A Worldwide History Spanning Genocide for the Sake of Corporate Profit

A Worldwide History Spanning Genocide for the Sake of Corporate Profit is the title of a thesis consisting of four stories. Crosky’s Knife is presented first for the sake of allowing potential readers to embrace a sense of amiable audience engagement and is based on a true story of a veteran of one of the many global conflicts currently raged on behalf of freedom. The three pieces following this feint are reworked versions of stories written from the heart and delivered to machines. As it presents numerous aspects of reality that the average person may not wish to consider, doing so with shockingly casual acceptance of such horror and/or banality, the conscious reception of the duty of engagement and possible appreciation of the text is not advised. Knives, rabid dogs, severed tongues, and a downpour of malnourished Iraqi babies are components intrinsic to the direction of this thesis.

Towards an understanding of Pakistani undergraduates’ current attitudes towards learning and speaking English

The English language has an important place in Pakistan and in its education system, not least because of the global status of English and its role in employment. Realising the need to enhance language learning outcomes, especially at the tertiary level, the Higher Education Commission (HEC) of Pakistan has put in place some important measures to improve the quality of English language teaching practice through its English Language Teaching Reforms (ELTR) project. However, there is a complex linguistic, educational and ethnic diversity in Pakistan and that diversity, alongside the historical and current role of English in the country, makes any language teaching reform particularly challenging. I argue, in this thesis, that reform to date has largely ignored the issues of learner readiness to learn and learner perceptions of the use of English. I argue that studying learner attitudes is important if we are to understand how learners perceive the practice of learning and the use of English in their lives. This study focuses on the attitudes of undergraduate learners of English as a foreign language at two universities in the provinces of Sindh and Balochistan in Pakistan. These provinces have experienced long struggles and movements related to linguistic and ethnic rights and both educate students from all of the districts of their respective provinces. Drawing on debates around linguistic imperialism, economic necessity, and linguistic and educational diversity, I focus on learners’ perceptions about learning and speaking English, asking what their attitudes are towards learning and speaking English with particular reference to socio-psychological factors at a given time and context, including perceived threats to their culture, religion, and mother tongue. I ask how they make choices about learning and speaking English in different domains of language use and question their motivation to learn and speak English. Additionally, I explore issues of anxiety with reference to their use of English. Following a predominantly qualitative mixed methods research approach, the study employs two research tools: an adapted Likert Scale questionnaire completed by 300 students and semi-structured interviews with 20 participants from the two universities. The data were analysed through descriptive statistics and qualitative content analysis, with each set of data synthesised for interpretation. The findings suggest that, compared with the past, the majority of participants hold positive attitudes towards learning and speaking English regardless of their ethnic or linguistic backgrounds. Most of these undergraduate students do not perceive the use of English as a threat to their culture, mother tongue or religious values but, instead, they have a pragmatic and, at the same time, aspirational attitude to the learning and use of English. I present these results and conclude this thesis with reference to ways in which this small-scale study contributes to a better understanding of learner attitudes and perceptions. Acknowledging the limitations of this study, I suggest ways in which the study, enhanced and extended by further research, might have implications for practice, theory and policy in English language teaching and learning in Pakistan.

Apropriação e privatização de territórios no Brasil e Paraguai : relação dependente e subimperialismo

Dissertação (mestrado)—Universidade de Brasília, Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Centro de Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação sobre as Américas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Estudos Comparados sobre as Américas, 2015.

Racialized Others in Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights

In my thesis I analyze two classic English novels, Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein from a postcolonial perspective. I focus on the two central characters in the novels, Heathcliff and Frankenstein’s monster, who are both outsiders and markedly racialized agents in the narratives. Using Edward Said’s theory on Orientalism and Anne McClintock’s theory on imperialism and domesticity, I argue that the Monster and Heathcliff represent European anxieties concerning various issues linked with imperial expansion and identity politics. The Monster and Heathcliff are both disruptive forces in the narratives and they ultimately reveal the problematic nature of colonial attitudes which also reflect domestic power structures of gender and class. Ultimately the Monster and Heathcliff are ambiguous characters who refuse to occupy any specific role in the narrative and remain as undefined and ambivalent figures in the story.

Filosofía latinoamericana en la época de la globalización: colonialidad, interculturalidad y filosofía de la liberación

Este trabajo parte de la periodización del pensamiento latinoamericano del último medio siglo, en tres fases. La autora se detiene en algunas expresiones de la filosofía latinoamericana de la última de estas fases: la globalización, desde el estudio de dos posturas: la de “repensar el imperialismo” y la del “regreso al humanismo”, que proponen Walter Mignolo y Raúl Fornet Betancourt, respectivamente. Además, vincula estas perspectivas con los debates sobre la filosofía de la liberación de décadas anteriores y sugiere la necesidad de construir un nuevo proyecto filosófico, antropológico y social.

Teorías de la globalización: aproximaciones complementarias

Este artículo revisa y analiza comparativamente varias perspectivas sobre el proceso de globalización y su concepto, tanto las que la entienden como un proceso de larga duración como las que la reducen a un fenómeno de las últimas dos o tres décadas. En la última parte se resume el debate sobre la novedad histórica de la globalización y se contrasta con la explicación del fenómeno desde la teoría del imperialismo. 

Negotiating national identity on film: competing readings of Zhang Yimou’s 'Hero'

How are national identities transformed? If they are mostly narratives of belonging to a community of history and destiny to which people subscribe, those boundary-making procedures that constitute the political field by instituting differences can provide a tentative answer to this question. This paper is concerned with one such cultural practice, namely film-viewing. Globalisation, a boundary-blurring practice, has been the backdrop against which transformations in national identity are often discussed, either bemoaned as cultural imperialism or celebrated as ongoing hybridisation. This piece of research took Zhang Yimou’s controversial film Hero as a point of departure, and asked groups of Chinese audiences how they understood the Chinese identity it conveys. Although it is still a work in progress, provisional results are reported below.

Influencia del interés geopolítico de China en sus relaciones bilaterales con Camboya

La presente investigación tiene como objetivo analizar cómo las relaciones bilaterales entre China y Camboya son afectadas por el interés geopolítico chino, con el fin de demostrar que éste genera un fortalecimiento de sus relaciones puesto que además de suplir necesidades alimenticias, hídricas y en mano de obra barata, es el único país de la región del Sudeste Asiático que le permite a China tener acceso militar al Golfo de Tailandia y al Mar de China Meridional, donde se encuentra en desventaja con Estados Unidos. Así, se indica que la potencia asiática formula sus acuerdos bilaterales creando relaciones de dependencia por parte de países como Camboya para que este le entregue “obligatoriamente” lo que necesita. Esta investigación se llevará a cabo por medio de una monografía con un enfoque realista. Se utilizará el método de investigación cualitativo, que se servirá de fuentes primarias como los acuerdos bilaterales entre ambos Estados.

El dragón chino en Angola: la diplomacia cultural como una herramienta de construcción de identidad

El creciente interés de China por África ha modificado y estructurado una nueva política exterior, en donde el fortalecimiento de las relaciones políticas y económicas se ve ligado al uso de la diplomacia cultural como una herramienta de atracción. Teniendo en cuenta lo anterior, la presente investigación tiene por objetivo principal indagar cómo China construye una identidad a través de su diplomacia cultural en Angola, demostrando así, que este país utiliza sus costumbres, principios y normas para establecer una identidad de rol en la que se asume como una potencia que debe cooperar. No obstante, sus intereses van más allá de la cooperación al profundizar en relaciones de confianza que lo beneficien política y económicamente. Haciendo un uso del concepto de Imperialismo, la investigación mostrará las limitaciones y los vacíos de la noción de identidad para explicar acciones chinas en Angola, mostrando cómo se hacen uso de herramientas imperialistas para un beneficio propio.

El rol de los actores subnacionales en la construcción de la política exterior de Japón. Estudio de caso: La disputa territorial por las islas Senkaku/Diaoyu entre Japón y China (2001-2014)

El presente estudio de caso tiene como objetivo analizar la influencia de la gobernación de Tokio en la formulación de la política exterior de Japón durante la disputa territorial por las islas Senkaku/Diaoyu. Para ello, se identifican los puntos más relevantes de la política exterior de seguridad de Japón después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Se hace un énfasis en la política bilateral de seguridad sino-japonesa, con el fin de ubicar el conflicto territorial por las islas Senkaku/Diaoyu como un punto importante en la agenda internacional de seguridad de ambos países. Se estudia y analiza el concepto de paradiplomacia; articulado, a su vez, por los conceptos de identidad y rol en política exterior de la perspectiva teórica del Constructivismo de las Relaciones Internacionales, para así analizar la influencia de Tokio en el manejo de la política exterior de Japón en el marco del conflicto territorial por las islas Senkaku/Diaoyu.