...assimilate or broaden our knowledge to other cultures, for it is our natural instinct to shut out anything unfamiliar to us. In her essay, "Arts of the Contact Zone," Mary Louise Pratt argues for importance of understanding the point where two cultures clash, the contact zone, and that it can be powerful to engage in one's culture by expanding our grasp of knowledge and wisdom in the diversity we live in today. Pratt introduces three major concepts in her argument that exemplify the objective of her essay: the contact zone, autoethnographic texts, and transculturation. Upon viewing two other pieces by Richard Rodriguez, “The Achievement of Desire” and Gloria Anzaldua’s “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” Rodriguez and Anzaldua demonstrate Pratt's argument by supporting her concepts about the influence of contact zones between two juxtaposing cultures. In her argument, "Arts of the Contact Zone," Pratt introduces the theme of her argument, the contact zones: the point where cultures clash and come together in unison. Where one culture has a lot more power than the other. A contact zone is the root of how every race and ethnicity should come under a consensus as to understanding the underlying meaning of each other's differences and looking at perspectives in order to break down unnecessary barriers people put up. Pratt demonstrates an example of this when she describes the letter Guaman Poma sent to the King of Spain. "Written in a mixture of Quechua and ungrammatical...
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...2014 Communities and contact zone The art of the contact zone is a book written by Mary Pratt. Mary Pratt is a Spanish and Portuguese languages professor. It actually contains a deep literal and psychological meaning in it and is intended to be used especially in a classroom set up to teach about our diverse nature; cultural behavior, colonialism, slavery and power plays. Its effects are wide and large as it has been able to affect various communities by its writing, art work and literacy. The contact zones, according to the book are quite important areas as they are areas where a community is able to see the world in a foreign community perceptive. Contact zones as defined in the book, are areas where various communities meet and have an uneven exchange in culture and beliefs. Mary Pratt tries to explain how our cultural knowledge is misguided due to the fact that we missed a crucial part of our heritage and the heritage of other communities too. This is mainly due to the fact that most of it is hidden from us by those who are supposed to preserve and pass it to us. Accepting us involves appreciating our past that is our history and upholding it by making sure that the future generations receive the information as it is. Those charged with the preservation of our culture choose the parts of history to pass down and deliberately omit others as a means of defending the community from the subsequent humiliation and shame that is associated with our dark past (Pratt, page. 494). Staying...
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...Mary Louise Pratt defined contact zones as “social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power, such as colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they are lived out in many parts of the world today.” A contact zone is a place where two cultures can mesh together. People from different cultures are able to interact with each other through these contact zones. A contact zone allows people to look into cultures other than their own. They can get new ideas by looking into another culture, as well as their own. Contact zones allow you to look at things in a new way. Pratt talks about contact zones being seen more and more today. People may have to look beyond how they think of something so that it can be understood by someone who thinks about the same thing in a different way. Pratt defines an autoethnographic text as “a text in which people undertake to describe themselves in ways that engage with representations others have made of them.” Guaman Poma’s New Chronicle is an autoethnographic text because it is mixed Andean with the Spanish culture. Pratt said, “autoethnographic works are often addressed to both metropolitan audiences and the speaker’s own community.” They are merged together so that both groups can understand. You can change something around so that it is said in a way that other people can understand it. You can describe yourself in a way that other people would describe you. You might...
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...among all the members”(as cited in Pratt 325). Some other words that can sum up an imagined community is that it's always fraternal, sovereign, and limited. Game design and development class is one of many examples of an imagined community that I am personal apart of in school. My classmates are all fraternal when we are in class. Once assigned work from the professor everyone helps each other get the work done...
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... The Contact Zone The Holocaust happened because two groups of people were grappling with each and one was stronger than the other. Wars typically occur because two cultures disagree and choose to settle it, and the strong culture prevails. African American and Caucasian people used to be exiled for getting married, because they were different. There are millions of different cultures in the world today and every day is an example of how they clash. An author, Mary Louise Pratt, wrote an essay referring to these conflicts. Her essay made it possible to further examine these struggles. In works such as The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao and “Family Stories From the Trail of Tears” Pratt’s essay makes it possible to deeply examine the clashing culture and gain insight into how it impacted the world today. Mary Louise Pratt’s essay is called “Arts of the Contact Zone”. She defines a contact zone as a space where two cultures wrestle with each other’s ideas and beliefs. She goes on to discuss how these contact zones have come to help shape society, and how the aftermath is world changing. Her essay provides an excellent analysis of what happens when two distinct cultures come into contact, and most importantly, how that affects others. She also examines the two phenomena that occur as a result of the Contact Zone. One sensation, authoethnography, gives the reader first hand insight into cultures. The other, transculturation, shows what happens after the contact zone. The...
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...What Does It Mean to Be Portuguese? The ultimate goal of a society is to reach utopia, to have every single person viewed equally. Under the Bill of Rights, everyone is created equally. But how much of that statement is actually true? Are we all created and treated equally? Integration is a welcoming concept that is often frowned upon by other generations. The ethnic food, the summers of weekend feasts, the language, the traditions, the music, the religion, the dancing, and the clothing. These are all typical aspects of cultures around the world. Some take pride in where they have come from, their roots. Others, steer away from it. They do so for many reasons, society’s influence being the top reason. Portuguese people, also known as Lusitanos, believe they have a community within the United States, but how much of that is imagined? Do segregation and social spaces influence their views? What does it mean to be Portuguese, in a society that is constantly judging you? Growing up, I was always involved in my community. The members around me influenced me. I took pride in being a Lusitano. Whether it meant accompanying my family to the local feasts to learn how to dance, trying and learning to cook our famous ethnic dishes, learning the language at a young age, or practicing my religion as a Roman Catholic, I was always trying to boost my status in the Portuguese community. Learning the language helped a lot because I could now interact with both of the communities I was a...
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...outsider’s perception of life on the inside is made up from what they can see. However, some people, like rapper Lupe Fiasco, manage to escape the ghetto and tell the truths of the inside. Lupe Fiasco is widely considered to be one of the best rappers when it comes to lyrical content. His subject matter is deeper than most rappers and he is very passionate when it comes to his music. Having escaped the ghetto, he is able to provide a first hand experience of what really goes on in the inside. This results in a unique situation because his music is essentially the meeting ground for two different cultures. Mary Louise Pratt, author of the essay, “Arts of the Contact Zone”, describes this meeting ground as a place where cultures “…meet, clash, and grapple with each other” (Pratt 501) or more simply put, a place she calls the contact zone. The contact zone consists of many elements and is most prominent in certain types of text. One particular text, an autoethnographic text, can be seen in some of Lupe Fiascos music. One specific example of this is a song by Lupe Fiasco titled “Chopper”. This song is such a good example of this particular text because he has both the perspective of the inside of the ghetto and the outside. He sees what other outsiders can see but wants them to know what is really happening on the inside. He is able to blend the two different cultures and wants to give the less dominant culture a voice and does so with this song. “Chopper” is a very...
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...Fuck the Police written by NWA is a great modern representation of the contact zone. The contact zone is defined as “social spaces where cultures meet, clash, and grapple with each other contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power, such as colonialism, slavery, or their aftermath as they are lived out in many parts of the world today”(Pratt 34) by Mary Louise Pratt in her writing titled “Arts of the contact zone”. This song has been helpful and caused huge issues within the communities. The song shows the struggle that people of color go through in society and how different races portray each other based on stereotypes. NWA, which stands for Niggas With Attitude, wrote this song as a parody. I believe that they presented themselves with such vulgar because they felt like everyone saw them in a negative way. They became what the public thought they were. In doing so they caused a lot of commotion with the FBI and police. The song is from the view point of the 3 attorneys; MC Ren, Ice Cube, Eazy-E and the judge Dr. Dre. Each attorney shares their story about the struggle of being a person of color living in Compton. The first verse is by Ice Cube who mentions “and not the other color so police think/ they have the authority to kill a minority”(NWA 5). What Ice Cube is saying is that cops think because they are white, they are superior to people of color. The cops assume they have the right to kill them and abusing the authority they have. Instead of protecting the civilians...
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...In what ways do Freire and Pratt agree? Education must complete a full circle. Directional conversations should contain balance and patience. Doing this aids in the effort of growth. Freire explains in The “Banking” Concept of Education, if men and women are searchers and their ontological vocation is humanization, sooner or later they may perceive the contradiction in which banking education seeks to maintain them, and then engage them in the struggle for liberation. In this Freire elaborates there must be a true relationship between student and teacher. Any task without a purpose lacks reason. It is in our being to crave understanding. It is in our DNA to evolve. Our eyes have been set centered and forward. To move forward is in all that we are. Do not follow an ontological path, create one! When engaged upon conversations seek all of its contents. Pratt states in Art of the Contact Zone, “Descriptions of interactions between people in conversations, classrooms, medical and bureaucratic settings, readily take it for granted that the situation is governed by a single set of rules or norms shared by all participants.” Every turn you make a game waits. How you play the game is entirely up to you. Be mindful of all view points and ask yourself, “What is their angle?” Pratt later explains, “A classroom is analyzed as a social world unified and homogenized with respect to the teacher, whatever students do other than what the teacher specifies is invisible or anomalous to...
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...Mariana Offik English 101; 065 Bellomy December 6th, 2011 Twentieth-Century Counterpart John Edgar Wideman’s “Our Time” can be seen as a twentieth-century counterpart to Guaman Poma’s “New Chronicle.” This connection is made if Wideman’s essay is reread with the qualities that Mary Louis Pratt portrays in “Arts of the Contact Zone.” It can be presented as an example of what she defines as an autoehtnographic text. She defines autoethnography as an inferior culture defining itself through the terms of a dominant culture when writing back to them. Transculturation produces autoethnography. Transculturation is the process by which a culture takes certain aspects of another. The interactions between different cultures, the point of view, and the suppression of the inferior culture portrays “Our Time” as a twentieth-century counterpart to the New Chronicle. Multiple cultures interact constantly in “Our Time”. Robby and John represent different cultures. Robby grew up surrounded by crime and violence. He also comes from a lower educational group. John, even though he is Robby’s brother, grew up to be a different culture than Robby. He went to college and people that were vastly different from Robby surrounded him. John describes his struggle with projecting Robby’s voice in the story because of their different cultural backgrounds. They grew to become two separate cultures that interacted with each other throughout the story. 3 1/2 - 4 pgs remove...
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...Volcanic Materials and Health Concerns Introduction: Basic Geology of Volcanoes A volcano can be a mountain like structure or a wide sloping hill that opens downwards to a pool of molten rock below the surface of the earth. When a break in the earth’s surface allows molten rock material to come up from the earth’s core, a volcano is formed. Volcanic eruptions can cause lateral blasts, lava flows, hot ash flows, mudslides, avalanches, falling ash and floods. These eruptions can also trigger tsunamis, flash floods, earthquakes, mudflows and rock falls. Examples of volcanic mountains are Mount St. Helens, Mount Fuji, and Pinatubo. (Kusky, 2010). The earth’s crust is made up of huge slabs known as plates. Plates fit together like a jigsaw puzzle and float on the mantle. They are in constant motion, either towards each other or away from each other. Plate tectonics is considered to be the main theory currently used by most Earth Scientists to describe motion within the outer-most layer of the sold Earth, which is also known as the lithosphere. It is this movement that induces friction that causes earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Volcanism is associated with two of the plate boundary types, divergent and convergent margins. Volcanoes are formed when two tectonic plates meet; the heavier plate slides underneath the light plate and melts down to become magma. This mixes with trapped gases and steam in the magma chamber (Gates, 2009). Pressure from surrounding rocks forces the...
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...“I’ve got this!” I said. My team mates were all surrounded around the pitcher’s mound trying to boost my confidence. I looked at each of them, panting and with sweat pouring down their faces. I presented a calm appearance on the outside but on the inside I was a nervous wreck. I knew I couldn’t let them down, we had worked so hard this season for this title. It was the last inning of the final season game, the score was tied, there were 2 outs, the batter had a full count and bases were loaded. This pitch determined our destiny. Would we go on to the championship round? Would we win the entire season undefeated? It all raced through my mind as it seemed like I had been standing there for an eternity on the mound waiting. As I stood there, the whole season flashed before my eyes. It was the beginning of June and I was headed to my first practice, I had a lot of pressure on me as my grandfather’s company, Evans Remodeling, was sponsoring this team for Cherry Park and was friends with Coach Watts. I had played with Coach Watt’s son on other teams in the past and they knew how hard I worked, so they expected me to be a leader. I knew from the start he was going to push us really hard and expect a lot from us. When I showed up to the first practice I was a little relieved seeing others that I had played with in the past and knew they were all really good players. However, we had no idea what was in store for us that day. It was 90 degrees outside and you would have thought...
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...Composition Pedagogy, Race, and the African American Student: An Annotated Bibliography Bernstein, Susan Naomi. “Writing and White Privilege: Beyond Basic Skills.” Pedagogy: Critical Approaches to Teaching Literature, Language, Composition, and Culture 4.1 (2004): 128-31. Evaluating the relationship between white, middle-class privilege and both standardized testing and standard conventions of writing, Bernstein offers a classroom strategy for underprivileged students (either from racial or class position or both) to counter the negative effects of academic standards in relegating them to remedial positions in order to acquire basic writing skills before being granted access to the university at large. Encouraging her students to explore their previous educational experiences related to both testing and writing through a workshop format, as well as to evaluate their own imaginative writing and the reading of creative texts, Bernstein found that these can be used as means of critical resistance to their remedial designations. Ultimately, though, she concludes that it is not the student’s responsibility alone to resist relegation but also educators as well, who need to address and seek to resolve the conditions that produce “basic writers” even before their arrival at the university, and this, according to the author, will produce an awareness and restructuring of white privilege in determining academic success. Campbell, Kermit E. “ ‘Real Niggaz’s Don’t Die’: African...
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...WHAT INFLUENCES ONLINE CLASSES HIGH ATTRITION RATE by Lora Hines Bachelor of Science in Business Education December 1984 College of Education A Research Paper Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Master of Science in Education Degree Department of Workforce Education and Development In the Graduate School Southern Illinois University – Carbondale December 1, 2011 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I. INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………….…………..1 Background……………………………………………………………….1 Statement of the Problem………………………………………………….6 Research Questions………………………………………………………..7 Significance of the Problem……………………………………………….7 II. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE………………………………..…..9 Demographics…………………………………………………………….10 Best Practices……………………………………………………………..16 Student Characteristics…………………………………………………...24 III. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS…………………….…….32 Summary …...…………………………………………………………….32 Findings .………..……………………………………………………….. 33 Recommendations………………………………………………………...38 REFERENCES………………………………………………………….. 41 VITA………………………………..……………………………………52 AN ABSTRACT OF THE R ESEARCH PAPER OF Lora Hines, for the Master of Science degree in Workforce Education and Development, presented on December 1, 2011, at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. TITLE: WHAT INFLUENCES ONLINE...
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...Customized for: Isaac (illin@mednet.ucla.edu) THE INTRODUCTION Vault Guide to Schmoozing Customized for: Isaac (illin@mednet.ucla.edu) 2 © 2009 Vault.com, Inc. Introduction What does schmoozing sound like to you? Maybe it sounds smug, unctuous, oily, slimy. It sounds, quite frankly, like 'oozing.' Schmoozing is far from slimy, but 'oozing' actually isn’t a bad description of what a schmoozer does. A schmoozer slides into opportunities where none are apparent, developing friendships from the slightest of acquaintances. Through formless, oozy, schmoozy action, a schmoozer moves slowly but inexorably towards his or her goals. What is schmoozing? Schmoozing is noticing people, connecting with them, keeping in touch with them — and benefiting from relationships with them. Schmoozing is about connecting with people in a mutually productive and pleasurable way — a skill that has taken on new importance in our fragmented, harried, fiber-optic-laced world. Schmoozing is the development of a support system, a web of people you know who you can call, and who can call you, for your mutual benefit and enjoyment. Schmoozing is the art of semi-purposeful conversation: half chatter, half exploration. Schmoozing is neither project nor process. It's a way of life. How does schmoozing differ from networking? Conventional networking is the clammy science of collecting business cards ad infinitum, of cold-calling near strangers to grill them about possible openings in their places...
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