Virtual Posters
Asynchronous Session
Transforming Minds, Shaping Narratives: Integrating Transformational Learning, Critical Self-Reflection, and Mindfulness in Teaching Strategic Communications Online View Digital Media
Poster Session Federica Fornaciari
This poster explores the effects of introducing a new pedagogical framework that integrates transformational learning (Mezirow, 1991), critical self-reflection (Brookfield, 1995; Schön, 1987), and mindfulness (Kabat-Zinn, 1990), into the fabric of online strategic communications master’s courses tailored to adult learners. A one-year study is underway to collect data from courses adopting a more traditional approach, with courses introducing transformational learning techniques, critical self-reflection, and mindfulness. Preliminary qualitative findings highlight positive effects on students’ engagement and skill development, manifested through active and enthusiastic participation in experiential activities. Preliminary data also point at improvement in students’ communication skills, including their ability to navigate through complex communication scenarios with empathy and adaptability, suggesting students' enhanced sense of purpose, self-efficacy, and a deepened connection to the discipline. The author anticipates a positive effect on students’ engagement, retention, and overall satisfaction with their learning experience. This transformative pedagogy has the potential to assist students in developing a more profound understanding of the field of strategic communication, engaging not just with the technical skills necessary to succeed in the discipline but, even more importantly, with heightened self-awareness, presence, and emotional intelligence, which are crucial skills in the ever-evolving, post-pandemic, professional sphere. Early findings shed light on the importance of embracing a holistic education approach to foster satisfactory and enriching learning experiences in the attempt to equip learners with resilience, self-awareness, presence, emotional intelligence, and change management skills that have become key to successfully navigating through the challenges of the modern communication landscapes.
Travel of Literature Enabled by Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models: The Personalization of Literary Quotes View Digital Media
Poster Session Kay Li
The aim of this study is to examine how artificial intelligence, especially large language models, can enable literature to travel across cultural and geographical boundaries, and be personalized by the diverse readers around the world. With the pervasive internet, massive volumes of literature are now available online, but the increase in accessibility may not have a directly correlation to its being actually accessed. The more likely accessed are the literary quotes, taken out of context only as texts, without reference to any national, temporal and disciplinary contexts. These literary quotes are words taken not only out of their literary context, but also out of their cultural and geographic contexts. What remains are often the textual features, often presented as inspirational quotes ready to be adapted by the readers in their own context. Our recent pilot project showed that to enable global readers to comprehend the meaning of the literary quote, the quote needs to be coded so that they can be decoded by global readers using their own experience and cultural backgrounds. This brings earlier concepts such as cultural exchanges, globalization, transnationalism and interdependences to another level. We used artificial intelligence and large language models to analyse literary quotes, extracting the sentiments inherent in these quotes, and re-wrapped them in visual elements prepared by artificial intelligence, so that the meaning of the quotes in their original literary context can be understood by the readers without the literary and cultural contexts. The literary quotes are personalized and made inclusive.
Remix Culture: Traveling Mythology and Fetishism View Digital Media
Poster Session Yukihide Endo
Adapting and remixing cultural concepts generate their different variants. In order to examine the ways in which cultural and literary derivations develop, this paper focuses on conceptual representations of the magical relic sword in Japanese mythology across the ages. It is of great importance here to note that derivations are not hierarchical but equivalent, without making any distinction between original and copy. Initially, a sword trope appeared in an ancient imperial myth depicting a heroic emperor with a magical sword. This mythical trope has engendered a variety of popular and artistic counterparts. Among other variants, of great importance are the 16th-century noh play The Swordsmith and its kabuki adaptation, which premiered in 1939. It can be argued that each of these variants preserves the Japanese traditional—Shinto-related—belief in an ancient deity. The 21st century, however, saw a new provocative remixing of the traditional relic sword trope in which characters personify different types of the magical sword. First, an online strategy game was produced in 2015, which led to a musical performed by young athletic actors, and to a new kabuki by young kabuki actors in 2023. These spinoffs do not share the traditional belief in a deity of the original, but instead fetishize relic swords. William Pietz and Bruno Latour serve as theoretical guides for understanding the concept of fetishism that plays a key role in these postmodern adaptations.
Becoming (Post)human in Social Virtual Reality: In Search of a Posthumanistic Approach to the Anthropology of Becoming Human in the Metaverse View Digital Media
Poster Session Jan Waligórski
In recent years, there has been an intensive development of virtual reality technology and social VR platforms. Social VR becoming new realms of human existence, and transforming into dynamic spaces for a variety of activities, including global social interactions, gaming, cultural and educational events. Social VR platforms are designed for users utilizing immersive head-mounted displays (HMDs). Body tracking systems integrated into HMDs expand the possibilities for human interaction in virtual environments, fostering new embodied phenomena such as dance, phantom sensations, embodied communication, and bodily aggression. Physical bodies and spaces become entangled with their digital counterparts, participating in activities within virtual settings, thereby necessitating a paradigm shift in anthropological research in VR, which traditionally treated digital and physical spaces as separate realms within the framework of digital dualism. The purpose of this study is to introduce an original posthumanist and postdualistic approach to anthropological research in social VR. This approach is rooted in new materialism, particularly Manuel DeLanda's assemblage theory. It emphasizes the entanglements between humans and non-humans (e.g., devices, interfaces, digital bodies). Within this perspective, I conceptualize VR users as cyborg assemblages, arising from the intra-actions between humans, technologies, and digital bodies, highlighting the role of non-human entities in shaping their hybrid embodiment.
Body Schemas and Temporality: Temporal and Spatial Issues and Conceptualization Processes in Anglo-Saxon Medical Texts and Hagiographies View Digital Media
Poster Session Yiyang Jin, Jingkai Dong
In recent years, scholars have increasingly focused on investigating temporal and spatial issues in Old English texts. However, existing research reveals challenges in reconstructing the Anglo-Saxon concept of time. This study aims to address these challenges by reinterpreting Old English texts within a targeted framework. Unlike previous approaches that heavily rely on cognitive linguistics, this study adopts a more nuanced perspective that considers the historicity of the Anglo-Saxon worldview. By analyzing and sublating cognitive linguistic approaches to Anglo-Saxon language studies, this study seeks to develop a more comprehensive understanding of temporal concepts in Anglo-Saxon literature. Through a thorough examination of cognitive semantic theories (Conceptual Metaphor Theories, Image Schema Theories, and Theory of Prototypes Category) and their applications to Old English texts, this study aims to shed light on the limitations of existing methodologies and to propose alternative approaches to studying time in Anglo-Saxon England. Additionally, this research critiques the ahistorical corporality of cognitive linguistics through the method of knowledge archaeology, aiming to uncover and address the inherent limitations of cognitive linguistic approaches. Ultimately, this research seeks to contribute to a deeper and more nuanced understanding of temporal-spatial concepts in Anglo-Saxon literature by emphasizing our phenomenological approach.
