Student Research Project: Reika Shimomura’s “College Students’ Perception of COVID-19 Emergency Response on Campus – Delphi Study on Duke Kunshan University Students Class of 2022 to 2025”

REIKA SHIMOMURA is one of the nine winners of 2022 Freedom Lab’s Shirley Graham and W.E.B Du Bois Award.

Her research project is highlighted below. Read other student researcher’s projects here >>

REIKA SHIMOMURA
Supported by Professor Daniel Weissglass

Project title:
College Students’ Perception of COVID-19 Emergency Response on Campus – Delphi Study on Duke Kunshan University Students Class of 2022 to 2025

Project summary:
Students or the members of an institution are placed in a disadvantaged position in the situations of infectious diseases’ emergency response and interventions. In this study, the ethical issues regarding the power dynamics of the relationship between the institution and the members of the institution are addressed. This study will give an opportunity for the voices of the members to be heard by the upper-level decision makers of the institution and have actionable content that can be considered in future emergency-related policies. Continue reading “Student Research Project: Reika Shimomura’s “College Students’ Perception of COVID-19 Emergency Response on Campus – Delphi Study on Duke Kunshan University Students Class of 2022 to 2025””

Student Research Project: Zhiyuan (Zack) Liu’s “Exploring attentional biases towards foreigners’ facial expressions of pain in Chinese observers”

Zhiyuan (Zack) Liu is one of the nine winners of 2022 Freedom Lab’s Shirley Graham and W.E.B Du Bois Award.

His research project is highlighted below. Read other student researcher’s projects here >>

 

ZHIYUAN (ZACK) LIU

Supported by Professor Shan Wang

Project title:
Exploring attentional biases towards foreigners’ facial expressions of pain in Chinese observers

Project summary:
Facial expression is a dominant nonverbal channel for pain communication that is often incorporated in clinical pain assessment. Given the importance of nonverbal communication between foreign patients and doctors, understanding the role of sufferers’ race is of great significance. Essentially, prior to recognize and assess pain-related facial expressions, observers will first allocate their attention to the faces. The study aims to examine Chinese observers’ attentional bias on pain-related facial expressions of foreigners from multiple racial backgrounds by tracking the eye-gaze, skin conductance, and behavioral reaction time. Continue reading “Student Research Project: Zhiyuan (Zack) Liu’s “Exploring attentional biases towards foreigners’ facial expressions of pain in Chinese observers””

Student Research Project: Weiran Li’s “Herb and Beauty: Aromatic Female in ‘Dream of the Red Chamber'”

Weiran Li is one of the nine winners of 2022 Freedom Lab’s Shirley Graham and W.E.B Du Bois Award.

Her research project is highlighted below. Read other student researcher’s projects here >>

WEIRAN LI
Supported by Professor Wenting Ji

Project title:
Herb and Beauty: Aromatic Female in “Dream of the Red Chamber”

Project summary:
Through a close reading of the poems and descriptions of Daguan Yuan’s female in Dream of the Red Chamber, I mainly explore two questions in this project: How does herb in Dream of the Red Chamber construct female identity? How does the nature-female correlation narrative style embody the feminine space and feminine discourse in the book? Theories related to sensory experiences, eco-feminism, and traditional Chinese medicine will also be referred in the project. Continue reading “Student Research Project: Weiran Li’s “Herb and Beauty: Aromatic Female in ‘Dream of the Red Chamber’””

Congratulations to Professor Rasoul Namazi on his new book “Leo Strauss and Islamic Political Thought”

Rasoul Namazi

Congratulations to Rasoul Namazi, Assistant Professor of Political Theory, on his new book, “Leo Strauss and Islamic Political Thought,” published by Cambridge University Press.

Description: “In this book, Rasoul Namazi offers the first in-depth study of Leo Strauss’ writings on Islamic political thought, a topic that interested Strauss over the course of his career. Namazi’s volume focuses on several important studies by Strauss on Islamic thought. He critically analyzes Strauss’s notes on Averroes’ commentary on Plato’s Republic and also proposes an interpretation of Strauss’ theologico-political notes on the Arabian Nights. Namazi also interprets Strauss’ essay on Alfarabi’s enigmatic treatise, The Philosophy of Plato and provides a detailed commentary on his complex essay devoted to Alfarabi’s summary of Plato’s Laws. Based on previously unpublished material from Strauss’ papers, Namazi’s volume provides new insights into Strauss’ reflections on religion, philosophy, and politics, and their relationship to wisdom, persecution, divine law, and unbelief in the works of key Muslim thinkers. His work presents Strauss as one of the most innovative historians and scholars of Islamic thought.”

The book is available on different platforms including Amazon but if ordered from the Cambridge website, one can get 20% off by entering the code NAMAZI22 at the checkout.

Continue reading “Congratulations to Professor Rasoul Namazi on his new book “Leo Strauss and Islamic Political Thought””

XR Workshop #4: Basic VR Interactions

Join HRC Anthropocene XR Lab in our online workshop [Basic VR Interactions], #4 of the XR workshop, seminar, and hackathon series! The keynote speaker Tony Ren, Data Science major from the class of 2023, will introduce the basics of setting up VR devices and designing some of the fundamental VR interactions such as teleporting and grabbing.

Date/Time: Aug 11, 8-9pm BJT
Zoom:  982 6430 7629
Passcode: 889357 Continue reading “XR Workshop #4: Basic VR Interactions”

Congratulations to Prof Qian Zhu on her new paper titled, “Exile to the Equator: Chinese Anti-Colonialism and Nationalism in Southeast Asia, 1939–1946”

Congratulations to Assistant Professor of History at Duke Kunshan University, Qian Zhu, who recently published a paper in the journal of China & Asia – A Journal in Historical Studies.

Read below to learn more about Prof Zhu’s paper and the “behind the scenes” interview.

Abstract

This paper discusses and compares the ideas of Chinese leftists in exile, as expressed in their publications and journals and in their anti-colonial activism in collaboration with the overseas Chinese in Southeast Asia from 1939 to 1946. Describing Chinese anti-colonialism and nationalism through a transnational conceptualization and an ethnographic approach, stories that occur “behind the scenes” enhance our ability to decode key words and reveal the complexities of concrete economic and political conflicts from multiple sources that involve migration, ethnicities, and capitalism. The class nature of Chinese anti-colonial internationalism that was forged during and after the Second World War was deeply embedded in the “liberal” discourses of freedom, democracy, equality, liberty, and women’s emancipation. It was also rooted in the mass politics of anti-capitalism, which was global in scope and fine-grained, local, and rooted in everyday life. The Chinese leftist geopolitical configuration of the “nations below the wind” and “the equator” enabled the perception of a proto-global South— South alliance as a world-historical force, with the dual goals of overturning unequal development and achieving an integrated path of anti-colonialism and national independence.

Read the full paper: Qian Zhu – Exile to the Equator: Chinese Anti-Colonialism and Nationalism in Southeast Asia, 1939–1946

Behind the Scenes with Qian Zhu

Could you tell us about your article and what inspired you to write it? Continue reading “Congratulations to Prof Qian Zhu on her new paper titled, “Exile to the Equator: Chinese Anti-Colonialism and Nationalism in Southeast Asia, 1939–1946””

Anthropocene XR Lab AR Campus Co-Design Workshop Participant Recruitment

Hi, everyone! We are designing an Augmented Reality (AR) mobile app – DKU AR Campus to augment information and fun activities into our physical campus. And we’re currently conducting research to investigate how augmented reality technology can support spatial digital interaction between people and the environment. In this research, we would like to invite you to answer the survey questions, talk about your thoughts and ideas, and also look at our user interface at a workshop to improve the design and features of this application. We would like to hear “what does your dream AR campus look like?”

If you are interested in taking part in our study, please fill out this survey and we will invite a total of 20 people to the workshop later based on your willingness, interests, and availability. The workshops will be held from July 30 to Aug 2. Continue reading “Anthropocene XR Lab AR Campus Co-Design Workshop Participant Recruitment”

Student Report: XR Workshop #3: UI Design with Figma

Reported by Jiahe Yang, DKU Undergraduate Class of 2025

The HRC Anthropocene XR Lab‘s Student Lab Manager, Leiyuan Tian, hosted a workshop on using Figma to do basic UI (User Interface) design on July 14, 2022. The lab invited Qingyang He from the class of 2024 who majored in Media Art, Creative practice track to mainly present the talk. Figma is an online collaboration tool for designers and developers to create user interfaces for applications, webpages, or other kinds of media. Qingyang walked us through the basic knowledge of Figma’s tools, functions, Figma resources, and some examples of her work. Then she gave two short tutorials on vector symbols and texture shading, then end the workshop by providing a case study about light weighted digital drawing interface.

Basics of the Figma interface Continue reading “Student Report: XR Workshop #3: UI Design with Figma”

Congratulations to Erin Greig and Reika Shimomura on their student-led Public Health Ethics Research Project

Congratulations to student researchers, Erin Greig and Reika Shimomura, on leading the Public Health Ethics Research Project funded by the HRC’s Health Humanities Lab.

Please join us in celebrating their accomplishments and read an interview with Reika and Erin about this project below.

PROJECT SUMMARY

Continue reading “Congratulations to Erin Greig and Reika Shimomura on their student-led Public Health Ethics Research Project”

Doc Lab Research Project: Documenting the Sustainability of Localized Organic Farming


HRC Doc Lab‘s research “Documenting the Sustainability of Localized Organic Farming” is an episodic documentary video and photo essay that will focus on the Yue Feng Island Organic Farm which is located in Kunshan. The documentary will investigate the sustainability of smart agriculture at the intersectionality of culture, linguistics, economics, ecology, and environmental studies. The documentary will consist of three parts: 1) the regional oral culture: the connection between traditional farming culture and the local Kunshan dialect, 2) the relationship between crop diversity and genetically modified food, and 3) sustainability in smart agriculture: how the farmers and administrators incorporate the idea of sustainability into production and operation.

Project members: Continue reading “Doc Lab Research Project: Documenting the Sustainability of Localized Organic Farming”