avoid talking about is how Christian morals inherently play an effect on how members of the church interact with cultures. For example, Christian teachings almost always teach that if you are insulted, you should turn the other cheek and refrain from retaliation. When cultural tensions occur in an atmosphere that extremely encourages this type of behavior, dialogue that may be necessary for reconciliation can be suppressed. Minorities may often feel a push toward keeping quiet if they are offended by what others think about their unique cultural/religious practices. I strongly feel that this is part of the reason why there are so few multiracial churches; the religious atmosphere is not an inviting place to those who have been historically wronged and may necessarily need to have some sort of reconciliatory dialogue. As mentioned before, very few of my sources address this concern, and if it something that I will devote time to in my paper, I will need to do some primary research; my arguments will not be able to derive authority from the arguments of already established authors.

I do not know how much time I will devote to this topic in my paper, but it is definitely something that I found interesting and a little unsettling. Also, I think that it would be very wise to keep this notion in mind as I continue to do research, since it may be one of the main reasons that segregation in the church exists in the first place.

-Steven Puente

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This entry is part of a research project for Cultural Interfaces and Cross-Cultural Rhetoric at Stanford University. For more about this assignment and the class projects, click here.

Online dating is an incredible presence in our society. In 2006, it was reported that 74 percent of single Americans looking for partners had used the Internet in an attempt to find romance (Whitty 1). Internet users are flocking to online dating websites, such as eHarmony, Match.com, and True, which all advertise the ease with which they can match users with compatible and fate-prescribed partners. We all want to feel loved and accepted by somebody, as well as confident that the ways we are achieving this goal will work. This need is wisely taken advantage of in marketing strategies for online dating websites – these websites are, after all, businesses first and foremost.

Continue reading "The "Scientific Validity" of Online Dating" »

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This entry is part of a research project for Cultural Interfaces and Cross-Cultural Rhetoric at Stanford University. For more about this assignment and the class projects, click here.

My research is on evangelical feminism as part of the Cross Cultural Rhetoric project for my PWR2 class. In particular my research focuses on how the unique characteristics of Christian evangelicalism and the American social landscape of the last half century have interacted favorably to allow evangelical feminism to thrive despite the antagonism between feminism and evangelicalism.

I can’t be a feminist!
“I am a firm believer in the inerrancy of the bible and the need for personal salvation but I disagree wholeheartedly with the socio-political leanings that the term evangelical has come to represent. Nonetheless, I would feel more comfortable calling myself evangelical than feminist!”

This is a quote from TK, a male Stanford sophomore explaining his stance on evangelical feminism. The term feminist has, for a long time, been a charged one that many Americans feel uncomfortable associating themselves with. When asked why only five people, only one of them male, out of the ninety residents of a Stanford dorm self-identified as “feminist” one female junior responded “Maybe they agreed with the philosophy but didn't want to be associated with the kill-all-men-and-have-babies-through-artificial-insemination kind.”

Continue reading "To be feminist or not to be evangelical – that is the questions." »

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This entry is part of a research project for Cultural Interfaces and Cross-Cultural Rhetoric at Stanford University. For more about this assignment and the class projects, click here.

Undergraduates who plan to pursue careers in public service or the nonprofit sector should gain deep understanding of the people they are going to serve. I am conducting a research project for the Cultural Interfaces class on how undergraduates can take advantage of service opportunities to learn about people’s specific culture and context.

Continue reading "Cultural Understanding for Effective Service" »

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This entry is part of a research project for Cultural Interfaces and Cross-Cultural Rhetoric at Stanford University. For more about this assignment and the class projects, click here.

A fairly new word, “hapa” has come to refer to people who are part Asian, rather than just half Hawaiian-half foreigner. Documenting the surging popularity of this word, Professor Elam, from the Comparative Studies on Race and Ethnicity Department, showed me a comprehensive source that documents the pride that people take in calling themselves “hapa.” This unique book, Part Asian, 100% Hapa by Kip Fulbeck, which is really more of a creative expression of the hapa culture, has helped solidify my argument that the word “hapa” should be used by anyone who wishes to use it. This 7x7 book features a collection of over 100 people, stripped of any jewelry, excess makeup, or particular expression, whose portraits occupy the right hand page. These portraits are accompanied by a self reflection page on the left, in which the individual was free to express himself or herself through text, drawings, scribbles, or any other self-representation. Two quotes that are particularly representative are “I’m what’s on your spoon when you pull it out of the melting pot!” and “What am I? Shouldn’t you be asking my name first?” And inconspicuously tucked away in the left-hand corner, the person’s ethnicities were listed, with percentages notably absent.

Continue reading "The Blossoming "Hapa" Culture in America" »

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This entry is part of a research project for Cultural Interfaces and Cross-Cultural Rhetoric at Stanford University. For more about this assignment and the class projects, click here.

Imagine yourself going to school full-time, participating in extracurricular activities, and working at the retail store right off campus. One morning, you wake up with a hacking cough, sharp pains in your chest when you take a breath, and a slight headache. You have two midterms to study for, a term paper to write and you have rehearsals for a musical that opens the following weekend. The last thing you have time for is to go to the doctor’s office. So you turn on your computer and log on to the World of Virtual Medicine.

The world of virtual medicine consists of hundreds of websites that allow visitors to learn more about illness and diseases, from experts and people who have first-hand experiences. There are three main types of forums: 1) forums that non-experts can post and comment; 2) forums where site visitors describe symptoms and a certified doctor respond with more information; and 3) a more interactive correspondence where the doctor and the patient uses a webcam and microphone to talk to each other. Though the third type of medical forum is rare, the first two are widely used.

Continue reading "The World of Virtual Medicine: the Development of Cyber Support Groups" »

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This entry is part of a research project for Cultural Interfaces and Cross-Cultural Rhetoric at Stanford University. For more about this assignment and the class projects, click here.

At Stanford there exists an incredibly cohesive Latino community, commonly referred to as La Comunidad. Last year during my freshman year, I lived in the Latino ethnic theme dorm called Casa Zapata, and for the very first time in my life I was a minority. Perhaps because of my outgoing personality, or the fact that I was able to win chili pepper eating contests, I soon became fully integrated into the Latino community at Zapata. My research question is one that I have pondered for two years: why is the Latino community so strong at Stanford?

Continue reading "Ethnic Theme Housing and its affect on the Stanford Latino Community" »

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This blog post summarizes my experiences thus far while working on a research project as part of a CCR class.

My hypothesis focuses on low-income students and their integration into the communities of elite universities, namely Stanford University. According to The Stanford Daily only nine percent of the undergraduates at Stanford come form families with incomes below $30,000. http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2007/6/7/admissionsDeptSeeksRiseInLowincomeStudents With these students constituting such a profound minority one can only wonder how they interact with other students at an institution where the stereotypical student comes from the upper quartile. I have discovered a very enlightening article in The San Francisco Chronicle that suggests that lower-income students tend to feel alienated from their more financially stable peers and so they form their own cliques. The article highlights the story of a recent graduate and his experience during the summer following his freshman year. Since financial aid is not offered during the summer, he had no housing and was forced to live in his Jeep until his first paycheck arrived from his on-campus job. These students expressed feelings of estrangement from many other students, who were not able to relate to the underprivileged student’s financial situation. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/30/BAIMVHBG9.DTL

I also would like my research to look into how involved lower-income students are in the Stanford community in terms of extra-curricular activities. Many students must work to make ends meet, and I am curious to know if this has an impact on their involvement. Much of the social life at Stanford involves at least occasional nights out with friends and I would like to see how low-income students handle these situations.

Stanford is taking an interest in intelligent, low-income students and it is important that the culture that they prescribe to is observed. Without such insights, these students may not be as successful as their classmates, denying them the opportunity to break the cycle of poverty that they have known throughout life.

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This entry is part of a research project for Cultural Interfaces and Cross-Cultural Rhetoric at Stanford University. For more about this assignment and the class projects, click here.

It is a phenomenon that has perplexed researchers for the past decade or so: the so-called “shrinking pipeline” of women in computer science. The trend has been such that the number of women pursuing advanced degrees or careers in this discipline has been dropping over the years, despite the increasing popularity of computers and information technology in the world. According to statistics offered by the U.S. Dept. of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, only roughly 20% of all bachelors degrees earned in computer science were earned by women. Why this gender gap?

Continue reading "Lil' Miss H4x0r? How Gender Has Affected Women's Pursuit of Computer Science" »

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This entry is part of a research project for Cultural Interfaces and Cross-Cultural Rhetoric at Stanford University. For more about this assignment and the class projects, click here.

What does it mean for computers to be intelligent in the general sense? More importantly, how useful is this definition?
Computer intelligence in more restricted settings and frameworks for understanding. Some of the ways in which humans and computers can use conceptual models to interact with one another.

Continue reading "Conceptual Frameworks and Online Narrowmindedness" »

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This entry is part of a research project for Cultural Interfaces and Cross-Cultural Rhetoric at Stanford University. For more about this assignment and the class projects, click here.

By way of introduction, my name is Allison Rhines; I am a second year student at Stanford University. My involvement in the Cross Cultural Rhetoric project brings me to this blog: I’d like to devote this post to introducing the research I’ve started on communities of American expatriates in China. My interest in this research stems from my interest in Chinese language and culture, and my travels through China and Taiwan, including the last three summers spent in Taiwan, Shanghai and Beijing. I plan to focus my research on the role of internet communities in shaping American Chinese Expat culture. My research is in its early stages, which mostly comprises contextual information about China’s recent political and economic history. However, at this point, I have already come across some quite unusual, even surprising information in places that I haven’t necessarily expected, some of it without really even trying (as a subscriber to the Economist, for example, I couldn’t help but note that 3 of the 10 most recent issues displayed China-related headlines on their covers, see for example, http://www.economist.com/printedition/index.cfm?d=20080315 ). It seems that China’s global footprint is everywhere: in our headlines, news shows, stock exchanges and college demonstrations (eg. the Free Tibet demonstration which took place in Stanford’s central plaza last week- http://daily.stanford.edu/article/2008/4/11/tibetTorchRelayRalliesForFreedom ).

Continue reading "外国人: Americans in China" »

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This entry is part of a research project for Cultural Interfaces and Cross-Cultural Rhetoric at Stanford University. For more about this assignment and the class projects, click here.

By Ryan Woessner

Autism is one of the fastest growing developmental disabilities in the United States, with over 1.5 million Americans currently diagnosed with the neurological disorder that scientists still know very little about. According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, three distinctive behaviors characterize autism: lack of social interaction, problems with verbal and nonverbal communication and repetitive behaviors or narrow, obsessive interests (Willingham). However, children with autism display these symptoms in many different ways, some as mild as avoiding eye contact, while others are totally immersed in a world of their own. For my research project, I will explore the reasons why virtual environments such as Second Life and other computer-generated communities are being promoted by psychologists and neurological doctors as beneficial for teaching social skills to people with autistic disorders, notably this past year’s exciting breakthroughs with autistic children, as well as connecting these individuals to the network community.

Continue reading "A World of Their Own: Empowering Autistic Children through Virtual Environments" »

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Over the next five weeks, students from my sophomore-level Cultural Interfaces class will be posting blog entries about their research topics. More specifically, they have been asked to share their reflections on one particular source, research experience, or epiphany that they experience during the research process.

The projects themselves are fascinating -- my students this quarter are engaging with a variety of issues about cultures and subcultures, both in the real world and online. There are projects on Fast Food culture (marketing to children), La Comunidad on Stanford campus, Women in Computer Science, and Vietnamese- American Activism, on and offline. This week, the students posting on their projects will be focusing on American Expatriates in China, Updating the Turing Test for the 21st Century, and Autism communities in the Virtual World Second Life.

I know that the students would welcome feedback on their research and their ideas, and I'm sure any reader would enjoy seeing how the students have moved from the general assignment (pursue a research project on an subject related to how cultures and subcultures operate in the real world or online) to their own rich, fascinating projects.

Posted by Christine Alfano at 01:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)