SHORT BIOS OF CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS
Luminita Cocârţă Andrei is an Associate
Professor in Applied Linguistics and Cultural Studies, head of the Unit of
Language for Special Purposes (LSP) and tutor of the MA in International
Relations and Intercultural Strategies, from the Faculty of Economics and
Business Administration, “AI. I. Cuza” University of Iaşi, Romania. Her publications and
studies include: Episodes in Business English (2003); Episodes in
Business Communication (2005); Insights into Business English (2005); English Language Today-Perception,
Varieties and Acquisition (2005); Business English Grammar-Functions of Business English Communication
and Pragmatics of Language Learning, (2007). She has participated in numerous conferences
and symposia in Business communication, Cultural Studies, Translation Studies, Language awareness and
E-learning, including: Linguistic Platforms and Business Settings (2010) IABR, Orlando,
Florida; Culture and Negotiation in Teaching Business English (2008) in the 1-st
International Conference on Intercultural Studies, Centro de Estudos
Interculturais, Porto; Multiculturalism and Business English (2008), in “The 15th
World Congress of Applied Linguistics AILA- Multilingualism, Challenges and
Opportunities”, Essen”; among others. She has been teaching Business English
and Culture since 1992, and often coordinates or participates in national and
international projects in Applied Linguistics and Cultural Studies.
Pablo Encinas Arquero is Spanish Tutor at the University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China (UNNC). He holds a BA in Spanish Philology and an MA in Applied Linguistics Spanish as a Foreign Language at the University Complutense of Madrid (Spain). He also holds a Postgraduate in Education, Spanish and French at the University of Exeter, College of St Mark and St John (Plymouth). Currently he is writing his PhD dissertation in Second Language Acquisition [Applied Linguistics] at the University of Plymouth (UK). His research interests focus on Neuropsychology and Education, Second Language Acquisition and Literature. His most recent publications are the following: Lean, J., Moizer, J., Towler, M., Smith, G, Encinas Arquero, P. (2007) “Using casual loop diagramming to represent factors affecting learning for students using a business simulation game” ESIC Madrid and Santos Rovira, J.M., Encinas Arquero, P. (2008) “Breve aproximación al concepto de literatura de viajes como género literario” Revista Tonos Digital N17, Murcia.
Geoffrey Bell is a new media artist and designer who combines emerging technologies with traditional media. Bell’s work has been presented at Eyebeam Museum of Art and Technology, Bap Lab Festival in New York City, The DC Arts Center in Washington D.C. and various festivals and group shows in Europe and Asia. His artistic projects include multimedia theatrical productions, interactive video installation, and experimental animation. As a designer, he has worked for a variety of clients including MTV.com, internationally acclaimed cartoonist Ted Rall, and various NYC entrepreneurs. Bell holds a BFA in Fine Arts from The University of Michigan and an MFA from The University of Maryland Baltimore County. He is currently a PHD candidate at The European Graduate School in Switzerland and serves as Assistant Professor of Communication Arts at New York Institute of Technology.
Beverly J. Butcher is a multicultural interdisciplinary scholar who took her B.A. in English and her M.A. in Folklore at the University of California at Berkeley; she has a Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania. The author of Chinese and Chinese American Ancestor Veneration in the Catholic Church, 635 A.D. to the Present (2010) and of a number of articles, she is currently Associate Professor of English at NYIT, Nanjing, where she teaches such courses as Multicultural Literature and Folklore of Hawai’i and Writing About Chinese and Chinese American Women’s Biographies and Autobiographies.
Yi Cai, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor with Faculty of Education at Suzhou University. She teaches Educational Administration to undergraduate and graduate students. Her research interests include educational administration, school culture, and distance education.
Alexandra Campana is a Research Assistant, Teaching Assistant, and Ph.D. student at Vanderbilt University. Her interdisciplinary dissertation project focuses on globalization, intercultural dialogue, intercultural conflicts, and seeks to explore the role that the humanities will have to play within our globalized world-society.
Wai-chi Chee is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Anthropology of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is also a part-time lecturer at the University of Macau in the Department of Sociology. Her research interests include culture and identity, education, migration, and globalization. Her dissertation research compares how the mainland Chinese and South Asian migrant students adapt to schooling and life in Hong Kong. She is the author of the article titled “When the Cultural Model of Success Fails: Mainland Chinese Teenage Immigrants in Hong Kong” in Taiwan Journal of Anthropology 8(2): 85-110 (2010).
Lim Lee Ching is a lecturer at the SIM University, Singapore, where he teaches interdisciplinary subjects. His research interests include: poetry and poetics, Modernism and violence, literary aesthetics, and East and South-East Asian literature
Annie Christain is an English PhD graduate from the University of South Dakota. Her poems have been published in Bombay Gin, Arabesques Review, The American Drivel Review, and Beeswax Magazine, among others. She is a three-year recipient of the University of South Dakota’s Gladys Hasse Poetry Award, and she received the 2007 and 2008 Jerry Bradley Award for Creative Writing at the Southwest Texas Popular Culture Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is currently an Assistant Professor of English at the New York Institute of Technology in Nanjing, China. Recently her poetry manuscript Tall As You Are Tall between Them was a semi-finalist for the Ahsahta Press Sawtooth Poetry Prize.
Sheila Christopher is Associate Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Science, Holy Cross College, Tiruchirappalli, India. Her doctoral degree is in the field of Social Work and Mental Retardation. With 26 years of teaching experience she has served the cause of disability in various forums. Her basic interests include working and serving as a consultant for Autism and Mental Retardation. As a member of various academic boards across the country, and China, her work includes syllabus development, new courses designs and programmes, and the conduct of examinations. She is a visiting faculty for the Nanjing Technical Institute of Special Education, Nanjing, China. Dr. Christopher was awarded a Minor project by the University Grants Commission, New Delhi, India on “Communication with Cue Cards for Children with Autism”. As a member of the Peer Review team for the Journal of Autism as a Developmental Disability (JADD) she has reviewed four research articles and published three Book reviews. She has organized three International Conferences and conducted more than a dozen International short term courses. Dr. Chistopher travels widely and has been a special speaker at many International Conferences. She also serves a Student Support Officer for International students from Netherlands.
Giovanna Comerio is French Tutor at the University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China (UNNC). She holds an MA in Didactics and Promotion of Italian Language and Culture to Foreigners. Her research interests have been related to pedagogy of literature reading in language classes and to student autonomy development in its cognitive and affective aspects. Her activity focuses on developing e-learning activities, and promoting the European Language Portfolio values and practice. She is the author of ‘Language Class Students Enjoying Literature’, Language Magazine 7 (7), pp. 22-26.
Tristan Currie formerly taught English in Japan working in the public elementary school system, grades 1 to 6. While in Australia she worked as an ELICOS Teacher of adult migrants. She specialises in teaching English for Academic Purposes, IELTS and IELTS preparation classes. She took an avid interest in the process of language assessment, including administering, authoring and marking monthly student placement tests. She completed her Masters Degree at QUT where her research focused Higher education in Hong Kong. She currently works as a High School English teacher in Hong Kong.
Margaret Gillon Dowens is an experimental psychologist and psycholinguist. Before coming to China she worked at the University of La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain, teaching and researching in psychology, bilingualism and language learning.
She is currently a Lecturer in Applied Linguistics, Division of English Studies, and Director of Centre for Research in Applied Linguistics (CRAL) at UNNC. Her current research is in the areas of multilingualism, second language acquisition and the effects of aging on language learning.
Frohar Poya Faryabi is a PhD student at University College London, Department of Geography – London Migration Research Unit. The project she is concentrating on is the notion of honour and shame amongst refugees in Exile through the prism of religion with a focus on the Afghan Community in Exile. Frohar has an MSc in Cross-cultural Psychology and a BA in Film and TV from Brunel University. Her academic and professional background involves researching about and working with refugees and immigrant communities. Currently, apart from undertaking her studies, she also works as Youth Migration Consultant at European Youth Forum.
Jeremy Fernando is the Jean Baudrillard Fellow at the European Graduate School, where he received his PhD in Media Philosophy. He works in the intersections of literature, philosophy, and the media. He is the author of Reflections on (T)error, Reading Blindly, and The Suicide Bomber; and her gift of death. His interests include film, music, and art; and his work has been shown in Vienna, Seoul, Singapore, and Hong Kong. He is the editor of the thematic magazine One Imperative, and also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, in Singapore.
David Fuller is currently Director, Innovation Campus, University of Wollongong, Australia. He developed the Innovation Campus (a 70 acre science and technology park) seven years ago and now directs its daily operation and ongoing development. David has developed six new campus developments over the past 20 years and has over 30 years experience in cross border assignments and international projects in the areas of economic development, teacher education, linguistics and science & technology. David travels widely and regularly and has lived & worked overseas with various NGO and official government organisations for more than 11 years, with extensive residential experience in countries such as: Papua New Guinea, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia (both East and West) and the United Kingdom.
Imad Ghazzawi is a certified Business Cultural Trainer with extensive experience in the delivery of English Language and Administrative Skills training. He has recently worked in designing and delivering cultural training to scholarship candidates travelling to the UK to pursue their technical studies.
Filippo Gilardi is French Tutor at the University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China (UNNC). He defended his doctorate in Comparative Literature at the Sorbonne University - Paris III. His research interests are theoretical and pedagogical. The first strand is his focus on the representation of identity in Italian, English, French, Spanish, and Chinese literature from a comparative point of view. The second involves his teaching research on foreign language curriculum development adapted to local contexts. His focus is to examine the issues involved in the development, maintenance, and evaluation of effective language programs and the European Common Framework implementation in China. He is the author of Métamorphose et Identité: D’Ovide au Transsexualisme, Nantes: ODIN, 2008.
Andrzej Goworski is a PhD student at the Institute of Polish Philology of the Wrocław University. His doctoral dissertation concerns the perception of Russian literature in Polish literary culture. He currently teaches Literary Theory at the Wrocław University. His interests center on literary translation. He is an author of many conference presentations, including the International PhD Students Conference in Prague - "The Conference of Young Slavists". His current scientific interests include brain death motif (locked-in syndrome) and Lower Silesia myth in literature. His critical texts are published in cultural and literary magazines, including: "Akcent", "Odra", "Pomosty".
Vincent Greenier teaches EFL at Kyungpook National University in South Korea. He has taught in Korea for more than 5 years and is currently completing an MA in TEFL/TESL from the University of Birmingham. His currents interests lies in incorporating CDA to actuate a deeper exploration of language and cultural identity.
Qijun Han completed her undergraduate studies with honors at Nanjing University with a major in English studies. She continued her study for a Master’s Degree in American Studies at the School of Humanities at Utrecht University and finished her master thesis, “The Evolution of Chinese Images in American Fiction Film” in 2009. In the same year, she started her PhD project at Utrecht University’s Research Institute for History and Culture. She has worked intensively under the supervision of Prof. Frank Kessler, Prof. Rob Kroes, and Dr. Judith Keilbach on the topic of the cinematic representation of the Chinese family, particularly with an immigration background. She is a member of the European American Studies network and of Utrecht University’s MIRACLE Research Center for Moving Image Representations.
Asiya Ikhsanova is a Russian language teacher in Hebei Tourism Vocational College, Chengde, People’s Republic of China. Asiya holds a Master’s degree in Comparative Literature obtained from University of Dublin, Trinity College (2009) and a Bachelor’s degree in Russian language and literature obtained from Moscow State Pedagogical University (2007). Current interests include twentieth century literature, literary theory, cinema, and Nietzschean philosophy, including a thesis on 'Time and memory in James Joyce's Ulysses, Marcel Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu and Alain Resnais' L'année dernière à Marienbad'.
Katyna Johnson, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the English Department at New York Institute of Technology in Nanjing, China. She received her Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico. Her dissertation Reframing Narratives and Reevaluating Bodies: Incorporating Disability into Narratives investigates the meaning assigned to disability in narrative art. Her research interests include disability studies, contemporary American literature with multiethnic emphasis, contemporary world literature, and postcolonial literature. Blossoming from her idea and through her work as Chair and web designer, NYIT-China will host its first international conference, Crossing Borders: Teaching, and Learning in a Global Age. She is also the web designer of a manual to help foreign professors who live in Nanjing, China.
Constance Kirker is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Integrative Arts at Penn State University Brandywine. She is presently on leave from Penn State, living in Singapore, and teaching as a visiting Instructor at the National University of Singapore and Lasalle College of Art. She has been teaching Asian Art History on-line from Singapore for Penn State for the past two years. Dr. Kirker’s research focuses on international arts education. She teaches comparative art history, focusing on Western, East Asian, South Asian and African traditions. She has participated as a faculty member in the University of Virginia's "Semester -at-Sea" program three times, circumnavigating the globe with 700 university students. She regularly teaches studio arts courses with an international design perspective and works with guide training at the Asian Civilizations Museum in Singapore. She has presented papers at various conferences in India, Morocco, Korea, Turkey, Madrid, London, and most recently at the International Congress of Aesthetics at the University of Beijing this August. She has designed courses for and travelled with university students over 40 times in the last 12 years.
Helen Rodnite Lemay is Distinguished Teaching Professor Emerita of History at Stony Brook University, New York, USA, where she has taught since 1970. Professor Lemay leads a “double life.” Officially retired since 2008 in order to work on her research project preparing a critical edition of a 12th-century philosophical/scientific text from manuscripts, she has continued to teach in a program at Stony Brook Manhattan that “crosses borders.” A course on “AIDS and the Social History of Medicine” enrolls Stony Brook undergraduates, high-school students, and clients and counselors from the AIDS Service Center of New York City, and students share their different perspectives on AIDS and public health issues in New York City.
Xiwen Mai was born and raised in China. She got her PhD in English Language and
Literature from the University of Michigan in 2010. She is currently teaching English at the New York Institute of Technology, Nanjing. Her research interests include Asian American literature, modern and contemporary poetry, diaspora, transnationalism, and translation studies.
Walter Mason is a PhD student at the University of Western Sydney’s Writing & Society research unit. He is in his second year of research for his doctorate: ‘The Place of Self-Help Books in Australian Literary Culture’. Walter is also a writer and has recently published a travel-memoir about Vietnam called Destination Saigon (Allen & Unwin, 2010).
Michael Massey has worked for 8 years as an ESL professor in South Korea. He teaches English for specific purposes (ESP) in the departments of Nursing and Tourism. He holds an M.A. in Applied Linguistics from the University of Birmingham. His current interests lie in developing ‘critical language awareness’ among his students and activism through the linguistic analysis of current events.
Adeleh Nejati received her Bachelor degree of Architecture from National University of Iran in 2008. She has experience with a wide range of cooperative work environments from her work with professional firms while she was studying architecture. An award winning student at National University, Adeleh decided to continue her graduate studies at Miami University in order to experience a broad educational environment. Her studies and research in the United States represent a major turning point in her life as she explores spirituality, well-being, and designing within environmental architecture.
Manisha Anand Patil is head of the Department of English at Yashwantrao Chavan Institute of Science, Satara, Maharashatra, India. Her Ph.D., “Alien Influences on Postcolonial Marathi Drama : A Comparative Culture Study “ was submitted to University of Mysore, Mysore, Karnataka, India. Her current research project, “Comparative Culture Study of Folk Element in Indian and African Drama,” is funded by UGC, New Delhi. She has presented numerous papers at a variety of International Conferences, including: Mumbai 2004; Seoul, 2004; Wells 2007; Rajkot, Gujarat 2010; and Honolulu 2010. She has also participated in 11 National Conferences in India. Her areas of interest include Comparative Culture Studies, Translation, and Drama.
Naraset Pisitpanporn completed his Ph.D. in linguistics from La Trobe University, Australia. He is lecturing at the Research Institute of Languages and Cultures of Asia (RILCA), Mahidol University, Thailand. He teaches Modern
Khmer, Southeast Asian Linguistics, and Language and Culture. He is a member of the editorial board of Mon – Khmer Studies Journal. He also works as a volunteer in Thai-Khmer interpretation for non-governmental organizations involving rural development and trafficking issues. His last publication was on language teaching: Khmer language for the Thais and Thai for the Khmers.
Kan Qian is lecturer in Chinese at the Open University (UK) as well as Director of Studies in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the Christ’s College, University of Cambridge. At the Open University, she chairs Beginners’ Chinese—the first distance Chinese language course at the university level in the UK. Before joining the Open University in 2009, she was Senior Language Teaching Officer in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge for 11 years. She has lectured in Chinese at the University of Lancaster, and worked for the BBC World Service as presenter and translator. Before her career in the UK, she was lecturer in English at the University of International Business and Economics (Beijing). Kan Qian is a linguist by training (PhD from University of Lancaster) and her current research interest is in distance language learning focusing on online forums and motivation issues in the learning of Chinese. She has published extensively in Chinese language teaching materials. Here are some titles: Colloquial Chinese (Routeldge, 1st ed. 1995; 2nd ed. 2009), Colloquial Chinese 2 (Routeldge, 2007), Teach Yourself Phone Mandarin (Hodder & Stoughton, 2008), Developing Writing Skills in Chinese (Routledge 2003).
James Reid is an English for Academic Purposes Tutor at the University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China (UNNC). He has a Masters (with Distinction) in Applied Linguistics with a focus on sociolinguistics and second language acquisition. His thesis investigates certain aspects of interlanguage optionality experienced by proficient adult learners from null-subject language backgrounds, and questions the ‘Interpretability Hypothesis’ which contends that these arise from L1 syntactic parameters set during critical periods of childhood. His current research interests are concerned with the emerging internet-based participatory cultures in China and how these can be co-opted for education.
Liz Robbins' poems have appeared in Barrow Street, Cimarron Review, Greensboro Review, Harpur Palate, MARGIE, New Ohio Review, Puerto del Sol, and Rattle, among others. She has poems forthcoming in Barn Owl Review, Parthenon West Review, and Poet Lore. Poems from her first book, Hope, As the World Is a Scorpion Fish (Backwaters P), have been featured on Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac and Verse Daily; other poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best New Poets. She's the recipient of an Intellectual Life grant and a Schultz Foundation grant, as well as the First Coast Poetry Award, judged by Robert Bly; in addition, this poet won the 2010 Cider Press Review Book Award, judged by Patricia Smith. She's an assistant professor of English and creative writing at Flagler College in St. Augustine, FL. In November, 2010, she was a Visiting Writer at Davis and Elkins College in Elkins, West Virginia.
Robert Michael Smith has been an active pioneer of digital sculpture, 3D computer visualization/animation, Web design, virtual sculptures for the Web, as well as a significant art and technology educator as Associate Professor of art and technology at New York Institute of Technology Fine Arts Department. Smith is also NYIT Middle East Fine Arts Computer Graphics Coordinator for Global Exchange Programs at Amman, Jordan; Adliya, Bahrain, and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Smith serves as a Board Director for Digital Stone Project and The Sculptors Guild. Smith’s art has been exhibited worldwide for over thirty years including the acclaimed Digital Stone Exhibition at Beijing Today Art Museum, ShanghaiDuolun Museum of Modern Art, Chongqing Jinse Gallery, and Wenzhou ArtMap Gallery. Smith's sculpture "Paradise Bird Burlesque" is included in the permanent collection of China National Museum of Fine Art at Beijing. Smith has been a guest lecturer at numerous universities, international conferences, and featured in several international articles and books including “Art of the Digital Age”, published by Thames and Hudson.
Sabine H. Smith, Ph.D received her M.A. in American Studies, Spanish, and German from Johannes-Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany in 1989. Her doctoral work at the University of California at Davis focused on German Studies with a designated emphasis in Feminist Theory and Research. She completed her Ph.D. in 1996 and published her dissertation “Sexual Violence in German Culture: Rereading and Rewriting the Tradition” in 1998. Sabine joined the faculty at Kennesaw State University in 1997 and has been Associate Professor of German Studies since 2004. Her scholarly interest in foreign language pedagogy and experiential learning generated recent peer-reviewed articles on undergraduates’ study abroad experience (Smith, Lewis, and Hunt, 2007) and learner motivation and retention (Smith and Hoyt, 2009). As recipient of the 2010 Georgia Regents’ award, Sabine was recognized for excellence in teaching.
Timothy Smith is acting Chair of the English Department and Assistant Dean of Liberal Arts for NYIT-NUPT, Nanjing. His research includes comparative studies in Sino and Western rhetoric and philosophy. His previous presentations include comparative studies of Aristotle, Kongzi (Confucius), Kierkegaard, Zhuangzi, and general philosophical and rhetorcial tendencies within Chinese and Western cultures.
Gary Stephens is a professor at the Manhattan Campus of NYIT where he was chairman of English for twenty years. He has a Ph.D. from Brandeis University. He has been a Fulbright Teaching Fellow of American Literature to India, and is an NEH Grant recipient. He won the Presidential Award for Distinguished Teaching at NYIT in 2007. His book of poetry, THE STUDFLAPS of STRAUS PARK will be published in May, 2011. He has taught one term in Nanjing each year since the program was founded.
Hanne Tange, Ph.D. is an Associate professor who works within the field of intercultural communication. She has published articles on the themes of international education, culture shock, language and social interaction, and Scottish identity and culture.
John Tangney is an assistant professor in the Division of English at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He teaches Renaissance literature and the history of literary theory. His current research looks at the ways in which modern secular forms of thought are indebted to premodern religion and philosophy.
Monika Vij, Ph.D is assistant professor at the Department of Geography, Miranda House, University of Delhi, India, where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses.Her multidisciplinary research interests are focused on socio-spatial concerns of developing nations. The key area of her research interest is Urban and Regional Geography. Currently, Dr. Vij is a Post Doctoral fellow at the Indian Council of Social Sciences Research, New Delhi, working on the spatial representation of urban crime in National Capital Territory of Delhi.
“Lydia” Yang Yang is the author and scholar. She received her B.A. in Mass Communication at Nanjing University in China. She is currently completing her Ph.D. in Language, Literacy, & Culture at Florida International University, College of Education. Her research interests include cross-cultural psychology, inter-cultural communication, and global training.
Deniss Yeung is a Principal Lecturer in the School of Business, Faculty of Business and Technology, Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec), New Zealand. With a BSc(Hons) and MBA degrees he is also a Chartered Marketer (U.K.), with strong research interests in not-for-profit organizations and International student issues. Deniss also served on the Wintec Council for four years and has been NZQA external moderator for a number of years.
Chu YinHua was born in Taipei, Taiwan and later studied and worked in London, Tokyo and Singapore; She found images of ‘cities’ are blended because of the constant travelling, and the association of memories has provided her a sense of intimacy in any foreign city. Her academic research focuses on the relationship between photography, memories and cities, and she explores how to employ the medium of photography as the method to discover different ways of seeing,
examining how still images may be sliced, fragmented, and frozen from the flow of time, and how the camera device becomes the bridge between the ‘image in the mind’ and the ‘image in front of the eyes’.
Zuochen Zhang, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor with the Faculty of Education at the University of Windsor. He teaches ICT literacy courses to undergraduate and graduate students, and research methods to graduate students. His research interests include ICT integration into school curriculum, ICT for development, e-learning, and international education.
Adrian Matthew Zytkoskee began his career as a counselor working with incarcerated youth. His passion for writing and literature, however, led him back to school and into the teaching profession. Since then, he has taught composition and ESL at the college level after having taught classes of migrant workers in Salinas, California. He now teaches composition in the United Arab Emirates to a student body representing a hundred different nations.
Pablo Encinas Arquero is Spanish Tutor at the University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China (UNNC). He holds a BA in Spanish Philology and an MA in Applied Linguistics Spanish as a Foreign Language at the University Complutense of Madrid (Spain). He also holds a Postgraduate in Education, Spanish and French at the University of Exeter, College of St Mark and St John (Plymouth). Currently he is writing his PhD dissertation in Second Language Acquisition [Applied Linguistics] at the University of Plymouth (UK). His research interests focus on Neuropsychology and Education, Second Language Acquisition and Literature. His most recent publications are the following: Lean, J., Moizer, J., Towler, M., Smith, G, Encinas Arquero, P. (2007) “Using casual loop diagramming to represent factors affecting learning for students using a business simulation game” ESIC Madrid and Santos Rovira, J.M., Encinas Arquero, P. (2008) “Breve aproximación al concepto de literatura de viajes como género literario” Revista Tonos Digital N17, Murcia.
Geoffrey Bell is a new media artist and designer who combines emerging technologies with traditional media. Bell’s work has been presented at Eyebeam Museum of Art and Technology, Bap Lab Festival in New York City, The DC Arts Center in Washington D.C. and various festivals and group shows in Europe and Asia. His artistic projects include multimedia theatrical productions, interactive video installation, and experimental animation. As a designer, he has worked for a variety of clients including MTV.com, internationally acclaimed cartoonist Ted Rall, and various NYC entrepreneurs. Bell holds a BFA in Fine Arts from The University of Michigan and an MFA from The University of Maryland Baltimore County. He is currently a PHD candidate at The European Graduate School in Switzerland and serves as Assistant Professor of Communication Arts at New York Institute of Technology.
Beverly J. Butcher is a multicultural interdisciplinary scholar who took her B.A. in English and her M.A. in Folklore at the University of California at Berkeley; she has a Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania. The author of Chinese and Chinese American Ancestor Veneration in the Catholic Church, 635 A.D. to the Present (2010) and of a number of articles, she is currently Associate Professor of English at NYIT, Nanjing, where she teaches such courses as Multicultural Literature and Folklore of Hawai’i and Writing About Chinese and Chinese American Women’s Biographies and Autobiographies.
Yi Cai, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor with Faculty of Education at Suzhou University. She teaches Educational Administration to undergraduate and graduate students. Her research interests include educational administration, school culture, and distance education.
Alexandra Campana is a Research Assistant, Teaching Assistant, and Ph.D. student at Vanderbilt University. Her interdisciplinary dissertation project focuses on globalization, intercultural dialogue, intercultural conflicts, and seeks to explore the role that the humanities will have to play within our globalized world-society.
Wai-chi Chee is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Anthropology of The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She is also a part-time lecturer at the University of Macau in the Department of Sociology. Her research interests include culture and identity, education, migration, and globalization. Her dissertation research compares how the mainland Chinese and South Asian migrant students adapt to schooling and life in Hong Kong. She is the author of the article titled “When the Cultural Model of Success Fails: Mainland Chinese Teenage Immigrants in Hong Kong” in Taiwan Journal of Anthropology 8(2): 85-110 (2010).
Lim Lee Ching is a lecturer at the SIM University, Singapore, where he teaches interdisciplinary subjects. His research interests include: poetry and poetics, Modernism and violence, literary aesthetics, and East and South-East Asian literature
Annie Christain is an English PhD graduate from the University of South Dakota. Her poems have been published in Bombay Gin, Arabesques Review, The American Drivel Review, and Beeswax Magazine, among others. She is a three-year recipient of the University of South Dakota’s Gladys Hasse Poetry Award, and she received the 2007 and 2008 Jerry Bradley Award for Creative Writing at the Southwest Texas Popular Culture Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is currently an Assistant Professor of English at the New York Institute of Technology in Nanjing, China. Recently her poetry manuscript Tall As You Are Tall between Them was a semi-finalist for the Ahsahta Press Sawtooth Poetry Prize.
Sheila Christopher is Associate Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Science, Holy Cross College, Tiruchirappalli, India. Her doctoral degree is in the field of Social Work and Mental Retardation. With 26 years of teaching experience she has served the cause of disability in various forums. Her basic interests include working and serving as a consultant for Autism and Mental Retardation. As a member of various academic boards across the country, and China, her work includes syllabus development, new courses designs and programmes, and the conduct of examinations. She is a visiting faculty for the Nanjing Technical Institute of Special Education, Nanjing, China. Dr. Christopher was awarded a Minor project by the University Grants Commission, New Delhi, India on “Communication with Cue Cards for Children with Autism”. As a member of the Peer Review team for the Journal of Autism as a Developmental Disability (JADD) she has reviewed four research articles and published three Book reviews. She has organized three International Conferences and conducted more than a dozen International short term courses. Dr. Chistopher travels widely and has been a special speaker at many International Conferences. She also serves a Student Support Officer for International students from Netherlands.
Giovanna Comerio is French Tutor at the University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China (UNNC). She holds an MA in Didactics and Promotion of Italian Language and Culture to Foreigners. Her research interests have been related to pedagogy of literature reading in language classes and to student autonomy development in its cognitive and affective aspects. Her activity focuses on developing e-learning activities, and promoting the European Language Portfolio values and practice. She is the author of ‘Language Class Students Enjoying Literature’, Language Magazine 7 (7), pp. 22-26.
Tristan Currie formerly taught English in Japan working in the public elementary school system, grades 1 to 6. While in Australia she worked as an ELICOS Teacher of adult migrants. She specialises in teaching English for Academic Purposes, IELTS and IELTS preparation classes. She took an avid interest in the process of language assessment, including administering, authoring and marking monthly student placement tests. She completed her Masters Degree at QUT where her research focused Higher education in Hong Kong. She currently works as a High School English teacher in Hong Kong.
Margaret Gillon Dowens is an experimental psychologist and psycholinguist. Before coming to China she worked at the University of La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain, teaching and researching in psychology, bilingualism and language learning.
She is currently a Lecturer in Applied Linguistics, Division of English Studies, and Director of Centre for Research in Applied Linguistics (CRAL) at UNNC. Her current research is in the areas of multilingualism, second language acquisition and the effects of aging on language learning.
Frohar Poya Faryabi is a PhD student at University College London, Department of Geography – London Migration Research Unit. The project she is concentrating on is the notion of honour and shame amongst refugees in Exile through the prism of religion with a focus on the Afghan Community in Exile. Frohar has an MSc in Cross-cultural Psychology and a BA in Film and TV from Brunel University. Her academic and professional background involves researching about and working with refugees and immigrant communities. Currently, apart from undertaking her studies, she also works as Youth Migration Consultant at European Youth Forum.
Jeremy Fernando is the Jean Baudrillard Fellow at the European Graduate School, where he received his PhD in Media Philosophy. He works in the intersections of literature, philosophy, and the media. He is the author of Reflections on (T)error, Reading Blindly, and The Suicide Bomber; and her gift of death. His interests include film, music, and art; and his work has been shown in Vienna, Seoul, Singapore, and Hong Kong. He is the editor of the thematic magazine One Imperative, and also a Research Fellow at the Centre for Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, in Singapore.
David Fuller is currently Director, Innovation Campus, University of Wollongong, Australia. He developed the Innovation Campus (a 70 acre science and technology park) seven years ago and now directs its daily operation and ongoing development. David has developed six new campus developments over the past 20 years and has over 30 years experience in cross border assignments and international projects in the areas of economic development, teacher education, linguistics and science & technology. David travels widely and regularly and has lived & worked overseas with various NGO and official government organisations for more than 11 years, with extensive residential experience in countries such as: Papua New Guinea, Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia (both East and West) and the United Kingdom.
Imad Ghazzawi is a certified Business Cultural Trainer with extensive experience in the delivery of English Language and Administrative Skills training. He has recently worked in designing and delivering cultural training to scholarship candidates travelling to the UK to pursue their technical studies.
Filippo Gilardi is French Tutor at the University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China (UNNC). He defended his doctorate in Comparative Literature at the Sorbonne University - Paris III. His research interests are theoretical and pedagogical. The first strand is his focus on the representation of identity in Italian, English, French, Spanish, and Chinese literature from a comparative point of view. The second involves his teaching research on foreign language curriculum development adapted to local contexts. His focus is to examine the issues involved in the development, maintenance, and evaluation of effective language programs and the European Common Framework implementation in China. He is the author of Métamorphose et Identité: D’Ovide au Transsexualisme, Nantes: ODIN, 2008.
Andrzej Goworski is a PhD student at the Institute of Polish Philology of the Wrocław University. His doctoral dissertation concerns the perception of Russian literature in Polish literary culture. He currently teaches Literary Theory at the Wrocław University. His interests center on literary translation. He is an author of many conference presentations, including the International PhD Students Conference in Prague - "The Conference of Young Slavists". His current scientific interests include brain death motif (locked-in syndrome) and Lower Silesia myth in literature. His critical texts are published in cultural and literary magazines, including: "Akcent", "Odra", "Pomosty".
Vincent Greenier teaches EFL at Kyungpook National University in South Korea. He has taught in Korea for more than 5 years and is currently completing an MA in TEFL/TESL from the University of Birmingham. His currents interests lies in incorporating CDA to actuate a deeper exploration of language and cultural identity.
Qijun Han completed her undergraduate studies with honors at Nanjing University with a major in English studies. She continued her study for a Master’s Degree in American Studies at the School of Humanities at Utrecht University and finished her master thesis, “The Evolution of Chinese Images in American Fiction Film” in 2009. In the same year, she started her PhD project at Utrecht University’s Research Institute for History and Culture. She has worked intensively under the supervision of Prof. Frank Kessler, Prof. Rob Kroes, and Dr. Judith Keilbach on the topic of the cinematic representation of the Chinese family, particularly with an immigration background. She is a member of the European American Studies network and of Utrecht University’s MIRACLE Research Center for Moving Image Representations.
Asiya Ikhsanova is a Russian language teacher in Hebei Tourism Vocational College, Chengde, People’s Republic of China. Asiya holds a Master’s degree in Comparative Literature obtained from University of Dublin, Trinity College (2009) and a Bachelor’s degree in Russian language and literature obtained from Moscow State Pedagogical University (2007). Current interests include twentieth century literature, literary theory, cinema, and Nietzschean philosophy, including a thesis on 'Time and memory in James Joyce's Ulysses, Marcel Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu and Alain Resnais' L'année dernière à Marienbad'.
Katyna Johnson, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the English Department at New York Institute of Technology in Nanjing, China. She received her Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico. Her dissertation Reframing Narratives and Reevaluating Bodies: Incorporating Disability into Narratives investigates the meaning assigned to disability in narrative art. Her research interests include disability studies, contemporary American literature with multiethnic emphasis, contemporary world literature, and postcolonial literature. Blossoming from her idea and through her work as Chair and web designer, NYIT-China will host its first international conference, Crossing Borders: Teaching, and Learning in a Global Age. She is also the web designer of a manual to help foreign professors who live in Nanjing, China.
Constance Kirker is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Integrative Arts at Penn State University Brandywine. She is presently on leave from Penn State, living in Singapore, and teaching as a visiting Instructor at the National University of Singapore and Lasalle College of Art. She has been teaching Asian Art History on-line from Singapore for Penn State for the past two years. Dr. Kirker’s research focuses on international arts education. She teaches comparative art history, focusing on Western, East Asian, South Asian and African traditions. She has participated as a faculty member in the University of Virginia's "Semester -at-Sea" program three times, circumnavigating the globe with 700 university students. She regularly teaches studio arts courses with an international design perspective and works with guide training at the Asian Civilizations Museum in Singapore. She has presented papers at various conferences in India, Morocco, Korea, Turkey, Madrid, London, and most recently at the International Congress of Aesthetics at the University of Beijing this August. She has designed courses for and travelled with university students over 40 times in the last 12 years.
Helen Rodnite Lemay is Distinguished Teaching Professor Emerita of History at Stony Brook University, New York, USA, where she has taught since 1970. Professor Lemay leads a “double life.” Officially retired since 2008 in order to work on her research project preparing a critical edition of a 12th-century philosophical/scientific text from manuscripts, she has continued to teach in a program at Stony Brook Manhattan that “crosses borders.” A course on “AIDS and the Social History of Medicine” enrolls Stony Brook undergraduates, high-school students, and clients and counselors from the AIDS Service Center of New York City, and students share their different perspectives on AIDS and public health issues in New York City.
Xiwen Mai was born and raised in China. She got her PhD in English Language and
Literature from the University of Michigan in 2010. She is currently teaching English at the New York Institute of Technology, Nanjing. Her research interests include Asian American literature, modern and contemporary poetry, diaspora, transnationalism, and translation studies.
Walter Mason is a PhD student at the University of Western Sydney’s Writing & Society research unit. He is in his second year of research for his doctorate: ‘The Place of Self-Help Books in Australian Literary Culture’. Walter is also a writer and has recently published a travel-memoir about Vietnam called Destination Saigon (Allen & Unwin, 2010).
Michael Massey has worked for 8 years as an ESL professor in South Korea. He teaches English for specific purposes (ESP) in the departments of Nursing and Tourism. He holds an M.A. in Applied Linguistics from the University of Birmingham. His current interests lie in developing ‘critical language awareness’ among his students and activism through the linguistic analysis of current events.
Adeleh Nejati received her Bachelor degree of Architecture from National University of Iran in 2008. She has experience with a wide range of cooperative work environments from her work with professional firms while she was studying architecture. An award winning student at National University, Adeleh decided to continue her graduate studies at Miami University in order to experience a broad educational environment. Her studies and research in the United States represent a major turning point in her life as she explores spirituality, well-being, and designing within environmental architecture.
Manisha Anand Patil is head of the Department of English at Yashwantrao Chavan Institute of Science, Satara, Maharashatra, India. Her Ph.D., “Alien Influences on Postcolonial Marathi Drama : A Comparative Culture Study “ was submitted to University of Mysore, Mysore, Karnataka, India. Her current research project, “Comparative Culture Study of Folk Element in Indian and African Drama,” is funded by UGC, New Delhi. She has presented numerous papers at a variety of International Conferences, including: Mumbai 2004; Seoul, 2004; Wells 2007; Rajkot, Gujarat 2010; and Honolulu 2010. She has also participated in 11 National Conferences in India. Her areas of interest include Comparative Culture Studies, Translation, and Drama.
Naraset Pisitpanporn completed his Ph.D. in linguistics from La Trobe University, Australia. He is lecturing at the Research Institute of Languages and Cultures of Asia (RILCA), Mahidol University, Thailand. He teaches Modern
Khmer, Southeast Asian Linguistics, and Language and Culture. He is a member of the editorial board of Mon – Khmer Studies Journal. He also works as a volunteer in Thai-Khmer interpretation for non-governmental organizations involving rural development and trafficking issues. His last publication was on language teaching: Khmer language for the Thais and Thai for the Khmers.
Kan Qian is lecturer in Chinese at the Open University (UK) as well as Director of Studies in Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the Christ’s College, University of Cambridge. At the Open University, she chairs Beginners’ Chinese—the first distance Chinese language course at the university level in the UK. Before joining the Open University in 2009, she was Senior Language Teaching Officer in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Cambridge for 11 years. She has lectured in Chinese at the University of Lancaster, and worked for the BBC World Service as presenter and translator. Before her career in the UK, she was lecturer in English at the University of International Business and Economics (Beijing). Kan Qian is a linguist by training (PhD from University of Lancaster) and her current research interest is in distance language learning focusing on online forums and motivation issues in the learning of Chinese. She has published extensively in Chinese language teaching materials. Here are some titles: Colloquial Chinese (Routeldge, 1st ed. 1995; 2nd ed. 2009), Colloquial Chinese 2 (Routeldge, 2007), Teach Yourself Phone Mandarin (Hodder & Stoughton, 2008), Developing Writing Skills in Chinese (Routledge 2003).
James Reid is an English for Academic Purposes Tutor at the University of Nottingham, Ningbo, China (UNNC). He has a Masters (with Distinction) in Applied Linguistics with a focus on sociolinguistics and second language acquisition. His thesis investigates certain aspects of interlanguage optionality experienced by proficient adult learners from null-subject language backgrounds, and questions the ‘Interpretability Hypothesis’ which contends that these arise from L1 syntactic parameters set during critical periods of childhood. His current research interests are concerned with the emerging internet-based participatory cultures in China and how these can be co-opted for education.
Liz Robbins' poems have appeared in Barrow Street, Cimarron Review, Greensboro Review, Harpur Palate, MARGIE, New Ohio Review, Puerto del Sol, and Rattle, among others. She has poems forthcoming in Barn Owl Review, Parthenon West Review, and Poet Lore. Poems from her first book, Hope, As the World Is a Scorpion Fish (Backwaters P), have been featured on Garrison Keillor's The Writer's Almanac and Verse Daily; other poems have been nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best New Poets. She's the recipient of an Intellectual Life grant and a Schultz Foundation grant, as well as the First Coast Poetry Award, judged by Robert Bly; in addition, this poet won the 2010 Cider Press Review Book Award, judged by Patricia Smith. She's an assistant professor of English and creative writing at Flagler College in St. Augustine, FL. In November, 2010, she was a Visiting Writer at Davis and Elkins College in Elkins, West Virginia.
Robert Michael Smith has been an active pioneer of digital sculpture, 3D computer visualization/animation, Web design, virtual sculptures for the Web, as well as a significant art and technology educator as Associate Professor of art and technology at New York Institute of Technology Fine Arts Department. Smith is also NYIT Middle East Fine Arts Computer Graphics Coordinator for Global Exchange Programs at Amman, Jordan; Adliya, Bahrain, and Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Smith serves as a Board Director for Digital Stone Project and The Sculptors Guild. Smith’s art has been exhibited worldwide for over thirty years including the acclaimed Digital Stone Exhibition at Beijing Today Art Museum, ShanghaiDuolun Museum of Modern Art, Chongqing Jinse Gallery, and Wenzhou ArtMap Gallery. Smith's sculpture "Paradise Bird Burlesque" is included in the permanent collection of China National Museum of Fine Art at Beijing. Smith has been a guest lecturer at numerous universities, international conferences, and featured in several international articles and books including “Art of the Digital Age”, published by Thames and Hudson.
Sabine H. Smith, Ph.D received her M.A. in American Studies, Spanish, and German from Johannes-Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany in 1989. Her doctoral work at the University of California at Davis focused on German Studies with a designated emphasis in Feminist Theory and Research. She completed her Ph.D. in 1996 and published her dissertation “Sexual Violence in German Culture: Rereading and Rewriting the Tradition” in 1998. Sabine joined the faculty at Kennesaw State University in 1997 and has been Associate Professor of German Studies since 2004. Her scholarly interest in foreign language pedagogy and experiential learning generated recent peer-reviewed articles on undergraduates’ study abroad experience (Smith, Lewis, and Hunt, 2007) and learner motivation and retention (Smith and Hoyt, 2009). As recipient of the 2010 Georgia Regents’ award, Sabine was recognized for excellence in teaching.
Timothy Smith is acting Chair of the English Department and Assistant Dean of Liberal Arts for NYIT-NUPT, Nanjing. His research includes comparative studies in Sino and Western rhetoric and philosophy. His previous presentations include comparative studies of Aristotle, Kongzi (Confucius), Kierkegaard, Zhuangzi, and general philosophical and rhetorcial tendencies within Chinese and Western cultures.
Gary Stephens is a professor at the Manhattan Campus of NYIT where he was chairman of English for twenty years. He has a Ph.D. from Brandeis University. He has been a Fulbright Teaching Fellow of American Literature to India, and is an NEH Grant recipient. He won the Presidential Award for Distinguished Teaching at NYIT in 2007. His book of poetry, THE STUDFLAPS of STRAUS PARK will be published in May, 2011. He has taught one term in Nanjing each year since the program was founded.
Hanne Tange, Ph.D. is an Associate professor who works within the field of intercultural communication. She has published articles on the themes of international education, culture shock, language and social interaction, and Scottish identity and culture.
John Tangney is an assistant professor in the Division of English at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He teaches Renaissance literature and the history of literary theory. His current research looks at the ways in which modern secular forms of thought are indebted to premodern religion and philosophy.
Monika Vij, Ph.D is assistant professor at the Department of Geography, Miranda House, University of Delhi, India, where she teaches graduate and undergraduate courses.Her multidisciplinary research interests are focused on socio-spatial concerns of developing nations. The key area of her research interest is Urban and Regional Geography. Currently, Dr. Vij is a Post Doctoral fellow at the Indian Council of Social Sciences Research, New Delhi, working on the spatial representation of urban crime in National Capital Territory of Delhi.
“Lydia” Yang Yang is the author and scholar. She received her B.A. in Mass Communication at Nanjing University in China. She is currently completing her Ph.D. in Language, Literacy, & Culture at Florida International University, College of Education. Her research interests include cross-cultural psychology, inter-cultural communication, and global training.
Deniss Yeung is a Principal Lecturer in the School of Business, Faculty of Business and Technology, Waikato Institute of Technology (Wintec), New Zealand. With a BSc(Hons) and MBA degrees he is also a Chartered Marketer (U.K.), with strong research interests in not-for-profit organizations and International student issues. Deniss also served on the Wintec Council for four years and has been NZQA external moderator for a number of years.
Chu YinHua was born in Taipei, Taiwan and later studied and worked in London, Tokyo and Singapore; She found images of ‘cities’ are blended because of the constant travelling, and the association of memories has provided her a sense of intimacy in any foreign city. Her academic research focuses on the relationship between photography, memories and cities, and she explores how to employ the medium of photography as the method to discover different ways of seeing,
examining how still images may be sliced, fragmented, and frozen from the flow of time, and how the camera device becomes the bridge between the ‘image in the mind’ and the ‘image in front of the eyes’.
Zuochen Zhang, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor with the Faculty of Education at the University of Windsor. He teaches ICT literacy courses to undergraduate and graduate students, and research methods to graduate students. His research interests include ICT integration into school curriculum, ICT for development, e-learning, and international education.
Adrian Matthew Zytkoskee began his career as a counselor working with incarcerated youth. His passion for writing and literature, however, led him back to school and into the teaching profession. Since then, he has taught composition and ESL at the college level after having taught classes of migrant workers in Salinas, California. He now teaches composition in the United Arab Emirates to a student body representing a hundred different nations.